2026 Parade of Homes: A Glimpse of the Future… or a Market Mismatch?

by Dave Diegelman

2026 Parade of Homes: A Glimpse of the Future… or a Market Mismatch?

Every year I have to remind myself that the Parade of Homes doesn’t necessarily reflect our current market reality. Yet historically, it has often offered a glamorous preview of where our luxury market is headed.

For those who attended back in 2016, remember how outrageous those $3 million homes felt? At the time, our median sales price was just $226,000. Fast forward to today, and we’re sitting at a median price of $505,000. What once seemed unattainable slowly became normalized.

This year’s Parade featured 32 homes — and 10 of them were priced over $5 million. Most were speculative builds, not custom homes built for specific owners. For perspective, in all of 2025, only 11 homes sold in that entire price range. That’s a narrow buyer pool. Anyone else see the potential imbalance?

While it’s fun to tour sprawling estates and jaw-dropping finishes, reality tells a different story. Several Parade homes priced above $3 million from last year are still on the market. Luxury demand exists — but it is selective, calculated, and limited.

So what value does the Parade provide beyond aspirational browsing?

Trends.

Design trends move downstream. What shows up in the $5 million homes today often appears in the $800,000–$1.5 million range tomorrow.

Take “greige,” for example — that gray-beige blend that dominated the last decade. It has quietly faded. If you’re preparing to sell this year and competing with new construction, that’s something to note.

Jetted tubs? Nearly gone — replaced by cold plunge tubs reminiscent of pro athlete recovery rooms. Hidden walk-in showers? Now swapped for dramatic glass-enclosed wet rooms housing both tub and shower. Primary closets with their own laundry? Think bigger — multiple laundry areas, sometimes one per floor and even in the casita. And the once-iconic stainless steel Wolf range with red knobs? Designers are leaning into warmer metallic finishes, especially brass and gold-toned hardware.

The Parade stretches our imagination. It pushes the ceiling. But it also reminds us that not everything showcased translates immediately into market demand.

The bigger question is this:

If 2016’s $3 million homes seemed outrageous — and today feel almost normal — where will we be ten years from now?