New Yorkers watched Zohran Mamdani take office in January and start planning city-owned grocery stores and a nearly 10% property tax hike.
Now the media is running headlines claiming Miami is more expensive than New York.
But some very smart developers just named Zohran Mamdani as Florida’s best salesman.
The number Bloomberg buried in paragraph six is the one that changes everything.
The Tax Math Nobody in New York Wants You to Do
Ryan Shear, the managing director of PMG, didn't mince words about why Florida wins on pure math.
"The effective tax rate in New York, if you're in the top tax bracket, is somewhere between 50 and 55%," Shear told Fox News Digital. "There's no state income tax and no city tax here. The top tax bracket is set by the federal government, that's it. If anybody would tell you different, it's not an opinion – that just factually is the truth."
He's right.
New York City residents pay a combined state and city income tax rate of 14.776%.
That's New York State's 10.9% top rate stacked on top of the city's 3.876% resident surtax.
Florida charges zero.
Run the numbers on a $500,000 income and you're looking at roughly $55,000 per year in pure savings by moving to Florida.
Over ten years, that's $550,000 – before a single dollar of investment return on the retained capital.
At $250,000, you save approximately $24,000 a year.
That's $240,000 over a decade.
That's not a lifestyle choice.
That's math.
The Bloomberg Headline That Missed the Actual Story
Here's the report that set off the media hand-wringing: a Bloomberg analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis data found that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area now costs more to live in than greater New York.
The numbers are real.
Florida's average homeowner's insurance premium is $8,292 – roughly four times the New York state average.
South Florida home prices have jumped 79% since the pandemic.
Consumer prices across the region have risen 36% since 2019, the second-highest surge among major American markets.
https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/2086943422753996806?s=20
Every word of that is true.
Here's what Bloomberg didn't put in the headline: New York lost approximately 119,000 net domestic residents in the year ending July 2025.
Florida added nearly 197,000 net new residents in the same period.
In 2026, one in every five moves tracked from New York City ended in Florida.
People voted with their feet – and they didn't vote for New York.
Danielle Naftali, EVP of the Naftali Group, explained what the price surge actually represents: "Miami has earned a seat as one of the greatest cities in the world. As people have migrated down here, made it a location that people are living permanently, obviously, things have become a bit more expensive."
That's not a warning sign.
That's what success looks like.
Mamdani Is Doing Florida's Marketing for Free
Zohran Mamdani – a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America – took office in January 2026 with a plan to raise taxes on businesses and high earners, build city-owned grocery stores, and have New York compete directly against private housing developers.
His DSA co-chair has publicly called for abolishing the Senate, abolishing ICE, and abolishing prisons.
Apollo Global Management – one of the world's largest private equity firms – began exploring a second headquarters in Florida or Texas within months of Mamdani taking office.
The Dallas mayor predicted an "avalanche" of financial firms relocating from New York.
Business leaders inside the city told the New York Post they are privately "looking for exit strategies."
https://twitter.com/FLVoiceNews/status/2087532180721299824?s=20
One unnamed executive put it plainly: "This might be an inflection point because NYC is already a welfare state supported by very few people at the top who can leave."
When those people leave, they take the tax revenue with them. Between 2018 and 2022 alone, more than 150,000 New York residents moved to Florida – taking approximately $14 billion in income with them.
Mamdani's response to questions about millionaires fleeing?
He doubled down on taxing them more.
The People With the Most to Lose Are Already Gone
PMG moved its primary headquarters from New York to Miami.
Shear isn't speculating about which city offers better value.
He's made the call with his own company.
"We've reached a tipping point where you're seeing companies… planting their flag in Miami and building companies or taking their existing company and moving them to Miami," Shear said. "I still think it's a bargain play down here."
His argument isn't that Florida is cheap the way it was cheap in 2015.
His argument is that Florida is cheap relative to what you get – and relative to the alternative.
West Palm Beach saw its millionaire population grow 112% over the past decade.
Miami's grew 94%.
New York City's grew 40%.
The people with the most money to protect – and the most to lose to taxes – are choosing Florida at nearly three times the rate they're choosing New York.
Florida's constitution explicitly prohibits a state income tax.
Changing that requires a 60% vote of Florida residents.
It's not changing.
New York elected a mayor already planning a 9.5% property tax hike.
The Bloomberg analysis asked the wrong question entirely.
The right question isn't whether Miami costs more than New York.
The right question is whether you'd rather pay Florida's insurance bill or New York's socialism bill.
Mamdani answered it for you.
The billionaires already did.
Sources:
- Kristen Altus, "Is Miami Really Costlier Than New York City? Why Top Developers Say the Math Still Favors Florida," Fox Business, August 2026.
- "NYC vs Florida Taxes 2026: NYC Hidden 3.876% City Tax = 14.776% Total vs FL 0%," CountryTaxCalc, May 2026.
- "Dallas Mayor Predicts 'Avalanche' of NYC Financial Firms Fleeing New Socialist Policies Under Mamdani," Fox Business, January 2026.
- "Mamdani's Latest Tax Pledge 'Makes No Sense' and Will Only Exacerbate Florida 'Exodus': Former Mayor," Fox News, May 2026.
- "New York Property Owners Flee Over Mamdani's 'Socialist Housing' Agenda," VOR News, May 2026.
- "NYC In Crisis: Business Leaders Now Begging Billionaires Not to Flee the City," RedState, May 2026.
- Alexander Hall, "Ex-New Yorkers Reveal Why They Joined the 150K Strong Exodus Fleeing NYC for Florida," Fox News, May 2025.
