The relocation of substantial fortunes from the West Coast to Florida has gained prominence in recent years, but an analysis by Fortune raises a key question: how much of all that wealth truly benefits South Florida?
The answer, according to the report signed by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, is more uncomfortable than it seems.
The tax exodus shaking California
The immediate trigger is the proposed tax on billionaires in California, which, if approved in November, would impose a one-time levy of 5% on the net worth of those residing in the state as of January 1, 2026.
The initiative aims to reach about 200 people and aspires to raise 100 billion dollars to fund healthcare, education, and food assistance.
However, several of the individuals who would have been subject to the tax had already left before the deadline arrived.
The co-founders of Google Larry Page —with a net worth of $295 billion— and Sergey Brin —with $275 billion— left California last year and purchased properties in Florida.
They are joined by the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos; the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Peter Thiel; the founder of Citadel, Ken Griffin; and the co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, among others.
According to Fortune, "a rough calculation based on the 5% wealth tax places the amount Page would have had to pay at about $14 billion and Brin's at around $13 billion."
When combined with the cases of Travis Kalanick —the co-founder of Uber, who moved to Texas— and Thiel, the tax revenue that California may fail to collect amounts to nearly $29 billion.
The opposition to the tax among the ultra-wealthy is nearly unanimous.
Brin has donated 102 million dollars to the committee Building a Better California, which promotes countermeasures to block the law. Thiel contributed three million dollars to the California Business Roundtable, another opposing group.
California is not the only state where tax changes have coincided with the departure of wealthy individuals. The governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, enacted a "millionaires' tax" of 9.9% on incomes exceeding one million dollars in March, which accelerated the exit of Bezos and former Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, from Seattle.
What Florida gains... and what it doesn't
Florida does not impose a state tax on personal income or capital gains, and Miami has positioned itself as a low-tax alternative compared to the major cities in California.
That appeal is real. But, as Fortune warns, “that $29 billion is not reaching Florida.”
When a billionaire buys a mansion for 100 million dollars, most of the price goes to the selling owner.
The income from investments that would have generated significant revenue in California is also not taxed at the state level in Florida.
What the state and local governments do receive are property taxes, sales taxes, and economic activity taxes derived from spending and construction.
"The issue for Miami is not simply how many billionaires arrive or how much their houses are worth, but rather how much economic activity and tax revenue their presence actually generates," concludes Fortune.
The Griffin Case: Beyond the Mansion
The most illustrative example is that of Ken Griffin and Citadel, who moved their headquarters from Chicago to Miami in June 2022.
Griffin spent around 450 million dollars on a waterfront property in Palm Beach County and another 106.9 million in Coconut Grove. However, the data that shifts the conversation is another: Citadel plans to build a 54-story headquarters in Brickell at an estimated cost of 2.5 billion dollars.
“This is where the migration of billionaires to Miami becomes a story of economic development, rather than just a tale about the luxury real estate market”, notes Fortune.
Luxury is on the rise, but Miami is also losing residents
In 2025, a record of 361 properties were sold in Miami for 10 million dollars or more.
Five years ago, there were no transactions above 50 million in the city; by 2025, that segment accounted for 7% of the market.
Mark Zuckerberg paid 170 million dollars for a mansion in Indian Creek —the most expensive residential sale in the history of Miami-Dade County— just a few houses away from the construction site of Bezos, which includes a gym, beauty salon, and massage room.
However, this surge has a downside that affects middle-income residents.
The cost of living in Miami surpassed that of New York for the first time in July of this year.
In addition, housing prices have increased by 79% since the pandemic, and Miami-Dade lost 113,700 net residents in 2025 due to internal migration, amid a persistent affordability crisis.
The question that Fortune leaves open summarizes the dilemma: Is Miami becoming a place where billionaires simply park their wealth, or does that wealth generate a quantifiable economic benefit for the entire city?
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