The Luxury Boomtowns That Never Went Bust After the Pandemic

The luxury housing market remains under pressure, with list prices for top-tier homes at the 90th price percentile declining in most regions nationwide.

Nationally, median list prices for luxury homes were at $1,283,432 in May, down 1.4% from a year ago and a steep 8.5% decline from the national pandemic price peak in May 2023. 

But according to the Realtor.com® May 2026 Luxury Housing Report, there are two markets that are bucking that trend.

Among tracked luxury metros, only Minneapolis (up 5.0%) and Boise, ID (up 4.2%) had fully surpassed their pandemic-era peaks as of February 2026, the latest available month for metro-level data.

“We are seeing consistent buyer activity in the luxury market,” Jeffrey Dewing of Coldwell Banker Realty in Minneapolis tells Realtor.com. “I think the local economy and lack of inventory have played a significant role. We have numerous Fortune 500 companies such as Cargill, so we have a diverse and consistent economy.”

While many luxury markets have cooled, the Minneapolis metro recorded its highest 90th-percentile price in May 2024 at approximately $1.12 million. Although this peak fell outside the pandemic-growth measurement period from June 2020 to December 2023, it remained only marginally above the $1.10 million level recorded in May 2026.

“Minneapolis didn’t have a significant pandemic price surge like many other metros, and it had a modest 17.6% run-up that peaked in July 2023,” says Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith. “Continued appreciation has since pushed its luxury threshold 5% above that post-pandemic peak.”

Boise also continues to build on its pandemic-era gains. Following an 87.2% rise in luxury home prices, the market reached a study-period high in November 2023 at $1.31 million, and was an additional 4.2% higher by February 2026 at $1.45 million.

Boise real estate agent Lysi Bishop tells Realtor.com that migration during the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the growth of the area’s luxury housing market.

“The quantity of buyers and proven sales during the COVID rush brought stability and strength to this price range, and created a stable and thriving luxury market,” she says. “This segment of the market continues to be a bright spot in our overall local market.”

April Florczyk, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty Boise, tells Realtor.com: “Roughly 75% to 80% of our luxury buyers right now are relocating from out of state—primarily from California, Oregon, and Washington. Most of them are retirees or remote workers—and they’re getting more bang for their buck here with a better quality of life.”

Meanwhile, Boston has retained 89% of its pandemic luxury price run-up, and Bend, OR, 88.8%, making them the leaders among markets that have slipped below their peaks.

“Boston’s structural supply constraints and a persistent high-income buyer base tied to financial services and life sciences have sustained pricing through the rate cycle,” says the economist Smith.

George Sarkis, co-founder of The Sarkis Team at Douglas Elliman in Boston, tells Realtor.com: “What we’re seeing is that affluent buyers are still willing to make long-term investments in Boston because they have confidence in the region’s economic future. That confidence has helped insulate the luxury market from some of the volatility we’ve seen in other parts of the country.”

Raleigh, NC, Las Vegas, and Wilmington, NC, have each retained over 79% of their pandemic-driven run-ups, placing them in the top 10 nationwide.

“These are all markets where structural demand has continued to absorb a modest supply recovery,” Smith explains.

Nevada real estate agent Robert Little says he’s not surprised the Las Vegas luxury market has held on to most of its post-pandemic gains.

“Las Vegas continues to attract high-net-worth buyers because of no state income tax, lower ownership costs, abundant sunshine, world class golf, and the ability to buy significantly more home for the money than in coastal California or Scottsdale,” he tells Realtor.com. “The luxury buyers we’re seeing today are often retirees, second-home purchasers, and lifestyle-driven buyers who are drawn to luxury guard gated communities, world-class shopping, entertainment, restaurants, and sports, along with easy air travel and the overall quality of life that Southern Nevada offers.”

Markets that have given back the most

On the other end of the spectrum, there are five markets that have fallen entirely below their pre-pandemic baselines for luxury home pricing.

They include San Francisco (down 142.0%), San Jose (down 54.4%), Denver (down 13.7%), Kahului-Wailuku (down 6.3%), and Urban Honolulu (down 3.0%).

San Francisco luxury property values rose from a February 2020 baseline of $3.19 million to a pandemic peak of $3.68 million in May 2023. By February 2026, however, the baseline had fallen to $2.5 million, below both the pandemic high and the pre-pandemic level.

“San Francisco’s luxury tier sits $695,000 below its February 2020 baseline as of February 2026, the most extreme reversal of any market tracked,” explains Smith.

Smith says the metro’s experience reflects a combination of tech-sector headcount reductions, persistent outmigration, and a luxury buyer pool that has contracted more sharply than in many other major metros.

However, he notes that AI equity liquidity events—including employee tender offers and secondary market transactions at companies such as OpenAI, Stripe, and Databricks—are introducing a counterforce to the headline price correction.  

San Francisco real estate agent Ying He also believes these numbers don’t tell the full story—since they’re based on listing price, not final sales price.

“Listing price does not mean anything in our market,” she tells Realtor.com. “We often hear properties sold $2 million above asking. This year, the extreme low pricing strategy has been so widely used that most properties were priced significantly lower. Due to the insane demand, every property—including lots of the luxury ones—have been priced to drive bidding wars.”

In Denver, however, the correction may be translating into softening final sales prices.

Denver real estate agent Jim Merrion of Coldwell Banker Realty tells Realtor.com: “The pandemic run-up in Denver took a decade of home price increases and compressed it into a two-year window. Luxury sellers who think they can price their home at 2022 price levels are finding out the hard way the market isn’t responding now to those peaks, and many who realize this are simply not listing.”