In this solo commentary, TJ Walker examines the recent wave of billionaires and tech executives relocating from high‑tax states such as California to South Florida. He cites concrete purchases—Larry Page’s $170‑180 M Miami portfolio, Sergey Brin’s $51 M mansion, and Mark Zuckerberg’s $170 M Indian Creek compound—to illustrate the scale of the migration. Walker links the trend to California’s proposed one‑time 5 % billionaire wealth tax and similar ideas in Washington, arguing that such levies are unlikely to succeed because ultra‑wealthy individuals can easily change residency, own multiple homes worldwide, and exploit loopholes that let them avoid income tax altogether. He critiques the practicality of wealth taxes in a globally mobile era, while acknowledging the progressive intent behind them. The influx is reshaping South Florida’s luxury real‑estate market: waterfront lots now command $100 M, sales of $30 M+ homes have surged, and the state’s billionaire count rose from 110 to 123 in a year. Walker concludes that effective redistribution would require taxing consumption items favored by the ultra‑rich—private jets, yachts, high‑end services—rather than relying on residence‑based wealth taxes, which risk driving further flight.
Chapters
Billionaires flee California for Florida mansions. South Florida is rapidly becoming the new playground for America's ultra-rich. A growing number of billionaires and tech executives are leaving high-state, high-tax states like California and buying enormous waterfront estates in places like Miami, Palm Beach, and Indian Creek Island. Google co-founder Larry Page has reportedly spent more than $170 million on properties in the area. Fellow Google billionaire Sergey Brin recently purchased a mansion worth more than $50 million, and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly spent around $170 million assembling a compound on Indian Creek, sometimes called the billionaire bunker. Real estate agents say the surge is being fueled by Florida's lack of estate income tax, limited waterfront property, and growing concerns among wealthy investors about new taxes proposed in states like California and Washington. The result is a massive reshaping of the luxury housing market, with South Florida increasingly emerging as a rival to Silicon Valley and New York as a center of wealth and power. Okay, let's look at some of the facts here. This is all because of a proposed tax in California that would tax billionaires, and it would be not a hit that would decrease the quality of life for any of the billionaires, But it would result in many of them having to hand over billions of dollars, sort of a one-time tax to the state of California, and they don't want to do it. Now, I do think a case can be made for progressive taxation in any government. And arguably, the United States has become less progressive in its taxation policies when you factor in all the tax loopholes that people like a Jeff Bezos can get away with and Sergey Brin. I mean, if they have halfway decent accountants, they can get away with paying almost no tax. That's not kidding. You can say, well, the top rate is this and the wealthiest earners pay most income tax. It's true, but not among the absolute wealthiest. They can simply say they don't have income. They have stock that they haven't sold and they can live on loans. It's perfectly legal, but it means that the wealthiest of our society don't really have to pay tax. They might not walk around quoting Leona Helmsley all the time saying only the little people pay pay taxes, because that's not quite true either. The people who pay taxes are the people who make $500,000, $1 million, $2 million, $3 million a year. And they work on Wall Street or they're doctors and people like that. And hey, they're doing well. They're in the top 1%. But when you get to the top 0.0001%, no, they don't really have to pay taxes or beyond a tiny— So now not only California, but Washington State is looking at taxing billionaires. Here's the problem with this. While I am sympathetic to the direction of let's get the people who have benefited the most from society to pay a little more to try to even things out a little bit, soften the blow on the rest of the world, I'm sympathetic to that. As a practical matter, it's just too easy for really wealthy people to do what they're doing here. Declare official residence in another state. And if the United States gets to be too much, they can declare residency in Monaco or some other country where there's no income tax. So that's really the problem. When you have wealth of this level, you probably already had 10 homes in 10 different places. You probably already have homes in at least 3 continents. You have jets that can take you all over the place quickly, easily. This simply was not true in the income tax was created more than 100 years ago in the United States. Travel was difficult, time-consuming, dangerous, and you could, in fact, levy an income tax, even a wealth tax if you'd wanted to, and people would kind of have to pay it. As a practical matter, it just doesn't make much sense anymore because wealthy people could say, "Hey, I already pay taxes and I can live anywhere. Why don't I just pick this place. So that's really the problem. And those of you watching on YouTube, apologies, I had the wrong graphic up. Sorry about that. So we'll get to that story about the shoe size in just a moment. So let's look at some more facts. California's proposed a one-time 5% billionaire tax. So if you are someone like Larry Page and you're worth hundreds of billions of dollars, do you want to be 'Hey, I'm paying $10 billion in tax to the state of California,' or do you say, 'Hey, why don't I save $10 billion and I get a $100 million mansion or collection of mansions in Miami essentially for free? I'm being paid to move there.' That's kind of the outlook there. And, you know, it's always easy to be generous with other people's money. Scott Galloway says that, other people say that. I do tend to agree. Yes, I can make the case where we need a wealth tax, that the world has never had such income inequality as right now. And certainly in the United States, the income inequality is higher than it's been since the Gilded Age. Traditionally, that causes problems in society. It causes revolutions. There is an incentive to not have that much inequality. The question is, what's the solution? I don't think an income tax or a one-time wealth tax is going to solve the problem unless you have world government. If you had world government— and folks, don't get all excited, I'm not pushing for world government today— but if you had world government, and some economists like Thomas Piketty say that is what's needed, without a world government, it's too easy for wealthy billionaires to simply declare another part of the world their home and make their citizenship elsewhere. The money— there's so much money at stake. So let's look at some more facts of the case. Again, Larry Page spent $180 million on Miami properties. Sergey Brin, I guess he's a more modest fellow. He's somehow able to get by with a $51 million mansion in South Florida. Mark Zuckerberg has a whole estate, $170 million. And folks, I do live in South Florida as well. I do not live in a $170 million estate, but we're quite comfortable where I am in this part of Palm Beach County. And I did not move here because I was a billionaire, but I have to be honest with you and candid with you, taxation was not the main reason I moved from a high state tax like New York to a place like Florida that has no state income tax. It wasn't the top reason, wasn't the top 3 reasons. But if I'm candid with you, if I had to list 10 benefits to myself of moving from New York to a place like Florida, taxation was one of the 10 reasons. There's no doubt about it. So a lot going on here in South Florida. Florida had 123 billionaires at the year's start. That was up from 110 a year earlier. Now you can say, well, TJ, that's only 13 billionaires. That's more than 10%.. And people talk about billionaires like it's, you know, grass that grows everywhere. There are only a couple thousand billionaires in the entire world. So when 13 additional ones move to one little geographic area, it is somewhat significant. Miami-Dade sold one $30 million home in 2018, nothing above that. And it's, they sold 19 in 2025. So that's a huge, huge increase. We're now seeing, empty waterfront lots in South Florida selling for $100 million. The key places are Indian Creek, Star Island, beautiful place. I used to live right next door when I was living in South Beach, and Coconut Island— excuse me, Coconut Grove. These are all some of the prime places. So what are we to make of this? If you are a progressive, a liberal, a Democrat, and You're trying to create the world a little, make it a little fairer, have more progressive taxation. I sympathize with you. I really do. But a part of the standard you should have when analyzing any proposal is not just in theory, does it make you feel good if it worked out perfectly, but as a practical matter, will it work to create the intended effects? The intended effect here is to have more money for people of California. And if you're having a proposed wealth tax in California and creating a little more equality, well, this isn't going to do it because the billionaires are all leaving. So at some point you have to judge legislation by effectiveness. I think the only real solution is you're going to have to have higher taxes on things wealthy people like to spend money on: private aircraft, big yachts, professional services, nannies, butlers, maids, and it could be difficult taxing those things as well, but it's not quite as easy for the super wealthy to get out of that as it is to just saying, oh, you know what, I get 10 houses, let's pick this state as my new official residence. Because there is this thing that didn't exist in 1917. It's called the internet. It's called phones or phones that you can easily reach people all over the world essentially for free. That changes how localities can lock in their citizens because citizens can go anywhere. Business people can work from absolutely anywhere.
