NEW YORK TO SOUTH FLORIDA
Moving from New York
to Miami
This is the most established relocation route into Miami and the one I work most often. It is also the one where buyers arrive best informed and where the mistakes are the most expensive, because New York does not let residents go quietly. Here is the substance, including the residency audit problem nobody mentions until it is too late.
The tax math, honestly
New York City residents face the highest combined state and local income tax rate in the country. The state tops out at 10.9%, and the city adds up to 3.876% on top, producing a combined marginal rate of 14.776% before federal tax enters the picture.
Florida has no state income tax and no local income tax.
New York also taxes capital gains as ordinary income with no preferential rate. For anyone selling a business, a partnership interest, or a large concentrated position, that single fact is often larger than every other number in the decision.
Living in Westchester, Long Island, or New Jersey changes the arithmetic but not the direction. You escape the city surcharge but still carry a state rate well above zero.
I am a real estate agent, not a tax advisor or attorney. Everything here is general information and figures change. Confirm your own position with a CPA before making a move based on tax.
The residency audit problem
This is the part I want New Yorkers to take seriously, because it is where this move goes wrong.
New York audits departing residents more aggressively than almost any other state. Buying in Miami is not the same as leaving New York. If you keep an apartment in the city and spend meaningful time there, the state can and does argue you never left.
The tests are about days and about domicile, and both matter. Where your family lives, where your things are, where your dentist is, where you vote, where your cars are registered, where your business is run from. Auditors look at all of it, and at phone records and card statements.
None of this is a reason not to move. It is a reason to do it deliberately, with a CPA involved before the calendar year you intend to change residency rather than after. The people who get hurt are the ones who treated Miami as a second home for two years and then claimed it had been primary all along.
Property taxes and what actually improves
New York City’s property tax on condos and co-ops is comparatively low on paper, but the picture changes once you add common charges, and co-op maintenance in particular can be a serious monthly number.
Florida’s Homestead Exemption removes $51,411 of assessed value for 2026, and the Save Our Homes cap limits annual assessment increases to 3% or CPI, whichever is lower. The statewide effective rate is around 0.86%, with Miami-Dade above that.
The structural advantage is the cap. In a market appreciating like Miami’s, a 3% ceiling on assessed value growth compounds meaningfully over a decade. Nothing in New York works that way.
Also worth tracking: CS/HJR 1F reaches Florida voters on November 3, 2026 and would raise the homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 with 60% approval.
Where you live now, and where you would live here
The most useful question I get asked is not about price. It is “what is the Miami version of my neighborhood.” Here is my honest answer for New York.
Bal Harbour or Indian Creek
Discreet, established, and quietly expensive. Bal Harbour is the oceanfront condo version with the shopping to match; Indian Creek is the estate version.
The most direct match. Low-rise in feel despite the towers, genuinely walkable, restaurant-dense, and residential in a way that surprises people given the address.
Sunset Harbour or Coconut Grove
Smaller scale, tree cover, and a neighborhood that residents are protective of. Sunset Harbour is the walkable version; the Grove has the canopy.
Family-oriented, architecturally consistent, good schools, and a real neighborhood identity separate from the city centre.
Wynwood, Edgewater, or Little River
Formerly industrial, now not. Wynwood is furthest along, Edgewater has the bay and the towers, Little River is earliest.
Dense, vertical, and built around where people work. The only part of Miami where you can genuinely live without a car.
Golden Beach, Gables Estates, or Star Island
The weekend house becomes the house. Golden Beach for oceanfront, Gables Estates and Star Island for guard-gated waterfront estates.
What your money actually buys
Better than New York on space, roughly equal at the very top on price.
A Manhattan budget goes considerably further here on square footage, outdoor space, ceiling height, and parking. Miami’s high-end inventory is also far newer, since much of it was built after 2015 while much of Manhattan’s was not.
Where the gap closes is at the top of the waterfront market. Miami Beach and Star Island trophy property now trades at numbers that would not embarrass a Fifth Avenue co-op, and the buyer pool is genuinely international.
One New York-specific advantage: no co-op board. Florida condo associations conduct approvals, but nothing resembling the financial disclosure and interview process you are used to. Buyers find this either liberating or slightly unnerving.
What to price properly: older condo buildings. Since the 2021 Surfside collapse and the reserve legislation that followed, buildings over thirty years old are facing significant special assessments. Read the milestone inspection and structural reserve study before offering.
The parts that are genuinely worse
Walkability. This is the big one and New Yorkers underestimate it constantly. Outside South of Fifth, Brickell, and a few pockets, Miami requires a car for everything. If not owning a car is part of your identity, think hard.
Transit. There is no subway. Metrorail and the Brightline are useful for specific routes and irrelevant for most.
Cultural depth. Miami’s art world is real and Basel is genuine, but the institutional depth of New York’s museums, theatre, and music is not replicated here and will not be soon.
Summer. July through September is difficult. Many residents leave for part of it, which is a real cost people forget to budget.
Hurricane season and insurance. June through November, with premiums far above New York levels.
Everyone you know will visit. This sounds like a joke. Ask anyone who moved.
The practical details
Flights
JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark all serve MIA and FLL with near-hourly nonstops, roughly three hours. This is the easiest major city pair in the country and it makes keeping New York ties genuinely practical.
Time zone
Same. A significant advantage if you keep working with New York colleagues or markets.
Driver’s license
Required within 30 days of establishing Florida residency. If you have not driven regularly in years, allow for that.
Homestead filing
File with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by March 1 following occupancy. This also serves as useful evidence of intent if New York ever questions your residency.
Day counts
Keep records from day one. Calendar, flights, and card statements. If you are audited, contemporaneous records are worth more than recollection.
Explore these neighborhoods
Current listings, building detail, and what each area is actually like.
About Jack
Jack Mintz is a real estate agent with Compass, based at 1212 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. He grew up in Park City, Utah, played Division I lacrosse at the University of Vermont, and worked in the ski industry before moving to Miami, so the relocation conversation is one he has been through himself.
He works across Miami Beach, Brickell, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Bal Harbour, and Edgewater, with a particular focus on clients arriving from out of state.
If it is not on the market
A lot of relocation buyers arrive with a specific building or a specific block in mind and find nothing listed. That is not the end of the search. I contact owners directly on behalf of buyers to find out whether anything is available quietly. Here is how the off-market search works.
Thinking about the move?
I work with relocation clients constantly and most of what I do early on is answer questions, not show property. Happy to talk before you have decided anything.