Several of the world’s wealthiest people have been shopping for and buying South Florida real estate in recent weeks, fueling speculation that a billionaire wave may be hitting the region.
A few tech billionaires, reportedly enticed by Florida’s business-friendly policies and spooked by a possible new tax in California, have been house hunting, and even making some big purchases. They’re checking out multimillion-dollar properties in Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove and other desirable locales.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had purchased a home in Indian Creek, a secluded island community off of Miami Beach.
And Zuckerberg isn’t the only Silicon Valley mogul interested in making South Florida home.
Google co-founder Larry Page recently made headlines by buying over $170 million worth of property in Coconut Grove, and Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, has reportedly purchased a house on Allison Island in Miami Beach. Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, has begun looking with his wife for a home in South Florida, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
A proposed tax in California may be driving those billionaires to leave the state. If approved, the one-time 5% wealth tax would apply to any California resident worth $1 billion or more.
Nathan Zeder, a broker-associate with the Jills Zeder Group, a leading luxury real estate brokerage in Miami-Dade County, said he’s been as busy lately as he was in 2021, when the pandemic caused surging demand for Miami real estate.
He said people can expect to continue seeing “exceptionally wealthy” people moving from California and New York to South Florida.
“I don’t anticipate the story dying any time soon,” Zeder said.
Last week, billionaires Ken Griffin and Stephen Ross announced plans to encourage more billionaires and business leaders to set up shop in the Sunshine State. Ross, who owns the Miami Dolphins, held up Florida’s low taxes, conservative politics and quality of life as reasons to move to the state during his remarks at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal in West Palm Beach on Feb. 2.
Griffin, the founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, moved his company from Chicago to Miami in 2022.
The billionaires have jointly contributed $10 million to the Ambition Accelerated initiative by the pro-business nonprofit The Florida Council of 100. Its website poses questions like, “What if your employees made 10% more every year?,” highlighting that Florida’s constitution prohibits imposing an income tax.
Ruthie Assouline, a real estate agent for the luxury brokerage Douglas Elliman, said that in the past few months she’s seen interest from “some of the biggest profiles in the world … people that have done game-changing things in their respective industries.”
But Ana Bozovic, broker and founder of Analytics Miami, said the recent house hunting doesn’t signal a new trend.
“I see it as a continuation,” she said.
Bozovic noted the migration of high net-worth individuals, which included some billionaires, began during the pandemic. In addition to Ross and Griffin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who spent some of his childhood in Miami, announced he was moving back to South Florida in 2023.
Yet, many tech entrepreneurs who moved here during that time returned to California or New York. Now, it’s possible that some may reconsider.
“The Google co-founders moving to Miami is going to have the Ken Griffin and Citadel effect” on the tech sector, said Jay Roberts, CEO of Prosper Group, a luxury condo development firm in Miami. “This is a watershed moment for Miami and a huge negative for California.”
Coinbase CEO Armstrong and his wife are early in their search process, and it might not materialize, said the individual familiar with the executive’s thinking. But the executive’s wife “really likes Miami,” the person told the Herald.
An email the Herald sent to Armstrong wasn’t answered. Separately, a Coinbase spokesperson replied “No comment” when asked about the real estate foray and whether an interview with the CEO could be scheduled.
Armstrong, born and raised in the Bay Area, is worth $7.4 billion, according to Forbes. He was No. 90 on the Forbes 400 in 2024. In 2021, he bought a mansion in Bel Air, one of Los Angeles’s wealthiest enclaves.
Nancy Batchelor, a Miami Beach real estate agent who specializes in high-end properties, said she’s seen an uptick in interest from ultra-high-net-worth buyers looking to move to Miami over the past few years. She said that interest has intensified in recent weeks. And once a few billionaires come to South Florida, Batchelor said she thinks more will follow.
“Birds of a feather flock together,” Batchelor said, “and we’ve got the seal of approval with some of the best and brightest business minds.”
Batchelor added that the recent surge has been largely driven by ultra-wealthy Californians looking to buy homes in the Miami area.
“I think this latest taxation possibility has really shaken them,” Batchelor said.
The concern is over a possible new tax on California billionaires, although it’s far from certain.
A union that represents health care workers has put forward a proposal that would levy a tax on any California resident worth $1 billion or more. The one-time 5% total wealth tax would retroactively apply to any billionaire who was living in California on Jan. 1, 2026.
Real estate, pensions and retirement accounts would be excluded from the tax.
According to the proposal, 90% of the money would be spent on health care services for the public. The rest would go to the administration of the wealth tax, education and food assistance. The union has estimated the tax would bring the state $100 billion in revenue. It says the money could offset the Trump administration’s cuts to healthcare funding.
Organizers of the proposal need to collect over 874,000 signatures in California, or 8% of registered voters in the last election, and have them verified by June 25. If they do so, then the idea becomes a ballot measure that goes before voters in November.
So far, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who doesn’t represent California, has been its most prominent backer. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with White House ambitions, said he opposes it.
The union doesn’t exactly have recent history on its side. It has lost three recent state referendums it put on the ballot in California, between 2018 and 2024, according to Ballotpedia.
The group also has been accused of advancing policies or measures as a way to pressure politicians.
The proposal has been met with outrage from some billionaires in California. Some of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures have been sounding off in a Signal group chat called “Save California,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Armstrong, the Coinbase CEO, hasn’t yet bought a house or left California, so he would likely still be affected if the tax does become a reality. It’s unclear how moving to South Florida now would help him avoid California’s potential new tax.
But the person familiar with the Coinbase CEO’s thinking said it’s part of a larger sentiment, shared by other tech executives, that wealth taxes may gain traction and support across the country. Florida then may be one place to escape that.
One major reason several tech executives have criticized the proposed California tax and potential future versions is that it could hurt startup founders early in their companies’ lives, because it includes private stock. Much of entrepreneurs’ wealth is on paper and goes up and down until they cash out, such as after their company holds an initial public offering, which usually doesn’t happen for years.
“Founders who haven’t even exited and got a liquidity event would be taxed,” said Roberts of the Prosper Group. “To have this huge tax bill could bankrupt them.”
It has also raised concerns over how and who would assess the value of private companies. Startup founders might then think twice about starting new companies in California.
To date, only a few California billionaires have gone public about leaving the state, and not all oppose the tax measure.
Jensen Huang, the 62-year-old CEO of Nvidia, told CNBC in January that, “We chose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it. I’m perfectly fine with it.”
Worth about $164 billion, according to Forbes, he’d incur a tax bill possibly as high as $8.2 billion.
“I’ve got to tell you, I have not even thought about it once,” he told CNBC. “We work in Silicon Valley because that’s where the talent pool is.”
South Florida’s luxury housing market seems to reflect surging interest from wealthy buyers.
In January, a seven-bedroom, seven-bath house, 6,549-square-foot house at 6620 Allison Road was sold for $21 million. The property had been owned by dermatologist Arthur Weissmann and his wife Trudy Harris. Miami-based Jordan Karp with Jordan Karp LLC represented the buyer and seller.
The buyer, who has not been disclosed, will have a notable neighbor. The house is next door to 6596 Allison Road, the property with two lots reportedly purchased by Google co-founder Brin.
Last week, another home on Allison Island, a seven-bed, nine-bath originally listed at $36.9 million, sold. Neither the buyer’s identity, nor the final price of the 10,362-square-foot home at 6480 Allison Road, has been revealed.
Dina Goldentayer, a real estate with Douglas Elliman, just listed a new seven-bed, 14-bath home in Golden Beach for $88.5 million. She said so far she’s shown the 17,507-square-foot house exclusively to California billionaires, some of whom told her they’re “frightened of the proposed wealth tax.”
The California Legislature’s Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor, part of the California Legislature Analyst’s Office, has analyzed the initiative and found it would raise less revenue than the organizers claim. The analysis said the state would only collect “tens of billions of dollars from the wealth tax.”
It also found California would likely see a drop in state income tax as a result of losing wealthy taxpayers. That would mean less money for the state’s general budget, which funds education, health care, prisons and other services, it wrote.
“It is likely that some billionaires decide to leave California. The income taxes they currently pay to the state would go away with their departure,” the report said.
Meanwhile, Assouline is currently showing a 6,350-square-foot beachfront home on Atlantic Way in Miami Beach listed at $40 million. She said the majority of interested buyers have been from California. Overall, Assouline said she’s seen a surge of interest from California buyers in recent weeks, some of whom have told her the proposed tax is what “pushed them over the edge,” she said.
But Assouline said it’s not just taxes, and it’s not just Californians. She said she’s talked to ultra-rich buyers from New York and other parts of the country who are looking to buy South Florida real estate. Batchelor said she’s also seen a lot of interest from wealthy people leaving Chicago.
And while some do cite taxes as a primary reason for leaving their home states, Assouline said many are more “lifestyle driven.”
“Florida is attracting a much wider net of ultra-high-net-worth people,” said Assouline.
