New Yorkers who moved to low-tax Texas, Florida aren’t saving as much as they used to: report
New Yorkers who recently ditched the city for low-tax hot spots in Florida and Texas are finding the savings to be a lot less than they would have if they moved four years ago as the cost to rent or buy a home soars.
Rents and home prices in Miami have surged by around 40% since the pandemic, which sparked the Great Exodus from the Big Apple to the Sunshine State, as well as to Dallas and Austin in the Lone Star State, according to a study by financial information provider SmartAsset.
The result has been that New Yorkers earning $250,000 who moved to Miami last year ended up saving $88,036 — or 28% less compared to people in the same income bracket who moved to South Florida in 2019, the study found.
By comparison, those early settlers had saved $122,956, according to the data, first reported by Bloomberg News.
The two Texas cities that have seen explosive population growth in recent years also aren’t the bargain they once were, according to SmartAsset. A New Yorker earning $250,000 who moved to Austin in 2019 would have saved $154,564. Last year, however, that number declined 25% to $116,195.
New Yorkers in the same tax bracket who relocated to Dallas in 2019 saved $135,887. Last year, however, the savings fell 20% to $108,208.
The data also indicates that the rate at which cost of living is rising in Miami, Austin and Dallas is outstripping that of Manhattan.
From 2019 to 2023, rent in Manhattan has increased 3.3%, while home prices have jumped 29.3%. Meanwhile, the cost of energy and utilities has fallen 13.7% while the cost of gas is up 35.7%.
In Miami, rent has soared during that same period by 37% while home prices are up 43.7%, according to SmartAsset.
In that four-year span, the cost of energy and utilities in Miami rose 17%, while the price of gasoline is up 54.4%.
Austin’s rent prices have gone up 25.5%, while its home prices are up a whopping 55.6%. Its energy and utilities are 12.5% more expensive, while the gas prices have risen by 32.3%.
In Dallas, rent has actually fallen 1.1% but home prices are up 21.1%. Energy and utilities are 16.5% more expensive, while the price of gas has increased by 32.8%.
In 2023, New York State had the third highest income tax rate in the country, according to a study by TurboTax. Florida and Texas are among nine states that do not levy a state income tax.
But the surging demand for real estate have sent home prices soaring — causing a spike in the property tax rate in the Lone Star State, where longtime residents are feeling the pinch.
Florida, meanwhile, is in the midst of a property insurance crisis as residents paid a whopping 42% more for coverage last year compared to 2022.
Last year, Floridians paid on average $6,000 for home insurance — nearly three times the national average of $1,700.
“The fact that people continue to absorb increased costs of food, nightlife, culture and real estate means that this is a new normal,” Michael Martirena, a luxury real estate adviser with Miami-based firm Compass, told The Post.
Cities in the Sun Belt have been the beneficiaries of a population exodus from high-cost New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
According to census data, more than half a million people have left New York since 2020 — an outflow that was spurred by the coronavirus pandemic as well as a sharp decline in the quality of life throughout the Big Apple, which saw a spike in crime, homelessness and cost of living.
Last year alone, the New York metropolitan area lost 65,000 residents.
The census data also showed that LA shed 71,000 people last year while Chicago, the nation’s third-most populous metro area, lost 16,600 people.
The biggest beneficiaries of the population shift are towns in Texas, led by Dallas-Fort Worth and the Houston metro area.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area saw its population grow by 152,598 people last year while Houston’s population added 139,789 residents, according to the US Census.
