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Comment by abecedarius | Hacker News Reader

What stands out to me: the #1 (FL) over 3x the inflow of the #2 (TX). Both are large southern coastal states with no state income tax. What's Florida got that's that much more attractive?

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FL is the same timezone as NY, and closer to fly to, and a non-trivial percent have moved only in terms of tax residency, not in terms of how they live their life. In practice "wealth moved to Florida" in these cases is "wealthy people have a home there as part of their overall portfolio of properties."

For a cohort of people who are on the road for work 25% of the time and/or own 2-5 homes, the concept of primary residence is mostly just a legal term. Can they sign a tax return to NYS/NYC tax authorities that they spent 183 days outside the state/city? Lots of people cheat on their taxes.

Therefore there's a wide spectrum of gray in terms of rich NYers "moving to Florida".

First guy I talked to at an NYC tech conference yesterday gave me a business card with his Miami work address (and NYC phone number..) after spending 5 minutes talking about how lived in the same NYC hood.

I know several NYers at/near retirement who plan to: sell NYC primary residence, buy a residence in Florida (change IDs, etc), then after 1 year of seasoning rent back a place in NYC they plan to spend as close to the 182 days/year in NYC that keeps them in tax compliance.

Used to be cost of living for the average person, now its network effect and maybe beaches for the wealthy. Both Texas and Florida have generous creditor protections, but Texas lets you keep up to two horses, mules, or donkeys with food and riding equipment too (which is kinda cool in a state that has very little else going for it).

Florida migration boom fades as rising costs push residents out - https://www.axios.com/local/tampa-bay/2026/04/24/florida-aff... - April 24th, 2026

Per Apollo Group, ~31% of wealth is owned by the 70+ cohort, and they move to the sunbelt to retire and die usually.

31% of Wealth Owned by People Over 70 - https://www.apolloacademy.com/31-percent-of-wealth-owned-by-... - December 7th, 2025

~230k people die every year in Florida for reference.

https://usafacts.org/answers/what-are-the-leading-causes-of-...

(overall, ~2M people 55+ die every year in the US, ~5k per day)

I was under the impression a big part of it relates to Florida bankruptcy law allowing individuals to discharge debts without losing a significant amount of their assets.

See: https://www.floridabar.org/public/consumer/pamphlet008/

At a glance, it looks like Chapter 7 bankruptcy is what I was remembering. There are significant exemptions for property, and the more recent amendments to the law to protect against abuse by wealthy individuals are laughably based on income.

It looks pretty easy to buy up a bunch of property in Florida, live there for two years to become eligible for the property exemptions, then declare Chapter 7 to wipe away outstanding debts with minimal-to-no losses.

Of course, respondents are free to correct me if I've misinterpreted something. My initial thought was based on hearsay, and my interpretation was based off quick skimming :)

I was actually just going to ask this same question. Florida has astronomical home insurance rates due to hurricanes. I'm surprised to see wealthy people moving there given that they'll probably own property and pay an exorbitant premium for insurance. It seems like a bad investment if nothing else.

If you're wealthy enough or can pay cash for a modest property, you self insure. The only folks who cannot afford it are those who need a mortgage (requiring hazard/hurricane insurance) and cannot carry the monthly payment for the mortgage, taxes, and insurance (which can be upwards of $3k-$4k/month at current real estate price levels, even with a generous down payment).

Its a bad investment for your average homeowner considering forward curve of equity return and carrying costs, but its the cost of lifestyle if you're wealthy.

I think it's a bad investment for everyone, since these people will eat the loss from the inevitable hurricane out of their own pocket. I guess if you're rich enough you don't care? What about Florida would make people pay such a premium to live there?

You'd have to ask them, I left based on the forward curves I describe. It ain't gonna get better, only worse and how fast.

From my Axios citation in a sibling comment:

- "The changing affordability situation has led to a shrinking supply of working-age newcomers, who are key to filling jobs and stoking demand for housing, retail and services," the piece says.

- "Florida depends heavily on such sectors, as it lacks big industries that generate an abundance of high-paying jobs."

East Coast Migration To Miami Plummets As Florida Housing Costs Skyrocket - https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/real-estate/east-coast-migrati... - October 7th, 2026

Florida migration slowed sharply in 2025, with mid-sized counties continuing to grow - https://news.ufl.edu/2026/07/florida-migration/ - July 13th, 2026

Amid Cost-of-Living Concerns, Net Domestic Migration to Florida Dramatically Slows for Young Adults - https://pioneerinstitute.org/amid-cost-of-living-concerns-ne... - July 9th, 2026

(Florida real estate houses on the market and price direction/velocity is a leading indicator of demand imho)

Ha, I type to slow :)

Florida has a problem with insurance fraud, which is what drives the rates up. If you can afford to self-insure, the expectation value of doing that is much better than the EV of using a commercial insurer (who has to price in the risk that you are an insurance fraudster)

It's not fraud that's pushing up the price of insurance in Florida, it's hurricanes. The entire coastal South East US suffers from this.

I borrowed privately in 2006 to pay off the last 20 K of my 50 K mortgage. Then dropped my insurance which was asking 5K a year - previously about 1 K. I am betting most wealthy folks build resilient structures and carry minimal insurance. If you can cover the costs easily, why pay for the administration and profit of the insurance companies. -- South Florida here. Direct hits from Francis and Jeane, Wilma was milder, but a spun off tornado took the roof off my business.

Generally speaking, you'll pay twice as much in premiums as you would just paying for the damage. Therefore, if you can afford the damage, you don't need to buy insurance.

For example, I don't carry collision insurance for my car. Over the years, I've saved enough on that that totaling the car still leaves me ahead financially.

It's why I don't buy such things as appliance insurance.

Congrats on paying off your mortgage. Can I ask what it is about Florida that you find attractive versus places that don't have hurricanes?

I moved here when rocks were young because my (soon to be ex) wife moved here with my son. Since then, I have grown to love being near the ocean - about 5 minutes, and I also love the being able to grow things all year long. Admittedly, part of the reason I stay is inertia, once I have a nice rut, i tend to furnish it.

> Florida has astronomical home insurance rates due to hurricanes.

That puzzles me because people have figured out how to build hurricane proof homes there, and it's neither hard nor expensive.

Hmm, I live here (Miami-ish) and sometimes you need a canoe or a Tacoma with a snorkel to get up to the surface. Or, just stay at home. 2 years ago my wife was stuck at intersection for 8 hours 1 mile away from home, I had to relieve her on foot. It's not just about the wind, the infra here is outdated (drainage). I've seen it, I've been there got the tee, it's not hypothetical.

I read some years back that the houses Habitat For Humanity built were highly resistant to having their roofs blown off by the wind. It turns out the roofers didn't know what they were doing and used lots more nails.

There's no such thing as a disaster proof home, but disaster resistant is very doable and can substantially reduce your insurance premiums.

Perhaps those home owners who are confident that their home is hurricane-proof don't buy that insurance, leaving the rest (who don't have hurricane-proof homes or are not confident) with higher premiums?

If you choose to live in a high hazard area, you're going to have to pay for it one way or another. It's cheaper to do some hurricane upgrades to your home.

Just like if you live in a fire hazard area, it's cheaper to spend a few bucks clearing the vegetation away from your house, investing in a metal roof, etc. When my asphalt roof wore out, I had it replaced with a metal one. Very happy with it.

If you choose to live on a flood zone, either put your house on stilts, or on a mound, or accept that it's going to get flooded. My dad lived in the midwest, and consulted flood maps when looking for a house. Never got flooded. Washington is subject to earthquakes, and I hired a soil geologist to screen the property for slide risk.

If a large tree is close to your house on the windward side, hire an arborist to trim back the "sail" on it, or just have it removed.

Having lived through several natural disasters I can tell you that even if your house survives, it absolutely sucks when everything else gets trashed. Depending on the disaster, it may also include things like ruining the water supply.

> Having lived through several natural disasters

Wow! I've been through two (tornado, and a windstorm that took out the power for 2 weeks).

> it absolutely sucks when everything else gets trashed.

True, but insurance won't help with that. At least you have a clean place to sleep.

Indeed. I've since moved away to somewhere without any recurring natural disasters and I have to say it's a big improvement on my stress and pocketbook.

It's a retirement destination for elderly people from the northeast?

Florida is always #1 because it's the preferred destination of retirees. Old people have more money.

It's sunny. As people get older they want the warmer weather. It's the retirement area of the US.

I'm a snow person that could not imagine life without 4 seasons, but as I get older I'm starting to 'get it' a bit.

It also doesn't take a lot of people for those transfers to show up in big numbers.

But why Florida? There's a ton of warm, sunny places in the US that don't have hurricanes and high insurance premiums.

It's the ocean and beaches. Arizona is getting popular because it's dry. Florida also has tropical weather which many like except for the extreme humidity.

It's very different than the south or west texas.

Sea-front, or mid-sea properties for most of the state.

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