The exodus of billionaires from the West Coast to Florida is underway as the ultra-rich seek refuge from wealth taxes in states like California and Washington.
Google co-founders Larry Page ($244 billion net worth) and Sergey Brin ($226 billion net worth) rushed to leave California last year before the Jan. 1 deadline for the state’s tax on billionaires. Both bought properties in Florida.
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Meanwhile, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, whose net worth is $3.4 billion, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth is $198 billion, also purchased real estate in the Sunshine State last month.
The tech moguls and Schultz join Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, Citadel founder Ken Griffin and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. All have purchased properties or moved their companies’ operations to Florida in recent years.
The rush for Florida real estate has been fueled, in part, by the proposed California Billionaires Tax Act, which, if passed, would charge billionaires residing in the state after January 1, 2026, a flat 5% tax on their entire wealth.
The project, which would reportedly affect around 200 people, seeks to raise $100 billion to fund health, education and food assistance. To go to the vote in November, the proposal needs to gather 875,000 signatures from California residents by June. Once on the ballot, a simple majority in the November election would be enough to pass it and amend the state Constitution to implement it.
But not everyone agrees. Many wealthy individuals in California have spoken out against the tax, including Brin, who donated $20 million to a political action committee promoting three alternative measures that, if approved by voters, could weaken or trigger a legal challenge to the tax on billionaires if it also passes. Thiel also donated $3 million to the California Business Roundtable, a group that opposes the tax.
There are also doubts about whether the project, even if approved, will reach the goal of raising US$100 billion. With Page and Brin leaving the state before January 1, as well as Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick moving to Texas, the tax could miss a quarter of its $100 billion goal, according to Fortune’s calculation.
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A rough estimate, using the 5% equity tax, indicates that Page owed about $13 billion and Brin about $12 billion. Already 5% of Kalanick and Thiel’s wealth would add around US$ 1 billion, raising the potential loss of revenue to approximately US$ 26 billion.
Still, California’s potential billionaire tax isn’t the only factor driving billionaires to migrate to the South. Washington state’s wealth tax may also have played a role.
Both Bezos and Schultz left Seattle before Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law a high-earning income tax that will charge 9.9% on income above $1 million.
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The tax aims to raise between $3 billion and $4 billion a year from the wealthy, while eliminating some sales taxes on items such as diapers and expanding funding for child care and healthcare.
Griffin, the group’s only former Chicago resident, left Illinois and moved Citadel to Miami in June 2022, after nearly three decades. At the time, he pointed to crime and city politics as reasons. Since then, Griffin and Citadel have together invested billions in the Florida real estate market.
Some of the reasons for the departure of billionaires are the attractiveness of Florida’s low taxes and pleasant climate. The state has no income tax or capital gains tax, and Miami in particular positions itself as a business-friendly alternative to high-tax cities in California and elsewhere.
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Billionaires who have moved to Florida also find it easy to buy in the state’s most exclusive areas and secure increasingly expensive beachfront properties.
Miami, in particular, is one of the most expensive luxury markets in the US. By 2025, more ultra-luxury homes will be sold in the city, according to the New York Times.
Although the average property price fell about 7% to US$610,000 in March, demand in the ultra-luxury segment is growing.
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Five years ago, no home in Miami sold for US$50 million, but in 2025, this type of sale will represent 7% of the market, the newspaper reported.
Mark Zuckerberg
The Meta co-founder and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have reportedly secured a $170 million beachfront mansion on the west side of Indian Creek Island, a man-made retreat for the ultra-wealthy located in Biscayne Bay, west of Miami Beach.
Zuckerberg’s property is just a few houses away from Jeff Bezos’ complex under construction and includes a gym, beauty salon and massage room, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Indian Creek, also known as “”, has only 41 residents and 24-hour security, which increases its exclusivity.
The property adds to Zuckerberg’s portfolio of properties in the US, including in Hawaii and Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Nevada, between Nevada and California.
Jeff Bezos
The founder and executive chairman of Amazon has purchased three multimillion-dollar properties on Indian Creek Island. The third richest man in the world acquired two adjacent plots of land on the west side of the island — which has just 41 residents — in 2022 and 2023, for US$68 million and US$79 million, with plans to unify them into a mega-complex.
Meanwhile, Bezos lives on the other side of the island, in a Mediterranean-style home purchased for around $90 million in 2024. In total, his properties cost more than $230 million.
Larry Ellison
Ellison turned a 6.5-acre oceanfront property in Manalapan, Florida, in Palm Beach County, into his primary residence earlier this year. The property, purchased for $173 million in 2022, is less than 10 miles from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Ellison is a major Republican donor and hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his estate in California’s Coachella Valley in 2020, according to SFGate.
Shortly after Trump’s inauguration last year, Ellison was at his side when, along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, he announced a $500 billion initiative called Stargate to invest in AI infrastructure in the US.
In 2024, Ellison purchased the Eau Palm Beach resort for $277 million, quickly moving forward with renovation plans and installing his favorite Japanese and Peruvian fusion restaurant, Nobu. Ellison also owns another oceanfront property in North Palm Beach, purchased for $80 million in 2021.
By moving his primary residence from Lanai, Hawaii, to Florida, before selling Oracle stock and receiving dividends, Ellison saved about $1 billion in taxes, according to Forbes.
Larry Page
With his purchases in recent months, Google co-founder and former CEO Larry Page has amassed more than $180 million worth of properties in the Sunshine State as he seeks to build his own mega-complex in Miami’s upscale Coconut Grove neighborhood.
He purchased two adjacent properties in late December and early January for $101.5 million and $71.9 million. One of the homes has 13 bedrooms and 15 and a half bathrooms. Page also purchased another property in the same area for $14.97 million in January, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
Sergey Brin
The co-founder alongside Page has also secured its share of Florida in recent months. The billionaire purchased a $51 million home on Allison Island near Miami Beach earlier this year, Business Insider reported.
The 1,000-square-foot property has seven bedrooms, an oceanfront pool and a private pier. The island has 24-hour security and fewer than 50 homes, according to Realtor.com.
Ken Griffin
Griffin made a splash when he announced the move of his hedge fund Citadel to Miami in 2022. But even before that, he had been expanding his real estate empire in Florida.
Over the past 10 years, it has invested $450 million in a 50,000-square-foot beachfront complex in Palm Beach County that, when completed, will be the most expensive home in the world, according to the New York Post.
The financier also purchased a $106.9 million complex in Coconut Grove in 2022.
In addition to Griffin’s personal acquisitions, his company, Citadel, is also reportedly investing billions in Miami real estate, including a 54-story downtown headquarters estimated to be worth $2.5 billion.
Peter Thiel
Although Peter Thiel’s presence in Florida is relatively more modest than that of other billionaires, he has purchased almost US$40 million in real estate in the Miami region.
In 2020, it acquired a complex made up of two houses for US$18 million on the Venetian Islands, artificial islands between Miami Beach and downtown Miami, in Biscayne Bay.
At the end of last year, Thiel Capital opened an office in Miami. Palantir also announced the transfer of its headquarters to the city in February.
Howard Schultz
Schultz and his wife, Sheri Schultz, bought a penthouse in Surfside, Florida, just north of Miami Beach, last month for $44 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The purchase was announced shortly after Schultz announced, in a LinkedIn post, that he would leave Seattle, where he lived for 44 years, to move to Miami.
The approximately 510 square meter property has five bedrooms, a rooftop terrace and a beachfront cabin, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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