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florida

Florida Real Estate Seeing Major ‘Gold Rush’ From Wealthy Buyers 

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The state of Florida is currently experiencing what is being referred to as a “gold rush” in areas like Miami as wealthy upper class individuals are flocking to the state and buying lavish properties and condos the second they hit the market. 

Many of these new buyers are reportedly from New York, as reported by the Guardian as the “Mamdani effect” described as “the predicted exodus of wealthy New Yorkers in the wake of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor.”

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However, on the other end, as these millionaires and billionaires put more money into the economy, the middle and lower classes are being priced out on everything, including housing, insurance, gas, groceries, and more. 

Florida Atlantic University took a poll recently that showed at least half of the state’s residents were thinking of leaving due to the increased cost of living. 80% of the poll’s responders stated concerns over housing affordability. 

Eric Levy, senior business economist at FAU and co-author of the poll, stated that there is no genuine panic amongst residents at the moment, and leaning into the positive, would like to see how the American Dream continues to live on and how families plan to “better their circumstances.” 

The increasing housing costs has placed Florida into the top 10 most expensive states to live in. Miami and Fort Lauderdale have new condos that easily reach tens of millions of dollars, however both areas are considered to be “house poor.” 

A May 2025 report in the Miami Herald, said that between 2014 and 2024, Miami’s population of millionaires increased by 94%, with Miami-Dade county seeing a net migration deficit of over 130,000 people between 2020 and 2023, largely connected to rising housing prices.

“Floridians believe in the American Dream, but they are paying dearly for it,” Monica Escaleras, chair of FAU’s department of economics, said.

“The Florida promise of sun, growth and upward mobility remains alive, but it is getting expensive to hold on to.”

“It’s certainly thought provoking that if a lot of wealthy people are moving in, are they going to displace the lower income and middle income folks?” Levy asked. 

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“It’s definitely an interesting question. I don’t think that our data shows that, but I guess the shocking thing from our survey was that a lot of people were considering leaving Florida.” 

Residents who work in hospitals, schools, retail establishments, and other critical industries and services are priority, so there are several affordable housing projects currently in development in Miami. 

For example, Sebastian Lüdke, chief executive and founder of Germany’s ALP.X Group, is co-developing upcoming Cloud One Residences, which will consist of 85 loft apartments, a hotel, and retail and dining hubs in Miami. 

Lüdke said that he believes developers have a “moral obligation” to the communities they plan on building in. 

“The price point we’re setting starts around $400,000 to $500,000 so local people would definitely be able to afford living and buying in the building. But in general, the entire aspect of affordability in the city is an important one, and it goes beyond affordability and into livability,” he said.

“What is extremely important for Miami to evolve as one of the great three cities next to New York and Los Angeles is education, improving that from kindergarten to schools to universities.”

“With affordable and accessible education, a certain amount of upskilling of people takes place, which helps them get access to good jobs that will help them with affordability in the long run,” he said. 

“Also super important is investment in infrastructure, affordable housing, public transport, healthcare… with the growth that Miami has seen, and with the challenges Miami has with traffic, education, the availability of housing, this really needs to be a core focus for public administration and business people that contribute to investments in all these sectors.”

“My perception is that local people and business people are well aware of that.”

protest

Hundreds Of Millionaires And Billionaires Pen Open Letter For Higher Taxers On Worlds Wealthiest 

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Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries have called on global leaders to increase taxes on the world’s wealthiest individuals. The call to action comes from growing concerns that the globe’s richest people are buying political influence.

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In an open letter released in time to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, global leaders who would be in attendance at the event were called upon to close the large and widening gap between the mega-rich and the rest of the world. 

The letter was signed by notable figures such as actor and film-maker Mark Ruffalo, musician Brian Eno, and philanthropist Abigail Disney. It stated that extreme wealth is polluting politics, according to reports, and is driving social exclusion while further fueling the climate emergency.

“A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet.”

“What we treasure, rich and poor alike, is being eaten away by those intent on growing the gulf between their vast power and everyone else,” the letter read. 

“We all know this. When even millionaires, like us, recognize that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice.”

Forbes reported that after being re-elected as president last year, Donald Trump assembled the richest cabinet in US history, with an estimated joining worth of $7.5 billion as of August 2025. 

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The Patriotic Millionaires group, who campaign for higher taxes on the mega-rich, conducted a poll that found that 77% of millionaires from G20 countries believe that highly wealthy individuals buy political influence. 

The survey itself was taken by 3,900 people in G20 countries with more than $1 million in assets excluding their homes. It found that three-fifths believe Trump has had an overall negative impact on global economic stability. 

Over 60% of those surveyed also expressed their concern that extreme wealth was a threat to democracy, the Guardian reports. 

Two-thirds also supported higher taxes on the wealthy to further invest in public services with only 17% opposing. 

Oxfam, a development charity, reported this week that in 2025, a record number of billionaires were created, bringing the global total to over 3,000 for the first time ever. 

Amitabh Behar, the executive director of Oxfam International stated that “last year the rise in billionaire wealth was unprecedented.”  

“The super-rich are being given complete free rein. It is beyond comprehension that the richest 1% now own three times more than the world’s total public wealth combined.”

“It’s a stark indictment that illustrates just how nonsensical the gulf now is between oligarchs and the rest of humanity. Governments must implement taxes on the super-rich now and prioritize reducing inequality. The world cannot continue on this obscene trajectory.”

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Millionaires Protest In Front Of Jeff Bezos’s Homes In Support Of Taxing The Rich 

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A group of millionaires took to the streets this Monday to protest in front of properties owned by the richest man in the world, billionaire Jeff Bezos, in New York and Washington. 

The protest itself was organized by a group known as Patriotic Millionaires, which describe themselves as a “coalition of wealthy individuals who push for progressive policy changes.” The group planned to perform the protest on Tax Day (which was extended this year to land on May 17th) as a symbolic gesture, standing in solidarity with all the lower income Americans who filed and likely paid much more in taxes this year than Bezos and billionaires alike. 

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The group also emphasized their support of Joe Biden’s tax plan which would raise taxes for Americans making more than $400,000 a year. The tax hike would help pay for the president’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal and $1.8 trillion American Families Plan. 

Patriotic Millionaires, whose members earn incomes of more than $1 million or have assets worth more than $5 million, protested in front of Bezos’s homes with billboards reading “Cut the bullshit. Tax the rich.”

“We’re ending up with a few rich people and a lot of poor people and that doesn’t work. That’s not a way you can run a sustainable society.” 

Morris Pearl is the chairman of the Patriotic Millionaires board, who explained how while Besox himself said he supported raising corporate tax rates, Amazon has had a long history of avoiding taxes. In fact, according to calculations by the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “in 2020 Amazon only paid a 9.4% federal income tax rate, less than half the statutory 21%.

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The Biden administration currently is proposing to increase corporate tax rates from 21% to 28%, which would also partially reverse cuts pushed by former president Donald Trump. Until Trump and Republicans in Congress passed tax cuts in 2017, the top US corporate tax rate was 35%. 

Biden’s infrastructure plan would aim to fund childcare and free universal pre-school education, as well as programs to help rebuild, and construct new, transport systems and public-sector housing. 

“It makes much more sense to require the people who have clearly benefited the most from our system to reinvest a huge percentage of their excess wealth back into that system,” Erica Payne, president of Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement.

Protests were also scheduled to take place in front of the Washington home of the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, the New York office of the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and others.