New York City, despite its many trials and tribulations, remains the richest city in the world with 384,000 millionaires, according to Henley & Partners World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2025 – but some of them are packing their bags.
When state assemblyman and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the democratic primary for mayor in the heavily democratic city on June 24, soundly beating former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, it sent shock waves through the upper economic echelons in Manhattan.
“The amount of lifelong New Yorkers texting me [about a move to Florida] is close to shocking,” Nathan Zeder, a broker with the Miami-based powerhouse Jills Zeder Group, told the New York Post a week after the election. “People are frightened and over the next three to four months, we’re going to see a lot of people consider South Florida again – it’s going to be a COVID level of interest.”
“The Hamptons is basically in group therapy about the mayoral race,” veteran political fundraiser Robert Zimmerman told the New York Times at end of August. “Even overpriced lobster salad can’t seem to make people out here feel better.”
“We have heard from five New York City clients in the past six weeks looking for a home in Vero who specifically mentioned the political situation,” says Richard Boga, co-leader of the O’Dare Boga Dobson team at ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.
“We shifted more of our advertising dollars to New York after the primary, and we are networking with top agents we know in the city,” says Boga’s partner Cindy O’Dare. “They are telling us to buckle up and get ready for a flood of referrals.”
Mamdani, who is heavily favored to win in November, is running on a platform that includes rent control, free public transportation, raising the minimum wage and a 2-percent wealth tax imposed on New Yorkers earning $1 million or more annually.
“The new tax is the main issue that is motivating wealthy New Yorkers to move,” says O’Dare. “Many of them had one foot out the door already. They were already a little bit concerned about how things were going in New York and may have been planning a move to Florida in the future, but they wanted to stay for another four or five years for work or family reasons. Now that is not the case. They are telling us ‘I am out of here.’
“They want to move. They want six months and a day in Vero, and we have sold two houses to people in that group so far with new inquires coming in all the time.”
Boga says Jet Blue’s recent announcement that it will fly from Vero to JFK starting in December opens the door to a weekly commute for Manhattan buyers who want to keep working for a while longer, with three or four days each week on Wall Street or Madison Avenue and the rest of their time in Vero. Others may retire earlier than planned or arrange to work from a new home on the barrier island, where they will wake up to the sound of surf instead of sirens.
O’Dare says they heard the first rumblings of discontent well before the June primary.
“Clear back in February [as Mamdani’s campaign was gaining momentum], we heard from a very prominent New York surgeon and his wife who wanted to buy a home here, and there was some talk about politics and what might happen in the election.”
Since Mamdani’s primary win, the New York City and national press have been flooded with headlines like this one published July 17 on cnbc.com: “New York City braces for wealth flight with Mamdani’s political rise.”
But other publications and experts have downplayed the likelihood of a mass exodus of money and residents, discounting the migration talk as mere venting.
“People ask me if residents are really going to leave New York just because of who gets elected mayor,” says O’Dare. “I tell them, no, that is not the reason. That is just the straw that broke the camel’s back. They’ve been thinking about giving up the New York residency and establishing residency here for all the obvious reasons, and this is just the impetus to actually make the move.”
O’Dare says the longing to relocate from New York to Florida has not reached pandemic levels yet, but that it could if Mamdani wins on Nov. 4 – and oddsmakers keep upping expectations for that outcome. Betting sites have his chances of victory at 84 percent this week, up 10 percent since last month.
O’Dare and Boga plan a trip to New York shortly after the election, in part to capitalize on any new, post-election buyer momentum.
“We have been invited to an exclusive meeting for the top 100 Sotheby’s agents the second week in November,” Boga told Vero Beach 32963, noting that Sotheby’s has more than 26,000 agents worldwide.
O’Dare and Boga plan to use the trip to make their elite colleagues and other top New York brokers more aware of Vero’s virtues as a Florida destination and convince as many of them as possible that their $10-million and $20-million clients will be well taken care if referred to O’Dare Boga and Dobson.
O’Dare also sees potential for a knock-on effect that will send new clients north from Palm Beach and Miami at the same time as New Yorkers travel south to Vero.
“We are members of the Palm Beach MLS and put our top properties on that platform,” O’Dare says. “A lot of people down there have been thinking about moving up the coast for a while. With the fresh influx of wealthy New Yorkers coming to Florida, this may be the time when they decide to sell for a great price and come up here and buy something on the ocean or river for much less than they sold for.
“I think 2026 is going to be a great year for Vero Beach real estate.”
