\u201cThere is genuine interest from New York: Many wealthy individuals are already here, and more are considering it,\u201d said Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the high-net-worth executives relocating have existing leases, young children in schools, and major personal and business ties \u2014 meaning they\u2019re not going to make rash, election-driven moves overnight. It will take some time,\u201d she added. \u201cThe New York mayoral effect is real but it will be gradual and not a lightning bolt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where people might live<\/p>\n
The South Florida home sales market snapped back to life in October as mortgage interest rates dipped. Sales rose 10.2% and the median sales price went up to $648,000 in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, according to the Florida Realtors trade group. Condo sales were also up 7.1% for the month, but the median price dipped by 1.5% to $330,000.<\/p>\n
Billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross<\/a> would like to see new arrivals land at one of his many upscale high-rise properties in downtown West Palm Beach, a metropolitan center he personally envisions and promotes as a \u201cmodel city\u201d that can rival New York and San Francisco.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question \u2014 the net migration story to Florida is real,\u201d Jordan Rathlev, executive vice president at Related Ross, said in an interview. But he reminded a questioner that people from California, Illinois and Massachusetts are also in the mix, driven south by higher costs of living and\/or political climates that many find unpalatable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very pro-growth, pro-business approach,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile others have tried to stymie\u00a0 growth, West Palm Beach and Florida have embraced it.\u201d<\/p>\n But everyone who moves south won\u2019t have the means to live in the lap of waterfront luxury.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge is still the housing prices and supply,\u201d Smallridge said. \u201cAs employers relocate or expand, their number one concern is the cost of housing for their mid- to lower-level employees. Many of the units being produced remain at higher price points.\u201d<\/p>\n David Deutch, president of Pinnacle, a multi-family developer based in Miami, called the South Florida market a \u201ctale of two cities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe luxury market, in my estimation, is overbuilt,\u201d he said. There remains a substantial appetite for affordable and workforce housing to support lower income residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re building, but not at the pace we could,\u201d he said. \u201cThose units require assistance and therein lies the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Joshua Brandsdorfer, a commercial real estate lawyer with the Berger Singerman law firm, said \u201dmulti-family continues to remain strong in South Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Palm Beach and Broward counties \u201care reaping the benefits of the urban spiral\u201d from the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut tri-state area. But new residents are moving up Interstate 95 from Miami, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see that in 2026 slowing down,\u201d Brandsdorfer said.<\/p>\n \u201cI also think with all of the expanded development on the commercial side, it\u2019s forcing municipalities to think more about how to create that sense of place,\u201d he added, where families and friends can socialize and truly think of their buildings and neighborhoods as home.<\/p>\n Most out-of-towners with designs on South Florida will be high net-worth individuals, and as a group, any moving will be undertaken over time, said Ryan Greenblatt, a broker associate with Lang Realty in Boca Raton and an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University. He told a recent real estate and finance conference at the school\u2019s College of Business that the median price of a home in Boca Raton is $900,000.<\/p>\n Greenblatt told the Sun Sentinel that moving from one region to another is not as easy as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Florida loosened its social movement restrictions and big Northeast cities remained largely closed for business.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s as simple as it was during COVID to pick up and move,\u201d he said. \u201cPart of the reason we had a mass influx so quickly is that everything was shut down; moving was easy. That\u2019s not the case now. Kids have to go to school. People have to go to work. It\u2019s not so simple to pick up and move your life.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the high net-worth individuals, who are less encumbered by family and related responsibilities, \u201cwho will have the easiest way of picking up their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re not coming to retire. Many work in the lucrative financial industry. More than 300 hedge funds and private equity firms are located in the county, he said. And they\u2019re not all from New York.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re coming from California,\u201d Greenblatt told the FAU audience. \u201cIn the last five years, both of my neighbors on both sides of my house are from L.A.\u201d<\/p>\n As with condos and mixed-use developments, new offices are on the rise in Palm Beach County, though less so in Broward, largely to house the continuous flow of financial and professional service workers flowing into the area. Post-COVID, observers note, most employers want their employees back in the office, not spending most of their time at home.<\/p>\n Between Ross and other developers, Smallridge noted that more offices are under construction or have been recently completed.<\/p>\n \u201cRelated Ross has two Class A office buildings going on Fern Street\u201d in West Palm Beach, she noted, \u201cwhile Gatsby [Florida] is proposing a 200,000 square foot Class A building for Palm Beach Gardens. Compson Development is proposing a 150,000 square foot Class A office building for Boca Raton on Federal Highway.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is close to 800,000 to 1 million square feet in the pipeline,\u201d Smallridge added. \u201cFrom the tours we have conducted, high-quality offices will likely continue to be in demand, especially from finance, tech, and wealth management firms relocating from New York.\u201d<\/p>\n Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the economic development agency for Broward County, said he\u2019d like to entertain larger firms with a need for 50,000 square feet if the area had the space to offer.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have anywhere to put them right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Swindell is eagerly awaiting the completion of the mixed-use FAT Village high-rise complex in Fort Lauderdale\u2019s Flagler Village section, which has ballooned into a neighborhood of high-rise apartments and hotels.<\/p>\n \u201cWe definitely need that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe market is able to absorb that.\u00a0When they get to their occupancy number they will get to phase two,\u00a0 which will add another 270,000 square feet.\u201d<\/p>\n He said a strength in Broward is the industrial sector, which is home to a number of manufacturing firms, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously with the number of people relocating we experienced from the pandemic through today, we\u2019ve seen it slow down,\u201d Swindell said. \u201cBut there is still so much to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he recently hosted a group of prospects from Orange County, California, on an Intracoastal Waterway boat outing to show off Fort Lauderdale. The conversation focused on California\u2019s high tax structure and \u201cbarriers to business.\u201d<\/p>\n Swindell said he and his guests also discussed Broward\u2019s status as a home to multiple companies in the aviation and pharmaceutical industries.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had no idea our aviation is as strong as it is,\u201d he said, adding there is considerable industrial capacity for manufacturing firms to occupy in Sunrise and Coral Springs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that unused capacity, though, that is likely to curb construction of new space in 2026, said Ed Easton, founder and chairman of The Easton Group of Miami, a commercial real estate brokerage, management, marketing and investment firm that operates across South Florida and elsewhere in Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s going to build anything new next year,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the cost of construction and interest rates and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, leasing \u201cis picking up\u201d to fill empty spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of product out there,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople [owners] are going to take discounts to rent it. But they\u2019ve had a hell of a run.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime he, too, sees a near-term future of inbound migration.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money coming here from New York and bad states like California and New York are helping us a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting real substantial people coming into the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Dustin Ballard, managing director of Colliers, the commercial real estate services firm, said the office, industrial and retail segments of the industry are \u201cpretty healthy for South Florida and I anticipate that to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are paying close attention to what\u2019s going on in New York with the result of that election,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve taken more of a cautiously optimistic approach. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be an absolute flood of people coming to South Florida. We\u2019re going to continue to see some of the migration from other parts of the country as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was a product of migration from California to South Florida,\u201d Ballard added. \u201cI think we will see a lot of that. Whether it\u2019s wholesale businesses moving south setting up shop or satellite locations \u2014 I expect that to continue into 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Ballard also speaks in superlative terms when describing the emergence of the office markets in Palm Beach County, calling it \u201cespecially exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to the lease that ServiceNow, the publicly traded artificial intelligence platform, recently signed with Related Ross to locate an innovation hub and AI Institute at 10 CityPlace in West Palm Beach, an operation expected to generate 850 jobs over the next five years.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of tidbits of information to be really excited about that I expect to continue across our region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In Fort Lauderdale, he cited the FAT Village project as a major step \u201cbecause there really hasn\u2019t been a ton of new construction in Broward and that is one thing that has held this market back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that will start coming to fruition,\u201d he said. \u201cAs FAT Village gets online I expect to see Broward to pick up some [with] the same velocity Miami and Palm Beach has had.\u201d<\/p>\n Ballard also noted the February acquisition of 350 and 450 Las Olas Boulevard by Bradford Allen Capital, which plans to spend $25 million for a \u201csignificant renovation.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s critical, he added, for employers to create an elevated quality of life<\/a> for employees \u2014 a life that includes workplace amenities that supersede the standard fitness centers and conference rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a quality-of-life decision you have to make as a business owner,\u201d Ballard said.<\/p>\n![\"Developer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tfl-l-boca-govt-campus-develop.jpg\")
Billionaire developer Stephen Ross, shown making an unsuccessful pitch for a Boca Raton city campus project that went to another firm, is the driving force behind new office and residential projects that are helping to draw new residents and corporations to West Palm Beach. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel file)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TFL-L-One-Boca-revisions-01.jpg\")
A rendering shows Memorial Park Promenade, a prominent facet of the newly revised government campus redevelopment plan in Boca Raton near the city’s Brightline station. For out-of-state residents contemplating a move to the city, the price is likely to be lofty, brokers note. (One Boca\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n![\"Scott](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tfl-l-fau-real-estate-panel1.jpg\")
Scott Hughes, managing director for data research at commercial real estate loan provider Trimont, speaks during \u201cUnlocking the Future of Real Estate,\u201d part of the second annual Boca Raton Finance and Real Estate Conference at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton on Nov. 13, 2025. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nWhere people might work<\/p>\n