Tax is the headline and the least interesting part. The move is about where capital, time zones, and families now line up.
Written for readers deciding whether the move is for them, and for the press, who ask the desk this most weeks. All notes from the desk.
The migration of wealth to Miami since 2020 is real, measurable in tax filings and school waiting lists, and widely misexplained. The usual answer is Florida's tax regime. That is true and it is the least interesting reason, because it was true in 2010 too. What changed is everything around it.
Florida has no state income tax, no state capital gains tax and no state estate tax. Federal tax applies as everywhere. For a household leaving New York City or California, removing the state and city layer is a large number, and for a founder or a fund principal facing a liquidity event, the timing of a move can matter enormously.
None of this is new. The tax code has been like this for decades. Tax explains why the move is affordable; it does not explain why it happened now.
The visible shift came when investment firms opened Miami offices, then moved principals, then moved headquarters. Once a critical mass of capital managers was here, the ecosystem around them, law, banking, family offices, followed. Brickell went from a banking district for Latin America to a financial district for the United States in about five years.
Technology came in a second wave, partly through venture capital and partly through founders who no longer needed to sit in one city. The pattern in both cases was the same: the first movers were mocked, the second movers were noticed, the third movers were simply moving.
Miami has been the safe city for Latin American wealth for forty years. Families from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina hold assets here, educate children here, and treat the city as a second home. That base is why the luxury market had depth before the domestic migration arrived, and why it is more resilient than a market dependent on one source of buyers.
The domestic arrivals and the Latin American base now share the same buildings, which changes who is next to whom in a way that suits both.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
Miami sits on Eastern time, which is the time zone of the U.S. capital markets and workable for London and for all of Latin America. A principal can trade New York hours, take a call with São Paulo without arithmetic, and reach London before its close. Los Angeles cannot do this. Dubai cannot do this.
The airport is a hub for the Americas and Europe. Private aviation is deep. For a family with business in three countries, Miami is often the only U.S. city that works logistically.
The Miami of 2010 had the tax regime and the weather and not much else that a family from Manhattan would recognize as a city. The last decade added schools that can compete, a restaurant scene that arrived with the New York chefs, cultural institutions, and a residential product, branded and architect-designed, that did not exist before.
That last point is the desk's territory. The buildings covered on this site, from Anantara in Edgewater to The Shore Club on the beach, are the housing stock built for this migration, and their existence is part of why it continues.
It does not tell you which neighborhood, which building or which line. Migration statistics describe a city; a purchase happens in a specific residence on a specific floor with a specific view and a specific developer. The wealthy families who arrived and were happy chose well at that level. The ones who were not happy did not.
The desk's work is at that level, and it is where a conversation with us starts.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
This note is general information for people considering Miami, written by a real estate desk, not by a law or accounting firm. Nothing here is legal, tax, immigration or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances. Rules change, treaties differ by country, and the right answer for one family is the wrong answer for another.
Speak with your own attorney and CPA before you commit to anything. If you do not have one who works with international buyers in Florida, the desk is glad to recommend an attorney, a CPA or an adviser suited to your situation, and to sit in the first conversation so that nothing is lost in translation.
Structure, financing, currency, timing, the right building and the right line: the desk works through these questions with international buyers every week, and the answer is nearly always that it can be done, in order, without surprises. If Miami is on your mind, as a home or as an allocation, we would be glad to share what we are seeing, privately, and to start with the question this note did not answer.