In the aftermath of much well-heeled panic about a potential mass exodus of New York millionaires and billionaires following the election of Zohran Mamdani, the contrary is already happening, and Manhattan luxury apartment buyers are voting with their wallets.
Signed contracts for Manhattan homes costing $4 million or more rose to 176 in November, a 25% increase from October’s 141 deals, according to fresh data from brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel. New signed contracts of more than $4 million increased at more than twice the rate of the overall market, the report noted.
Wait. Are you telling me that people would be willing to pay a small premium for living in a place that isn’t a shit hole, surrounded by content people who aren’t feeling murderously angry about crappy circumstances beyond their control?
Huh.
How ever shall the millionaires afford that?
Cuomo said he’d move to Florida, hopefully the supposed Mamdani effect at least works on him.
For most people, but especially for the rich, a liveable environment is far more important than a bit more money. Nobody who has saving money as their first priority is going to be living in New York anyway. But a liveable city that’s safe, fun to be in, and that you can move around in without fearing for your life, those are far more important to most people.
So I’m not surprised that Mamdani’s victory is drawing more people to NY.
Literally if I was loaded I’d love to live in NYC despite it being expensive. Because (and I can’t stress this enough) YOLO. Spend your life enjoying it, not saving up every single penny. And in this case, the taxes can contribute to enjoyment through increased safety and other livability factors.
This is obvious when you think about it even a little bit. You can’t buy safe streets.
What’s the point of being ultra-rich when you have to step outside into Phnom Penh and watch how toddlers collect scrap?
They’ve been saying that wealthy people would leave nyc for at least 20 years. Fear mongering.
A lot of people did leave, following covid.
I remember a bunch of coworkers leaving during COVID and I was like “ok but what’re you going to do after? It’s fucking boring where you’re moving to.”
Most of them seem pretty happy today
In refrigerated trailers. Strange for a “Scamdemic”.
No, I mean lots of my friends started working remotely, so they decided to do so someplace with a lower CoL
Ok so completely different reason?
And if it WAS a real thing, it would mean fewer people in NYC, which would make it more affordable, would’ve been positive either way.
…as much as they campaign against it, wealthy people understand that when the chips fall, the “fairest of them all” always wins…they will steal and cheat as much for as long as they can, but most understand the guillotine…this is not new…this has been happening for about, quick and check my post history, 4000-3000 years…we decided pyramids were more effective and pretty…
I mean, it sounds like the number of millionaires leaving did go up. It’s just that there are plenty of other ones willing to replace them.
These may have also been homes already up for sale.
Are you telling me that people don’t want to move to the FREE STATE OF FLORIDA?
No one is leaving NY because Florida does not have decent pizza or italian sandwiches.
Is there even a museum in Florida without fake animals?
😂
They don’t want to be big fish in small ponds, they want to be big fish in big ponds, hence why Indianopolis or Cincinnati or whatever other big but not NYC big towns didn’t see billionaires rushing in.
It would’ve been hilarious if they rushed to Cincinnati
NYC billionaires traditionally love chili on spaghetti.
Don’t knock it until you try it. It’s one of the few meat foods I kinda miss.
Eh, I went to a few pretty good museums in Key West once. Although, they also tried to become The Conch Republic for about a day that one time, so maybe they don’t count as mainland Florida.
They have Hemingway’s house and the bar he used to go to which is neat but that’s about it. Also, there is a marker signifying the most southern point of the continental United States.
Eh, there’s a little more than that.
- Lots of piracy museums
- Open beverage carry on Duval St.
- Lots of gay clubs
- More tour boats than you’d think possible for such a small island
- Drunken cruise passengers
- Drunken tourists on bikes/scooters/ATVs.
- Military base
- Old Civil War era fort (not the same thing)
- Margaritaville
Most of those things are up for debate following each hurricane season.
Its always a damned margaritaville or a rainforest cafe.
escape to Florida
Lol
Why would any rational person move to Florida? Lmao.
Not that it’s a good state to be homeless, but at least you don’t freeze in the Winter.
Maybe if you own a business and want the freedom to dump your toxic waste directly into water sources. Or if you sell meth.
Probably most of those stating they’d run away already had Florida or other avoid-NY-taxes out of state license plates on their cars before the election.
What a surprise
They know that whatever their money religion’s ministers say, at street level, NYC will be a great place to live, if Mamdani gets his way.
Rich people fleeing because of a “socialistTM” politician in power is a complete nonsense since FDR. Even Warren Buffet called it out. Sure, some leave, but it is usually just a handful who do.
I also think that many rich people decided to stay and buy property in New York is because they actually know that Mamdani is a more stable economic hand than GOP states such as Florida. Plenty of tycoons low key wish for America to “Make America, America Again” because they are anxious of Trump’s chaotic economic policies; so much so that JP Morgan CEO threw his support on Mamdani.
Sure, some leave, but it is usually just a handful who do.
I mean, back in the 1980s, there really was a big exodus of fossil fuel companies from the Northeast (NY / NJ / CT) down to the Gulf Coast. My dad was part of that transition, forcing us to leave our beautiful garden state home and decamp to the armpit of America, Houston TX.
But this was a decision made at the executive level largely due to the Nixonian Southern Strategy combined with a national reorganization of Republican and Democrat aligned business interests. The downturn in the O&G economy made real estate in the Gulf Coast dirt cheap, while land prices in the New England area stayed relatively high. And the reorganization helped Reagnite voting coalitions finally flip states like Texas and Florida after decades of entrenched Dixiecrat control.
Nothing like that is shaping up in lower Manhattan specifically for the year 2026.
