The billionaires are saving the Bay Area by swarming Miami faster than other major metropolitan areas in the country, a new report reveals.
Between 2014 and 2024, the Miami area’s billionaire population almost doubled, expanding 94% to nearly 39,000.
The findings highlight the massive influx of wealth into Florida during the Covid-19 pandemic, as high-income earners in other parts of Florida are attracted to Florida’s favorable tax policies, warm climates, relatively inexpensive real estate, and loose pandemic restrictions.
However, over the same period, home prices have skyrocketed. Condominium costs have more than doubled in the past decade. Many of the low- and middle-income earners who live and work here are priced, and their scores are already beginning to go away, taking risks to the health of the Miami-Dade workforce.
Where did New South Florida residents come from?
Many of the high-income migrations to Florida come from wealthy states in the north. A report released last month by the New York Citizens’ Budget Committee shows that between 2018 and 2022, Florida was the top destination for New York City residents trying to escape the Northeast.
Big Apple lost nearly 16,000 residents in Miami-Dade County for that period, totaling $6.1 billion. New York City lost another 25,000 people, almost $4 billion, to Palm Beach and Broward County.
A recently reported Herald analysis of IRS data showed that more money came from New York to Florida – $9.5 billion between 2021 and 2022 than from other states. That same year, New Jersey brought in $5.3 billion, Californians brought in $4.5 billion, and Illinois brought in $4.1 billion.
Overall, over $62 billion went to Florida between 2021 and 2022, but the $26 billion remained, meaning it moved outside the stars moving to Florida.
Of that total, $8 billion landed in Miami-Dade County, $11 billion was sent to Palm Beach County, and $6 billion went to Broward County. South Florida had at that point gained around $9 billion from immigrants, leaving the area and taking in the money with them.
How wealthy is transplant?
Many of the people who emigrated to Miami-Dade were billionaires.
In 2022, about 10% of 800,900 tax returns of household incomes over $1 million per year across the United States came from Florida. Florida is home to some of America’s wealthiest people and follows only California, which hosts 16% of the country’s billionaires.
IRS data shows that as of 2022, seven of the 1,000 Floridians earned more than $1 million a year, the fifth-highest percentage in the US state. This is up from 4 millionaires per 1,000 Florida people in 2019.
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Beyond those earning seven figures, Florida’s Senmérionaire population (people with revenues exceeding $100 million) was 620 as of June last year. This is roughly the same as the total number of 1 cm Meliorians across France, 650.
Why Florida?
What brought them?
Taxes – or rather, there are no taxes, says Glen Steward, founder and chairman of investment company Stewards Investment Capital.
“There are no state income taxes, no real estate taxes, no capital gains taxes,” Steward said.
The steward himself relocated from South Africa to Florida in 2018, said the weather was a major pull. “I think along with Covid, people have been given the opportunity to work remotely. They have realized they can run their business, their careers and live in an incredible environment,” he added.
And while the stewards don’t see any wealthy sourness in South Florida anytime soon, he said affordability could ultimately be a concern, even for those who are winning the seven-person figure.
What about the locals?
South Floridians who lived here before the pandemic know the dynamic too well. Ned Murray, associate director at the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University and a South Florida housing market expert, has seen home prices skyrocketing over 100% over the past decade, priced many locals.
Miami-Dade County is home to non-profit Miami homes, by all estimates, estimated that there are no 90,000 affordable units for households earning less than $75,000 a year.
Both investors looking to buy luxury condominiums and homes as assets rather than as living, Murray said seasonal visitors are contributing to the surge in prices.
Also, housing costs are rising sharply, but local wages aren’t walking, and 94% of Miami-Dade residents can’t afford it, Murray estimates.
The same place that is a magnet for the rich can squeeze out the lower and middle classes. Miami-Dade County lost more than 130,000 residents between 2020 and 2023, according to the Metropolitan Center.
What’s more, the 35,000 people who have left since 2019 are important demographics for the workforce, with 35,000 people in their 20s.
Murray says housing costs are a major factor in moving from Miami-Dade.
“The prices for a single family home or condo are exactly that, and they are out of reach of those who have lived and worked here ever,” he added.
The story was created with financial support from supporters such as the Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O’Keefe, in collaboration with Journalism’s fundraising partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editing control of this work.
