• What Happened: Three Florida real estate firms reported over $126 million in sales to buyers relocating from New York and California in just the first 60 days of 2026.
  • Why It Matters: This is not vacation home money anymore. ISG World CEO Craig Studnicky confirmed two-thirds of his sales before COVID were second homes. Now two-thirds are permanent residents.
  • Bottom Line: California has already lost a net 1.6 million residents to other states over the past decade and is projected to bleed another $4.5 billion in tax base in 2025 alone. When you punish success hard enough and long enough, the success leaves. Florida just cashed the check.

The numbers are not a trend anymore. They are a verdict.

In the first sixty days of 2026, three Florida real estate firms combined to close over $126 million in sales to buyers relocating from New York and California. ISG World CEO Craig Studnicky told Fox News Digital his firm alone recorded $26 million in wealth migration from those two states in that window, up from $15 million during the same period in 2025. One developer reported over $60 million in sales across three projects in the last thirty days alone, with over $200 million in the prior six months. These are not tourists buying condos. These are Americans permanently relocating their lives.

Founder and investor Evelio Silvera breaks it down:

The policy backdrop driving this exodus could not be more explicit. California is currently circulating signatures for the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act, a ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of any California resident worth more than $1 billion as of January 1, 2026. The measure is retroactive by design. Tax attorneys told CNBC the cutoff date was set deliberately to prevent affected individuals from establishing residency elsewhere in time to escape. Google co-founder Larry Page and venture capitalist Peter Thiel have already signaled their exits. Oracle founder Larry Ellison's family office and research fund have both updated their registered addresses out of state. At least two unnamed California billionaires have already moved or made plans to move.

New York is not standing still either. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed new income tax hikes on millionaires to close the city's budget deficit, with state legislators signaling support even as Governor Kathy Hochul pushes back.

The capital is listening.

Miami's millionaire population has grown 50 percent over the past decade. Florida welcomed over 20,000 high-earning households in 2024 alone. More than 1,700 young professionals earning $200,000 or more relocated to Florida that same year, outpacing every other state. California, meanwhile, has lost a net 1.6 million residents to other states over the past decade and is projected to hemorrhage $4.5 billion in annual tax base in 2025 alone, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

The behavioral shift goes beyond the raw numbers. Before COVID, ISG World's Studnicky says two-thirds of his Florida luxury sales were second homes. That ratio has completely flipped. Two-thirds are now permanent residents. Developers are responding by redesigning entire buildings, swapping resort amenities for office infrastructure and practical full-time living features because the buyers are not coming for vacation. They are coming to build.

Incentives drive behavior. Always have. When states treat wealth as a problem to be punished rather than a resource to be cultivated, the wealth finds a state that disagrees.

Florida is that state. And business has never been better.