It was only a few years ago that record numbers of high-income New Yorkers were fleeing the Big Apple. Oh, how times have changed.
About 545,000 New York City residents packed up and moved to other parts of the country in 2022. A staggering 90,000 New Yorkers headed south to Florida, according to census data. As of last month, the state’s population had exceeded 23 million, and it has added between 350,000 and 375,000 new residents each year for the past decade.
But a new report from real estate platform PropertyShark reveals that wealthy Floridians are starting to change course, with more people moving north again. The study analyzed home sales records for the first half of 2024 and found that Florida residents are the leading buyers of luxury homes in New York City. So far, they’ve already spent $150 million on homes worth more than $3 million in the city.
More broadly, Floridians spent a combined $315 million on New York City real estate, with 219 sales between January and June of this year. By comparison, there were 189 transactions by Florida buyers in 2014.
“The city’s luxury residential sector has seen an increase in the number of out-of-state investors over the past decade, growing from 13 percent to nearly 17 percent of closed transactions,” the report states. “Among them, Floridians were the most active group of out-of-state luxury home buyers. More precisely, Floridians accounted for 17 percent of out-of-state transactions over $3 million, which is higher than Floridians’ share of the overall market, reaffirming Florida buyers’ preference for luxury homes.”
The mad dash into the concrete jungle is driven in part by rising costs, particularly the cost of home insurance. “Insurance is a big issue right now in Florida, especially in the south coastal lowlands,” Lindsey Johnson, a broker with Keller Williams in Gainesville, told Realtor.com. “Insurance prices have gone up substantially.”
In fact, Bloomberg reported last year that Florida homeowners’ insurance rates have tripled since 2020, pushing annual premiums into five and even six figures. As of April 2024, Florida homeowners are paying more than four times the national average for home insurance, leading some residents to cancel their policies and leave the state altogether.
author
Abby Montanez
Abigail Montanez is a staff writer for Robb Report. She has worked in both print and digital publishing for over five years, covering everything from real estate, entertainment, food and drink, and travel.
read more
Source link
