On Palm Beach, the real estate gossip practically writes itself. The very top of the market has vaulted into numbers that used to sound like a joke: vacant land and old-line estates now come with nine-figure stickers that creep toward the low $200 millions. With so little true waterfront to go around, a flood of trophy-hunting buyers and a handful of splashy listings have turned asking prices into the main event. For longtime residents, it is a blunt reminder that this is a market powered by scarcity and collectors, not by anything resembling everyday home-shopping math.
The Asking Prices
The current headline act is a roughly two-acre ocean-to-lake parcel at 1980 South Ocean Boulevard, which reemerged this season with a $200 million asking price,…..