Miami has frequently been featured in the top ten of Christie’s International Real Estate annual list of the world’s top luxury real estate markets. But in the 2015 list that was just released, Miami overtook both San Francisco (#8) and Paris (#9) to reach 7th place — its highest spot ever.
The surge in the ranking may have been due to the sale of one single mega-priced penthouse: Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin’s $55 million purchase of the penthouse at the Faena House last fall. It was the most expensive residential real-estate transaction in Miami-Dade history.  Interestingly, Griffin has already put the unit back on the market for $73 million earlier this year.
To compile the ranking, Christie takes the following factors into account: the average luxury price per square foot, the number of sales over $1 million, the percentage of listings over $1 million, the average price for a home, the percentage of international and other non-local buyers, the recent market record sale price, and the percentage of secondary homes. Rounding out the top six are London, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore and Sydney.