Down and out in the Hamptons: Americans’ exodus from high tax states

by WorldTribune Staff, April 25, 2019

Buddy, can you spare a mil?

As more and more Americans flee high-tax states, even the Hamptons is feeling the pinch. Vacation homes over $1 million in the playground of mega-rich financiers and celebrities just aren’t selling like they used to.

Many are moving to Florida, because the ‘taxes are so low.’ / Wikimedia Commons

Americans are leaving high-tax burdens behind, bolting from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in droves. More people moved out than moved to those states last year, according to a United Van Lines movers’ study.

“About 0.47 percent of people have migrated out of New York, which is the highest of any of the 50 states … it’s like 40,000 people,” Dolly Lenz Real Estate Managing Director Jenny Lenz told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, adding that many of them are moving to Florida because “the taxes are so low.”

Over on the South Fork of Long Island, there were 869 luxury Hamptons properties available at the end of the first quarter, almost triple the supply from a year earlier and the most in seven years of data-keeping by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Bloomberg reported on April 25.

“The market is resetting following federal tax changes that capped deductions for mortgage interest and property levies and made costly second-home purchases less attractive,” the report said.

New Jersey saw the largest outbound moves out of any state, according to the United Van Lines study. Nearly 67 percent of movers in New Jersey moved out of the state.

New Jersey ranked ninth on WalletHub’s list of state-by-state tax burdens, where the total tax burden is an estimated 9.86 percent of income.

Of the moves conducted within Connecticut last year, 62 percent were outbound, ranking it third on the study (behind Illinois, which is also considering implementing a number of new taxes).

The average individual in Connecticut pays 9.7 percent of income toward state and local taxes. The state has recently proposed increasing its sales tax and capital gains taxes and imposing levies on sugary drinks and plastic bags.

New York had the fourth-most individuals fleeing in 2018. About 61.5 percent of all moves were outbound, the United Van Lines study found.

New York has the highest state and local tax burden in the nation, with the average individual paying nearly 13 percent of income toward those obligations.

California – which had been a sanctuary for wealthier New Yorkers before imposing its own heavy tax regime – is now losing residents to states like Florida, Nevada and Texas, Dolly Lenz, a New York City real estate agent, told Fox Business.

Along with Florida, United Van Lines found that the top destinations for movers in 2018 were Vermont, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona. While Florida and Nevada charge no income tax, South Dakota and Washington – which also have no income taxes – also made the top 10.


Your Intel Brief: Geostrategy-Direct __________ Fix The Media Now

You must be logged in to post a comment Login