NEWS
Florida Is Attracting More Young And Wealthy Newcomers Than Any Other State
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Florida is attracting more young and wealthy newcomers than any other state, according to a recent analysis from SmartAsset, and many of them are coming from professional strongholds like New York and California.
SmartAsset ranked states based on net migration, and found that Florida attracted the most young professionals ages 26 to 35, earning at least $200,000 annually in adjusted gross income.
Texas came in second, with a net migration of 1,909 newcomers fitting the criteria. New Jersey came in a close third, marking “the most dramatic reversal from the aggregate trends,” according to Jaclyn DeJohn, SmartAsset’s managing editor of economic analysis.
Rounding out the top five were Colorado and North Carolina.
“Young, wealthy, high-income earners are fleeing New York and California predominately due to taxes, from what we have experienced,” said Lawrence Sprung, certified financial planner and author of “Financial Planning Made Personal.”
“It is bad enough that these states have some of the highest income taxes in the country but compound that with some of the highest real estate and sales taxes, too, and you have a contingency of young people who do not see the benefits,” Sprung said.
“Florida, as an example, presents an opportunity to not pay state income taxes, with lower real estate and sales tax, too. This type of move would allow them to keep more of their income and perhaps present a better quality of life, too,” Sprung said.
“Making this type of change is easier when you are younger; your family, kids in particular, may be a bit more open to moving, and you have fewer things tying you back to the more expensive states. I believe you will see this trend continue unless we see some significant changes in the states with higher taxes overall,” Sprung said.
According to residential and commercial real estate sales expert Josh Cadillac, COVID-19 is a big reason so many are leaving places like New York and California.
“The addition of work from home options also helped to untether the geographical link many young professionals had with their employer. It was a chance for these younger professionals to consider options that had never previously been on the table, and to take advantage of a thoroughly modern solution to where they live,” Cadillac said.
Florida and Texas, in particular, have been “very welcoming” to entrepreneurs, especially in the tech space, and “took advantage of COVID restrictions in other states” to lure more, Cadillac said.
“The more favorable office rents and encouraging environment allowed employers to relocate from higher cost and tax states,” Cadillac said. “The migration of these young wealthy professionals is really an outgrowth of the migration of many of their employers to more friendly business environments, and the policies that attracted those employers.”
TMX contributed to this article.
