Fleeing their future, the Californian emigration awakens the great 'gold' of Florida.
As the cost of doing business and the cost of living continue to rise in the Golden State, South Florida is reaping the benefits as tech professionals and other wealthy business owners find a safe financial haven in the Sunshine State.
California's economic risks of self-harm have reached fever pitch by 2026.
Saddled with record gasoline prices, a $31 billion transportation deficit and a multibillion-dollar wealth tax heading into the November election, the Golden State is seeing an unprecedented exodus.
It's no longer just a staff-class aircraft; California's elites are being targeted by pro-business states, prompting billboards to tell Angelenos they should “move to Miami, where they won't be prosecuted for excessive wealth.”
As high-net-worth buyers cut their ties to the West Coast for good, urban and real estate experts warn that the developing enclave is “careing for a very tough time,” leaving an empty middle class behind to pay off the debt.
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“We started to see migration. It was concentrated among poor, working-class people who were responding to changes in the economy and prices. Increasingly, the people who are moving are wealthy,” Chapman University professor Joel Kotkin told Fox News Digital. “And that means they're taking their tax dollars with them. So states like Florida and Texas are benefiting a lot from this kind of trade, both from New York and California in particular. So one of the things it's going to do is put pressure on the rest of the middle class to bail out.”
California's move to Florida has reaped rewards for some, while others at home in the Golden State face mounting cost and regulatory pressures. (Getty Images; Stock)
“The fact that you're paying more in taxes than you take home every year is crazy to me,” said RIVANI President and founder Robert Rivani, who moved his family and real estate company from LA to Miami in 2020. [didn’t] they had such a great increase in crime. You pay all this money, but why?”
“It's really sad,” said Cory Weiss of Douglas Elliman. “Some people have no choice but to leave.”
California is facing a critical situation with a multibillion-dollar transportation funding gap, high energy costs, an upcoming November ballot measure for a controversial tax bill and staggering exodus numbers — including Los Angeles County losing more than 54,000 residents in one year.
The 'Big Money Show' analyzes new data showing Los Angeles County has lost tens of thousands of residents, with fewer people arriving to replace them.
In addition, Weiss argued that allowing the delay has slowed rebuilding efforts, saying that about 25% to 30% of Palisades and Eaton fire victims will rebuild while the majority will leave. The deciding factor is usually not desire, but rather the calculations surrounding insurance disputes, labor shortages, permitting delays and rebuilding costs.
The “final nail in the coffin” for Rivani – who helped move the company from California to Florida for Playboy and “Shark Tank” investor Daymond John – was losing his home in Malibu to the last wildfire: “I thought California was going to communism… that's why I decided to move to Florida, I said, 'I'm done with it.'
Florida has been a major beneficiary of immigration from high-tax states, attracting billions of dollars in luxury real estate investment from figures including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison. The shift coincides with a broader national trend that has seen nearly $1 trillion in assets under management move from states like California and New York to Sun Belt states, according to industry estimates.
As labor and energy costs rise in California, small business owners say the Golden State's minimum wage laws and gas tax are hampering their operations.
It's the kind of “gold rush” that Douglas Elliman's No. 1 agent in the entire country, Dina Goldentayer, is using. He launched billboards across Los Angeles with his face and a $79.5 million listing that read: “Your fortune is wanted. Move in with me. #MoveToMiami.”
“Obviously there's a little irony there. The house on the board is my $79 million listing in Golden Beach, so there's definitely a target market for that billboard,” Goldentayer told Fox News Digital. “The calls I get are mostly from people who are already in my network, top sellers in LA, in the Beverly Hills market with whom we share a good laugh about the message of the billboard. My clients who I already work with think it's great.”
“Every buyer over $30 million that I'm currently working with is from California… It started at the end of the year when the founders of Google were buying a property in Miami,” he added. “As for the highest net worth people, the billionaires, it's clear that they don't feel wanted in the blue states. They're not wanted in Manhattan and Los Angeles and similar markets. So it's a sign that Florida wants you.”
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“There is no income tax here, zero. It's still a booming economy,” Rivani said in Florida. “Yes, you tax people in California and New York over 50%, and the economy keeps collapsing and people keep fleeing. So taxing the rich and getting nothing out of it, not just for the rich but the economy and the people, themselves, is a zero-sum solution. It doesn't work.”
Goldentayer sends a message to Angelenos: Your wealth is needed in Miami.
“My whole family is still in California. We left our whole family. My parents don't see their grandson that we had here in South Florida. So it hurts not being able to have those close moments with your family,” Rivani continued. “However, at the end of the day, I had to say enough is enough, and I had to think for the benefit of my family and their future. And if I see that something might happen. [for] coming back or changing in the near future, I would have stayed and stuck. I just don't see that happening.”
“If you're really going to keep a low welfare state, which is where California is going,” Kotkin warned, “you're going to have to tax hell on the middle and upper levels, because that's where the money is. And I think that's what's going to happen next.”
“Part of the problem is that you're paying these costs that you can't choose … Whether the wealth tax passes or not, I don't think it's going to make a big difference either way, but what if you're a business owner, what are they going to get next?” the professor increased. “You have a legislature that is completely controlled by public servants. So, the public servant is in their position to tax the people as much as possible. The problem is that no one has explained that eventually, you run out of money, and eventually there will have to be some kind of cutbacks. I think California is going through a very difficult period right now, and I don't see it in the future.”
Fox News Digital gets a tour of Indian Creek Village from Julian Johnston of the Corcoran Group, who shows why the world's wealthiest choose to move to the most exclusive neighborhood.
Weiss saw a similar decline, arguing that California's favorable weather may not be enough to support the housing market, despite remaining optimistic about the number of fire victims' homes he helped relocate.
“We've had people say, 'Okay, we're going to go back,' and then they start the construction process, and they say, 'You know, I can't do it. It's very sad. It's not the same community,'” Weiss points out. “My clients are very close, they were lucky enough to buy another house, but they were going to rebuild and they have a lot of space, they decided not to rebuild… It's still painful for people. People are recovering and repairing, but it's emotional.”
“I invite Mayor Bass or Gavin Newsom [hop] I got into my car and went to live in some of these families' living rooms to see what they were dealing with financially. I'll be more than happy to sit down,” said the agent. “These are not just high-profile issues.”
As Californians continue to grapple with the Golden State's financial crisis, community leaders in Los Angeles County are advocating for political change to rescue struggling locals under financial pressure.
Mayor Karen Bass' office did not respond to multiple interview requests from Fox News Digital. Although Gov. Newsom, who is not running for re-election this year, has spoken out publicly against the proposed billionaire tax and was reportedly left sick when he heard about the outflow of his empire's wealth.
“I feel a great sense of loss and disappointment that I can't really raise my daughters to live in California. I think it's a very sad thing to see a place where, when I arrived in 1971, this was the place to be,” said Kotkin. “I think we're eating our own seed corn. We're not the destination for global talent the way we used to be… Even if the California Dream is over, I still think it's not certain. But I think the state has to make real changes. First, we have to get away from the current climate… Unless there's some kind of big change and most of them will continue to change extreme poverty, and I think most of them will continue to change poverty. That's a disaster and I think it's a violation of that it's what California is all about.”
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Rivani's office on Michigan Avenue will be the new home of Playboy's global HQ and the offices of “Shark Tank's” Daymond John.
“Everybody keeps telling me, California has to come back. Has Detroit ever come back? Has Minnesota ever come back?” Rivani said at his $100 million Class X office he is preparing to open in Miami Beach. “Our gas prices are a fraction of the cost of California. Our cost of living is still cheaper than California, but best of all, whether you're low-income or high-income, you pay zero taxes. That puts more money in your family's pocket every day.”
“I think this is just the beginning of the gold rush in Miami. I think it's just the beginning of the gold rush in all of South Florida,” Rivani said. “There is no such thing [California] that makes me want to invest in such a situation and, I mean, unless there is a complete disruption of the financial beliefs of that economy, I can't do it.”
“Just call the U-Haul company, get your butts in the truck, and get your asses out of here because you're going to miss the gold.”
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