GREENVILLE, S.C. — The 2025 Sotheby’s International Realty Luxury Outlook highlights international high-end real estate trends that mirror what is happening in the Upstate.
Just released, The 2025 Luxury Outlook report draws on insights from Sotheby’s International Realty agents worldwide who specialize in transactions in the $10 million price category. Their expertise is complemented in the report by data from industry leaders including J.P. Morgan Private Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cerulli Associates, Henley & Partners, UBS, and the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
One of the key takeaways that appears consistently through the Luxury Outlook is that proximity to nature, arts and culture is profoundly shaping the tastes of emerging affluent buyers. Joan Herlong, the founder and CEO of Herlong Sotheby’s International Realty, said these are key reasons that the Upstate is seeing growth in demand for luxury real estate.
“The Upstate is almost a perfect nexus of arts and culture mixed with nature,” she said. “We have performing arts centers next to rivers. We have luxury communities on lakes. We have breathtaking mountain views less than 20 miles from the urban core.”
Meanwhile, Herlong Sotheby’s International Realty continues to set the pace for luxury sales in the Upstate.
In 2024, Associate David Vandeputte set a new Upstate sales single home sales record when he represented the seller and the buyer for a 9,600 SF home at 132 Mountain Shore Trail in Six Mile, which closed at $10 million. The sale broke the previous record of $9 million, which was set by Herlong herself in 2022 for the Belle Terre estate in Simpsonville.
“The Luxury Outlook underscores what our Associates are seeing in the Upstate,” Herlong said. “The story is when people think of luxury living, they need to think of our region.”