Which Miramar Beach Median Is the Real One? Reading Redfin, Zillow and a Census Count of Vacant Homes

Why do the Miramar Beach medians differ so much?

Start with what each figure measures. Redfin's $719,024 is a median sale price across all home types for three months, so it describes homes that closed between June and August 2026. Zillow's $647,525 is a model of the typical value of all homes, whether or not they sold, and Zillow's page was updated in April, so it is about four months older. Realtor.com's Sandestin figures are for one neighborhood and for May 2026: a sold median of $772,500 and a listing median of $659,000. The sold median is 17.2% above the listing median, computed here.

The stale page shows how much dates matter. Redfin's page for the postal area gives a median sale price of $735,000, up 2.1%, $520 per square foot, up 4.0%, 119 homes sold against 126, 122 days on market against 87 and a sale-to-list ratio of 95.1%, but all of it is for January 2025 (Redfin, Miramar Beach postal area housing market). It is 19 months older than the city page. This brief uses it only for contrast. A reader who opens it sees a median that is 2.2% above the August 2026 city figure, which is a comparison of different months, and not a trend.

Redfin's county page widens the frame. Walton County's median sale price was $748,000 for the three months to May 2026, 4.0% above the city's August figure, computed here. The page's title says the data is as of July, while its text ends in May, so the dates on the page do not agree with each other. It shows 422 homes sold in May, up 57.9% from 267 a year earlier, a larger count than the city's 193 in August, though the months and areas differ. The county is a mix of beach communities and inland towns, so it is context and not a comparison.

The Census adds a fourth measure. The median owner value in the postal area is $741,600, plus or minus $79,120, which is 14.5% above the Zillow value and 3.1% above the Redfin sold median, computed here. It is owners' own estimates averaged over 2020 to 2024, so it lags prices that moved after that. That the Census figure sits between Redfin's median and Sandestin's sold median says little, since the samples differ.

Put together, the sold evidence clusters between $719,024 and $772,500, the Zillow value sits near $647,525, and the listing evidence near $659,000. A seller reading one page's median and a buyer reading another's will argue from different numbers. Sandestin's sold median is 7.4% above Redfin's city median, computed here and the pages do not say why. The right comparison for any one home is a closed sale of a similar home nearby. Ask who closed, in which building or street, in which month, and whether the buyer used cash or a loan, since the public pages do not say.

Sources as cited. The dates, measures and areas differ and the figures are not directly comparable. Commercial content; not independently verified.

How long do Miramar Beach homes take to sell, and do sellers negotiate?

The clock is long. Redfin shows a median of 107 days on market for the city, up 3 days from 104 a year earlier, and calls the market not very competitive, with a competition score of 11 out of 100. It says the average home sells for about 5% below list and goes pending in around 107 days, and that multiple offers are rare. Realtor.com shows 85 days for Sandestin, up 1.19%, and calls it a warm market. The Redfin county page shows 100 days against 85 and the stale postal area page shows 122 against 87. All four give a clock of roughly three to four months.

The price paid relative to the ask is consistent. Redfin shows a sale-to-list ratio of 95.4%, down 0.18 points, so about 95.6% a year earlier, computed here. Realtor.com says Sandestin homes sold for 3.78% below the asking price, a ratio of 96%. The county page shows 95.8%. Only 3.7% of city homes sold above list, down 0.86 points, and 38.5% had price drops, up 3.3 points, from about 35.2% a year ago. At 95.4% of list, a home that sold for $719,024 would have listed near $753,700, computed here, though the ratio is a median of ratios and not the gap on any one sale.

Zillow gives a faster number. Its page says homes go pending in around 57 days. Redfin says 107 for the same place. The pages define the clock differently, and Zillow's page was updated in April while Redfin's runs through August, and a beach market has seasons. A seller reading 57 days and a seller reading 107 would plan differently, and that is a caution about the number, not about either publisher.

The county page adds listings with price drops: 19.1%, against the city's 38.5%. It shows 7.0% of homes sold above list, against the city's 3.7%. Those figures are for different months, the county's to May and the city's to August, so they are not a ranking of places. If anything they say that cuts became more common into late summer, an inference from two different pages and not a finding.

What does a seller learn? Of homes that sold, the typical one took more than three months and closed about 5% below the ask, and more than a third had cut the price at some point. A seller who needs a date, for a move or for a second-home decision, should read those figures as a warning about the public route. The pages do not show how many listings were withdrawn without selling, and they say nothing about whether a private buyer would pay more or less.

What do per-foot prices and counts say about who is selling?

Prices per square foot disagree in direction. Redfin shows $446, down 8.0% in a year, while the median sale price rose 8.6%. The Realtor.com Sandestin page shows $491, down 4.29%, and the stale postal area page shows $520, up 4.0% in January 2025. A price that rises while the price per foot falls suggests that larger homes sold, which is an inference since the page does not report sizes. It also means the median rose because of what sold and not because each home was worth more.

Prior-year values show the same thing. Redfin's 8.6% gain implies a median of about $662,000 a year earlier, computed here, while Zillow's 3.2% fall implies a typical value of about $668,900 a year before April. Those are close to each other, which suggests that homes were worth about the same a year earlier on both measures and that the two have since diverged. The divergence is the sold median rising and the Zillow model falling. The pages do not say why.

The counts are small. Redfin shows 193 homes sold in August 2026, down 11.5%, which implies about 218 a year earlier, computed here. The stale postal area page showed 119 sold in January 2025 against 126. A median built on 193 sales across a city whose homes range from condominiums to estates moves with the mix of what sold, and the Realtor.com Sandestin figures rest on whatever number of sales Realtor.com counted, which the page does not give.

Supply has grown in Sandestin. Realtor.com shows 414 active listings, up 3.84% in a year and up 112.25% in three years, and 40 rentals, up 25%. Its median rent is $2,100 a month, up 2.44% in a year and down 16.83% in three, against the Census median rent of $2,270 for tenants in place. The three-year rise in listings means a seller now competes with more than twice as many homes as in 2023. That is a figure for one neighborhood and the pages do not give the city's inventory.

Put those together and the picture is a market where many sellers listed and buyers took their time. A median price that rose while the per-foot price fell, a clock above three months and a ratio near 95% do not describe a seller's market. They describe a market where the price is set by negotiation after a long wait, and where a seller who cannot wait has to accept a discount that no median shows.

What does the Census say about vacancy, second homes and owners?

The Census postal area that includes Miramar Beach has 15,531 housing units and 8,486 residents. Only 4,298 homes are occupied, 27.7%, and 11,233 are vacant, 72.3%. Of the vacant homes, 8,132 are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, which is 52.4% of all homes and 72.4% of the vacant ones, computed here. Another 2,792, 18.0% of all homes, are vacant for rent, 78 are rented but not yet occupied, 34 are for sale and 197 are vacant for other reasons. Those sum to 11,233.

This is a resort market. Of the 15,531 homes, 5,558 are in buildings of 50 or more units, 35.8%, and 8,434 are in buildings of five or more units, 54.3%. Detached homes number 4,816, 31.0%, and attached homes 821, 5.3%. The year-built chart shows that 5,650 homes, 36.4%, were built in the 2000s, 4,688, 30.2%, in the 1990s and 3,041, 19.6%, in the 1980s, so 13,379 homes, 86.1%, date from 1980 to 2009. Only 8.6% were built before 1980. The median year built is 1997. A building boom of that era left a stock that is now 17 to 46 years old.

Owners are 3,517 of 4,298 occupied homes, 81.8%, and renters 781, 18.2%. Of the owner households, 2,342 moved in during 2010 or later, 66.6%, and 960 in 2020 or later, 27.3%. Only 319 moved in before 2000, 9.1%. Among renters, 379 of 781 moved in during 2020 or later, 48.5%. These cuts are for homes where someone lives. The 8,132 seasonal homes are not in them, and the Census cannot say how long their owners have owned them or where those owners live.

Incomes and values are moderate against the prices in the pages. The median household income is $101,250 and the median owner value is $741,600, plus or minus $79,120, which is 7.32 times the median income, computed here. The Redfin sold median is 7.1 times that income. The median rent is $2,270 a month, $27,240 a year, 26.9% of the median income, computed here. The incomes are for residents and not for the owners of the seasonal homes, so the price-to-income ratios describe residents and not the typical buyer, which is an inference.

The vacancy figure matters for a seller. With 72.3% of homes vacant in the Census survey, most owners in the postal area live elsewhere for most of the year, an inference from the seasonal count, and the vacant-for-rent count suggests that many homes are run as rentals. The Census says nothing about which are which, and about whether owners are local. Residents are 8,486 people in 4,298 homes, 1.97 per occupied home, so the year-round population is small beside the housing stock. Readers comparing markets can also read the Flamingo-Lummus brief and the Kendall brief.

Source: Census Reporter, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates, tables B25024, B25034, B25038, B25004, B25077, B25064 and B19013. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic.

What should an owner ask, and what does a private sale change?

The first question is which Miramar Beach. A Sandestin condominium, a house on a canal and a home inland do not share a median, a buyer or a clock. A seller should ask for closed sales in the same community from the past twelve months, with the days to contract, the first ask and the final price, and for the number of listings that ended without a sale.

The second question is what a figure measures and when. Ask whether it is a sold median, a listing median or a model value, which months it covers and how many sales sit behind it. A seller who reads $772,500 as the price will aim well above Zillow's $647,525, and a seller who reads $647,525 may price about 10% below Redfin's sold median. The stale January 2025 page should not be used at all.

The third question is the cost of selling, and the arithmetic is simple. Each 1% of $647,525 is $6,475. At 3% the figure is $19,426 and at 5% it is $32,376. At $719,024, each 1% is $7,190, 3% is $21,571 and 5% is $35,951. At $772,500, each 1% is $7,725, 3% is $23,175 and 5% is $38,625. These illustrate the size of each percentage point and are not quotes of any rate a seller would be charged. No page in this brief names a Miramar Beach commission rate, and the medians are not the price of any one home.

The fourth question is what a listing exposes. With a clock above three months, a public listing means a season of showings, a visible price history and a 38.5% share of homes with price drops, and a buyer's side will ask for inspections and repairs. Many owners here live elsewhere, an inference from the 72.3% vacancy count, and showings and repairs are harder to manage from a distance. A private sale has no showings and no neighbors talking about a sale.

The benefits are plain. Maison Off-Market buys luxury homes and estates directly from their owners and speaks only to sellers. A private sale has no showings. It allows closing dates that give a seller time to find a new home. It has no commission costs and no closing costs, and it avoids inspection repairs. The company does not say that a private sale always beats a public listing, and in a market where one page shows $647,525 and another $719,024, an owner is right to ask what each route yields. If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a Miramar Beach home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

Each page's date, title and place were read before use. Only established data publishers and the Census are cited. The Redfin postal area page is dated January 2025 and is used only for contrast. The Redfin county page's title and text carry different dates. Zillow's page was updated in April 2026. Realtor.com's figures are for the Sandestin neighborhood only. The Census figures are five-year estimates for a postal area. Percent changes were taken as printed, and ratios, sums and year-earlier values are this brief's arithmetic.

Conclusion

The Miramar Beach record shows a sold median of $719,024, a Zillow value of $647,525, homes selling about 5% below list after 107 days, and a postal area where 72.3% of homes are vacant and 52.4% are held for seasonal use. The useful number for an owner is a closed sale in the same community, not a city median.