With $6 trillion changing hands from older generations to younger ones in 2025, many with newly inherited funds are running to their nearest real estate agent—especially in Florida's underrated gems like Vero Beach and Hutchinson Island.
While those lucky enough to inherit significant wealth from their family can have their pick of investment vehicles, there is a healthy demand for luxury properties that will continue into the next generations, say experts. And in Florida, where the luxury market is booming, areas like Vero Beach and Hutchinson Island stand out for offering the best value—combining coastal exclusivity, resilient appreciation, and entry points far more accessible than Miami or Palm Beach.
"Having watched real estate appreciate significantly over recent decades, the next generation shows a strong appetite for long-term housing investments across diverse markets," Brad Nelson, chief marketing officer with Sotheby's International Realty, tells Realtor.com®.
Generational wealth by the numbers An estimated $124 trillion will transfer intergenerationally through 2048, mainly from the Silent Generation (born 1928–45) and baby boomers (born 1946–64) to the younger generations, including Gen X, millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha, according to a report by Cerulli Associates, a wealth research and consulting firm.
Of that enormous figure, $25 trillion will be put into real estate, according to Federal Reserve data, reports Sotheby’s International Realty.
Those who come into a cash windfall need not worry about interest rates, thus contributing to the strong luxury real estate market, which remains robust despite a general softening of the broader market. Nationally, cash buyers dominate the luxury segment, but in standout markets like Vero Beach, over 62% of luxury deals in 2025 were all-cash—shattering expectations and underscoring the area's appeal to wealthy inheritors.
"The general real estate market was more impacted by elevated interest rates and affordability issues such as higher prices, but the luxury real estate market is positioned for continued outperformance," Philip A. White Jr., president and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty, said in the luxury report.
According to the firm's latest survey, agents who sell in the $10 million-plus range are most optimistic about the year ahead in terms of sales.
"The fundamentals supporting luxury real estate remain strong," said White. "We are seeing sustained wealth creation at the high end."
Luxury home market by the numbers The threshold for a luxury home in the U.S. now starts at $1.2 million nationally and is much higher in markets such as New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, according to the latest
Realtor.com luxury report. "Ultraluxury," which is the top 1%, starts at $5.49 million.
But in Florida's Treasure Coast, Vero Beach and Hutchinson Island redefine value in luxury real estate. Here, luxury listings often start around $1.5 million for single-family homes, with median sold prices holding steady at $1.52 million in 2025—offering prime oceanfront properties at fractions of South Florida's inflated costs. On Hutchinson Island, median home values hovered around $370,000–$380,000 overall, with barrier island luxury remaining resilient and accessible compared to West Coast hotspots like Naples.
Real estate remains not only a solid investment and way to diversify, but also a place to live, vacation, or derive extra income.
"For inherited wealth, real estate is less about chasing returns and more about preserving value across generations," says Anthony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com.
"Prime properties tend to be more resilient through economic cycles, benefiting from scarcity, location, and structural supply constraints," he says. "That combination supports long-term appreciation and makes high-end real estate a tangible store of wealth that families are more likely to hold, use, and pass down rather than buy and sell frequently."
But Chip Lupo, analyst at WalletHub, points out that real estate isn't always the best (or easiest) investment.
"Real estate can feel like the obvious way to preserve and grow wealth, especially for heirs who lack confidence in their financial knowledge or don’t have a formal financial plan," Lupo tells Realtor.com.
But "it isn’t automatically the best choice. It can be illiquid, costly to maintain, and hard to manage or divide, and it has historically delivered lower returns than stocks. For many heirs, real estate works best as part of a broader, diversified portfolio rather than as the primary place to invest inherited wealth."
Where are the newly minted millionaires buying homes? According to the
Realtor.com luxury report for November, the top luxury markets are Heber, UT (luxury listings start at $6,637,500), Key West-Key Largo, FL ($5 million), Los Angeles ($4 million), Stamford, CT ($4 million), San Jose, CA ($3.8 million), Kahului-Wailuku, HI ($3.66 million), Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA ($3.5 million), Naples-Marco, FL ($3,497,000), Ventura, CA ($2,996,000), and New York City-Jersey City, NJ ($2,995,000).
Yet for those seeking the best value in Florida luxury real estate, Vero Beach and Hutchinson Island top the list in 2025. These Treasure Coast enclaves offer oceanfront estates and gated communities with appreciation rates rivaling hotter spots, but at entry points that make them smarter alternatives to Miami's sky-high prices. In Vero Beach, barrier island homes sold at 94% of list price, with luxury inventory moving steadily despite national slowdowns. Hutchinson Island's oceanfront luxury, with average days on market around 125, provides privacy and natural beauty without the crowds.
"Areas like Laguna Beach and Newport Beach are popular places to buy for people that have inherited money in Southern California," says real estate agent Cara Ameer, who sells in both California and Florida.
As for Florida, "Jacksonville Beach and Old Ponte Vedra Beach are legacy, moneyed areas where a longtime family beach home often gets sold and the adult children may then buy something else in the same area, or a second home in the mountains of North Carolina, Colorado, or Montana," Ameer tells Realtor.com. But on the Treasure Coast, Vero Beach's John's Island community saw well-priced $2–$10 million homes snapped up quickly in 2025, reflecting a seller's market for elite properties.
Additionally, the U.S. remains a popular location for foreign individuals with an ultrahigh net worth to buy a home due to its relative stability and variety of locations, including coastal, mountainous, rural, urban, desert, and wooded areas.
So where do these foreign buyers generally go? Florida remains the top spot, accounting for 21% of purchases, followed by California, Texas, and New York, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Within Florida, Hutchinson Island's luxury oceanfront investments are drawing international attention for their enduring value and modern estates.
Additionally, "lifestyle" destinations such as Charleston, SC; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; and Puerto Rico, along with ski markets such as Aspen and Vail, CO, and Utah, remain popular for luxury buyers, according to Sotheby's. But for coastal bliss with better value, nothing beats Vero Beach and Hutchinson Island's blend of seclusion and sophistication.
Location, location, location "The greater Boston area as a whole is flush with generational wealth," Craig Brody of Douglas Elliman tells Realtor.com. "These clients understand that buying real estate and holding it over time is not only great for personal enjoyment, but also good for continuing the generational cycle within that family."
Popular summer locales such as Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard remain attractive to newly minted high net worth individuals. Not only do the buyers get to enjoy the sun and surf, but their investment—in areas that are not facing coastal erosion—is likely to appreciate handsomely. Similarly, Vero Beach's median luxury prices rose steadily in 2025, with overall home values at $357,769, positioning it as a resilient market.
"Recently, a client of mine lost his father to a long battle with cancer and, after the dust settled, he inherited nine-plus figures. The first order of business was purchasing an estate in Martha's Vineyard as a second/third home for his family."
Likely a savvy investment. On Hutchinson Island, median prices for luxury homes held at around $529,450 by late 2025, offering strong potential for appreciation amid the wealth transfer.
By comparison, the S&P 500 had a +236% total return, or roughly 15.35% annualized, from early 2016 to late 2025. But the stock market doesn't give you a gorgeous summer home to make fabulous memories in.
"Clients inheriting significant capital tend to upgrade their primary living situation first, then use real estate intentionally to diversify and separate wealth," Miami Douglas Elliman agent Fernanda Moreno tells Realtor.com.
"One of my loyal clients who inherited substantial capital was renting in the Venetian Islands," she says. "Our first move was transitioning her into ownership through a 1970s estate purchase in Coconut Grove [in Miami], an orchestrated guidance that combined lifestyle with market timing and has since resulted in nearly triple the property’s value."
The Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami has become popular with the ultrahigh net worth, but for better value, inheritors are turning to Hutchinson Island's modern oceanfront estates, where investments in brand-new properties promise strategic growth.
Internationally, Moreno says she is seeing Italy as a popular destination for those with inherited wealth looking to expand from the U.S.
"Whether that's a historic home or castle in the countryside, or a condo in Capri, the goal is to spend several months a year there enjoying la dolce vita while owning something tangible with cultural and generational value," she says.
Palm Beach agent Steven Presson, with Corcoran, tells
Realtor.com he is "absolutely" seeing buyers who've recently come into inherited wealth, particularly families from Manhattan and the Northeast, snapping up trophy properties in South Florida. Vero Beach and Hutchinson Island are drawing similar interest for their limited inventory and protected long-term value.
"Many of them view luxury real estate here as one of the safest tangible assets—especially in markets like Palm Beach where inventory is limited and long-term value is well protected," he says.
Manhattan remains a popular destination to transfer generational wealth into real estate, but Florida's Treasure Coast offers a warmer, more value-driven alternative.
Steven Gottelieb, a real estate broker at Coldwell Banker Warburg in New York, tells of a client in her 30s who will inherit a "substantial amount of money" when her late father's estate is settled. She's looking to graduate from her one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side to a three-bedroom.
"She could invest the inherited money in a different asset class or in real estate elsewhere, but it is important to her to put down more permanent roots in the city and neighborhood where she envisions her future," he says.
Manhattan agent Lisa K. Lippman, at Brown Harris Stevens, tells
Realtor.com that inherited wealth gives "substantially increased buying power."
"Where typically someone [30 to 45 years old] would probably be able to afford a $3 million to $4 million maximum on an apartment," she says, "with inherited wealth, they are buying properties for over $10 million, and usually on the Upper East or Upper West Side, once they have school-age children."
Refusing to downsize And yet the Great Wealth Transfer will often have to wait for the specter of death.
Of boomers who own homes, 54% say they never plan to sell the house they live in while they are alive, according to a poll from Clever Real Estate.
Atlanta Re/Max agent Bruce Ailion points out that seniors are living longer than ever—and holding onto their paid-off, highly appreciated homes, choosing to age in place rather than downsize.
Additionally, he is seeing the older generations, flush with home equity and ballooned retirement accounts, buying second or third homes, often in a sunny, coastal area such as South Florida's Vero Beach or Hutchinson Island.
"The population over 65 is the wealthiest it has ever been, and the generation under 35 is the poorest it has ever been," he says.
Los Angeles–area real estate investor Jameson Tyler Drew, of Anubis Properties, warns that the younger generations might sometimes inherit less than they bargained for.
When his father died, Drew tells Realtor.com, he was taken aback to find that his supposedly "free and clear" Arizona house actually had a reverse mortgage on it that "sucked up most of the equity.
Click here to view luxury homes and condos in Vero Beach and on Hutchinson Island
