Ultra-luxury home sales in Miami tops Bay Area, NYC on wealth flight

By Paulina Cachero, Bloomberg

Miami’s ultra-luxury real estate market is on track to shatter records in 2026, outpacing sales in New York City and the Bay Area as wealth continues to migrate to low-tax states.

In the first six months of the year, 24 condos and single-family homes closed for over $30 million in Miami-Dade county — the majority of which were purchased with cash, according to real estate data firm Analytics Miami. That’s nearly double the number sold during the same period last year and puts the market on track to surpass 2025’s record of 33 sales in that price range.

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The city, which saw just two sales above $30 million in 2019, became a top destination for wealthy people from New York and other northeastern cities during the pandemic. Although the Miami metropolitan area is now more expensive than greater New York City, it still attracts ultra-wealthy people fleeing tax-the-rich policies in some cities and states.

“People are recognizing that their previous places of domicile are seeing an increase in policies that are detrimental to their wealth and businesses,” said Ana Bozovic, founder of Analytics Miami.

New York, long a trophy market where the global elite have parked cash, is feeling the shift too. A pied-à-terre tax went into effect earlier this month, prompting some luxury home shoppers to hit pause on their search, brokers said. This year, Miami has inked more $30 million-plus home deals than the Big Apple, which has logged just 17 such sales in the first half of 2026, according to Olshan Realty’s luxury market report.

But it isn’t New York’s ultra-rich driving Miami’s surge, said Dina Goldentayer, an agent at Douglas Elliman who helped close a $32.5 million deal on a six-bedroom, 10-bathroom beachfront mansion in Golden Beach. The real acceleration has been fueled by wealthy California residents looking for a backup plan in the wake of the state’s proposed billionaire tax, which seeks a one-time 5% levy and will appear on the ballot this November.

The cohort includes billionaires Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, who all purchased Miami properties within a 60-day span this year. Brin bought a waterfront mansion on the ultra-exclusive Allison Island for $51 million in March. The property, previously owned by LVMH executive Michael Burke, includes a sprawling compound along the water with a pool and dock, public records show.

It’s a signal of demand that’s showing up in bidding wars and full-price closings. With a thin supply of luxury homes available, brokers say the market will continue to boom, though with ultra-rich buyers who often have five or six homes, it remains to be seen whether Florida will be their primary residence.

“This level of tech wealth is in a different stratosphere,” Goldentayer said. “There are such elite players now.”

–With assistance from Sophie Alexander.

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