Palm Beach VS. Palm Springs: How Much House $5 Million Will Buy In Each Playground Of The Wealthy

Palm Beach Vs. Palm Springs, here’s how much house you can get for $5 million in each playground of the wealthy. You may be surprised that a beautiful expansive home in Palm Springs is practically a bargain compared to Palm Beach.    

Palm Beach long the bastion of old wealth now sprinkled with hedge fund and Wall Street finance money offers variety in luxury homes and ultra-luxury oceanfront estates. “When you are talking about Palm Beach, you mean Palm Beach Island,” explains Ron Shuffield, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty.

 Palm Beach is long known for oceanfront mansions, many built in the early 1900s and passed down through generations. Originally established as a resort by Henry Morrison Flagler during the “gilded age,” Palm Beach quickly became a winter haven for socialites and their families.  Well known Palm Beach part-time residents included families with blue-chip pedigrees like Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, Astor and E.F. Hutton who built Mar-a-Lago.

The “Starchitect” at the time was, Addison Mizner. Think sprawling Spanish and Mediterranean inspired estates. Mizner showcased the sunny Florida climate incorporating shaded central courtyards and expansive interior spaces with oversized gothic-style windows to take advantage of ocean views. 

“With these big homes on the ocean, you are now seeing new owners redoing the interiors in a more contemporary style. Many of those estates had not been updated for years. Now wealthy buyers are going in and restoring and renovating them to reflect today’s style,” notes Shuffield. Currently listed for $32,500,000 is a Mizner estate, “Casa del Ensuenos” built in 1932.

Christopher Leavitt, executive director of luxury sales for Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Palm Beach tells what $5 million will buy today. “What you are getting in Palm Beach is a very nice home in the 3,500 to 4,000 square foot range. That’s really a starter price. It would be on the north end of town and not ocean or lakefront. Popular styles in that price range today are British Colonial, Regency and Plantation type architecture. For $4,450,000 there is a newly renovated 3,979 square foot home in North End Palm Beach.

“Because of the tax benefits of being a full-time Florida resident, Palm Beach is becoming like Greenwich, Connecticut. You see people who work in finance in New York moving their families here and then working remotely and commuting to New York,” Leavitt adds.  

                                                

Moving about 2,500 miles west to the Greater Palm Springs area, part of the Coachella Valley, choices abound for $5 million. From happening Palm Springs, the country’s hotbed for Modernism to gated posh golf club enclaves further east there truly is something for everyone for even less than $5 million.  In Palm Desert you’ll find Big Horn Golf Club home to some of the country’s top one percent.

Moving several miles east to La Quinta is the exclusive Madison Club home to celebrities and CEOs. In between, there is Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells, where you don’t even have to spend $5 million to live the good life.

Valery Neuman, founding partner of Compass Greater Palm Springs and the Desert’s top producer for over 25 years knows the area’s luxury and ultra-luxury markets.  “We traditionally get buyers from the west coast, Chicago and Western and Mid-Canada. We have so many choices here. Do you want a private club or an equestrian estate or single-family home with acreage?” Neuman asks.  “These are all beautiful large homes, with indoor-outdoor living spaces because that’s what we have here to go with our beautiful weather and lifestyle.”

For less than $5 million you can buy a home with Mediterranean, Spanish or contemporary architecture, with a spacious guest house and even an auto gallery for your car collection.  “My clients from Los Angeles can’t believe how much they get for their money here. What’s $4 million here is easily $8 million in Los Angeles,” Neuman observes.

A private custom estate with both golf course and mountain views at the exclusive Hideaway in La Quinta is currently on the market for $5,299,000. Keep in mind the home offers 7,436 square feet of interior space. It is on over one-third of an acre, complete with vanishing-edge pool, waterfalls and a loggia with spa.

Keith Markovitz, of TTK Represents at Compass in Palm Springs, another long-time top producer sells the best of the best architectural properties in Palm Springs. Markovitz points to what $5 million will buy you in the most desirable Palm Springs’ neighborhoods including Old Las Palmas, the Movie Colony, and Southridge, where the infamous Bob Hope home is.  

“In Palm Springs $5 million will get you a marquee property. I did sell an Old Las Palmas home that was Mid-Century with a great pedigree for $9 million. When Markovitz talks pedigree, he’s referring to homes by iconic mid-century architects including Donald Wexler, William Krisel, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, William Cody, and Albert Frey to name a few.

“There was a pocket listing I had in the Movie Colony that sold for $4.9 million. It was an estate on 2 acres built in 1930. In Palm Springs you can find something spectacular for $5 million. But it will take time because not that much comes on the market at that price,” Markovitz explains. A recent sale, Markovitz had for $6,995,000 was an 8,060 square foot Old Las Palmas estate. It had seven pools. Welcome to Palm Springs.

Whether it’s Palm Beach or Palm Springs if you have $5 million to spend you should be able to find something suitable. At least, for now, that is.

This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.