The short answer
Across 1,540 recorded arms-length commercial sales between 2021 and August 2026, Palm Beach County ran a median of $299 per square foot with the middle half between $198 and $507. Retail is the county’s largest category and its highest, at a $378 median. The county trades noticeably bigger buildings than its neighbours — a 6,083 square foot median against 2,950 in Miami-Dade — which accounts for most of the gap in headline price per foot. And on 35.2% of the county’s commercial buildings, the land is assessed above the structure.
Palm Beach trades bigger buildings than its neighbours
The median commercial building that sold in Palm Beach County was 6,083 square feet. In Broward it was 4,982 and in Miami-Dade 2,950. Only 44.4% of the county's 10,456 commercial buildings are under 5,000 feet, against 69.7% in Miami-Dade.
That single fact explains most of the price gap people ask me about. Price per foot falls as buildings get larger — across all three counties the median runs $410 a foot under 2,500 square feet and $209 above 25,000. Palm Beach's $299 countywide median is not a statement that the county is cheaper than Miami-Dade. It is largely a statement that the county sells bigger boxes.
A county with two coastlines, priced accordingly
| City | Sales | Median $/SF |
|---|---|---|
| Delray Beach | 157 | $567 |
| Palm Springs | 43 | $323 |
| Boca Raton | 130 | $323 |
| Jupiter | 117 | $317 |
| Palm Beach Gardens | 43 | $315 |
| Lake Worth | 168 | $295 |
| West Palm Beach | 376 | $292 |
| Boynton Beach | 116 | $285 |
| Lake Park | 49 | $225 |
| Riviera Beach | 74 | $207 |
Cities with 40 or more recorded sales, 2021 through August 2026. Recorded arms-length commercial sales from public record, screened to remove multi-parcel assemblages and records above $2,000/SF. Comps reach public record weeks to a quarter after the price was agreed, so treat these as history, not today.
Delray Beach at $567 is the outlier and it is real — 157 recorded sales, not a handful. Atlantic Avenue retail carries a premium that nothing else in the county touches.
Riviera Beach at $207 and Lake Park at $225 sit at the other end, and both are industrial-weighted markets on the Blue Heron corridor. West Palm Beach, with the most transactions at 376, lands at $292 — essentially the county median. If you own in West Palm, the countywide number is unusually likely to be close to yours.
Retail leads here, which is not the case next door
| Type | Sales | Bottom quartile | Median | Top quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 663 | $225 | $378 | $649 |
| Office | 416 | $227 | $337 | $528 |
| Industrial | 410 | $168 | $226 | $302 |
| Other / special use | 51 | $191 | $295 | $581 |
Retail is the largest recorded category in Palm Beach at 663 sales, and it carries the highest median at $378. In Broward, industrial outnumbers retail; in Miami-Dade, industrial is the biggest single bucket. Palm Beach is the retail county.
It is also the widest band on the page — $225 to $649 for the middle half. Retail value here is driven by frontage, traffic and tenant more than by construction. Two identical 4,000-foot strip bays, one on Atlantic Avenue and one on a secondary road two miles west, are not comparable properties no matter what the county records say.
Industrial at a $226 median is the county's floor and its tightest band. Palm Beach industrial is scarcer than Broward's and priced with less drama than its retail.
More than a third of the county's buildings are worth less than the dirt
On 35.2% of Palm Beach commercial buildings the property appraiser values the land above the improvement — the highest proportion of the three counties. For those owners, square footage is close to irrelevant.
If that is your property, pricing it off a per-foot comp for a similar building is the wrong exercise entirely. The buyer is underwriting the lot: what the zoning permits, how much frontage there is, whether the parcel assembles with a neighbour. I have watched owners leave real money behind by marketing a tired building to building-buyers when the actual bidder was a developer who never intended to keep the structure.
Working out which of those two properties you own is the first thing I do on a Palm Beach valuation, and it is usually clear within an hour of pulling the parcel.
What the numbers cannot tell you about your building
Everything above comes from public record, which knows your square footage, your year built, your lot size and your last recorded sale. It does not know your roof, your electrical service, your parking count against current code, your tenant, or what is left on the lease.
It also does not know time. A recorded sale reaches public record weeks to a quarter after the parties agreed on the price. Every figure on this page is describing negotiations that already concluded.
So use the bands to orient yourself, then get a real read. Send me the address and I will come back within a business day with the comps that actually resemble your property, a range rather than a single confident number, and an honest view of where inside it you sit. Free, no obligation to list.
I am a broker, not an appraiser or a tax adviser. If a lender, a court or the Value Adjustment Board requires a USPAP appraisal, you need a licensed appraiser and I will tell you that rather than sell you something else.
Want the number on your building?
Search the property for an instant public-record snapshot and the closest recorded sales, or send me the address and I will come back inside one business day with a comp-driven range, what I think it would actually trade at, and what I would fix first.
Related resources.
Frequently asked questions about palm beach county.
What is commercial property worth per square foot in Palm Beach County?
Across 1,540 recorded arms-length sales between 2021 and August 2026, the countywide median was $299 per square foot with the middle half between $198 and $507. Retail led at a $378 median, office ran $337 and industrial $226. City matters enormously: Delray Beach recorded a $567 median against $207 in Riviera Beach.
Why does Palm Beach show a lower median than Miami-Dade?
Mostly building size. The median Palm Beach building that sold was 6,083 square feet against 2,950 in Miami-Dade, and price per foot falls steadily as size rises — $410 a foot under 2,500 square feet versus $209 above 25,000. It is a difference in what trades, not a judgment on the market.
Which Palm Beach city has the strongest commercial values?
Delray Beach, at a $567 median across 157 recorded sales, driven by Atlantic Avenue retail. Boca Raton, Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens cluster tightly between $315 and $323. Riviera Beach and Lake Park, both industrial-weighted, sit near $207 to $225.
My Palm Beach lot seems worth more than the building on it. What do I do?
You are not alone — the county assesses land above improvement on 35.2% of its commercial buildings, the highest share in South Florida. If that is your situation, the property should be marketed to developers and land buyers on a per-square-foot-of-land or per-buildable-unit basis, not priced off a building comp. Establishing which of the two you own is the first step in the valuation.
How current are these Palm Beach numbers?
They cover sales recorded from 2021 through August 2026, with 298 sales in 2025 and 96 recorded so far in 2026, so the recent window is well populated. Bear in mind that public record lags the actual agreement by weeks to a quarter, so even current data describes deals that closed some time ago.