“Whitehall,” the Henry Morrison Flagler Mansion, built in 1902 for the founder of Standard Oil, in Palm Beach, Florida (Dreamstime)

By Lee Barney  From Newsmax

With more than 100 Wall Street firms descending on South Florida in recent months, the median price of a single family home in Palm Beach soared to $14 million in September, a 117% increase from a year earlier, the New York Post reports.

By comparison, by all home types, the median sale price was up 1.8% to $2.15 million, according to Redfin data.

The median price of a single-family home in Miami rose 7.7% in September from a year earlier to $599,000.

As billionaires have continued to hightail it out of New York, the median single family home price in Manhattan has plummeted to $1 million, down 76% from a peak of $12 million in May 2021.

An analysis of the 2023 Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest by the Palm Beach Daily News found at least 57 billionaires with homes in Palm Beach. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average household income in Palm Beach is $169,000.

Some of the most notable magnates living in Palm Beach include Citadel hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman, cosmetics tycoon Ron Lauder, corporate raider Carl Icahn, and Cox media heiress Margaretta Taylor.

Florida became a draw for many New Yorkers for its relatively laxer protocols during the pandemic.

More importantly, Florida doesn’t charge a state income tax, and rents and home prices have been soaring in major U.S. cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and, last but not least, New York.

A professional earning $650,000 a year in Manhattan would save $195,000 by moving to Florida due to its lower taxes and cost of living, according to financial information provider SmartAsset.

Workers in that tax bracket would pay a 45% tax rate in New York, factoring in federal, state and local taxes. In Florida, that drops to 35%.

Even a person earning $150,000 a year would save nearly $50,000 by moving to Miami, according to SmartAsset.

The cost of living in Manhattan is an astronomical 137.6% above the national average.

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