{"id":435299,"date":"2025-12-09T09:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T09:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/435299\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T09:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T09:42:11","slug":"mamdani-won-big-so-why-arent-the-wealthy-fleeing-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/435299\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani Won Big — So Why Aren’t The Wealthy Fleeing New York City?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the silliest preelection narratives<\/a> around the New York City mayoral race was the supposed fear that a victory<\/a> by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani would spark an exodus of the city\u2019s wealthy elite.<\/p>\n

Billionaire investor and all-around Trumpian asshole Bill Ackman was typical of the lot, crying<\/a> on X this past summer that both businesses and wealthy people had \u201calready started making arrangements for the exits.\u201d Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, another obnoxious MAGA bro<\/a>, claimed he might move his company<\/a> out of New York \u201cbecause I hate the guy.\u201d His grand plan? Move to New Jersey. Equally high-tax, equally liberal. So \u2026 yeah.<\/p>\n

Grocery mogul John Catsimatidis, who runs the Gristedes and D\u2019Agostino Supermarkets chains, also threatened a move to New Jersey. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe may consider closing our supermarkets and selling the business,\u201d the 76-year-old entrepreneur told<\/a> The Free Press. \u201cWe have other businesses. Thank God, we have other businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just right-wingers. NewYork\u2019s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul fretted<\/a> about a potential Mamdani win because \u201cI don\u2019t want to lose any more people to Palm Beach. We\u2019ve lost enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts have been rolling their eyes at these threats all along. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is tax-induced mobility. It\u2019s not non-existent but it\u2019s very small,\u201d Quentin Parinello, a tax expert, told<\/a> ABC News.In major cities like New York, people value the arts, business opportunities, and the ability to hire talent. ABC\u2019s reporting includes several researchers making the same point: While the wealthy love to complain and posture, they rarely follow through. <\/p>\n

\u201cMovement of rich people on the basis of tax differentials is relatively small,\u201d said Northwestern University professor Jeffrey Winters. \u201cIt\u2019s very common for them to threaten to move. The risk is grossly overstated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think of everyone who said they\u2019d move to Canada if Donald Trump won the presidential race. Talking is always easier than acting.<\/p>\n

Still, the New York Post\u2014being the right-wing tabloid it is\u2014keeps trying to manifest this fantasy. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Mamdani effect\u2019: Miami realtors report 166% spike in inquiries from wealthy NYC residents,\u201d blared a recent headline<\/a>. But even the story immediately contradicts itself: \u201cManhattan luxury contracts actually jumped 25% in November\u2026 a surge some brokers said shows \u2018there is no Mamdani effect.\u2019\u201d The only sources in the Post story claiming otherwise are Miami real estate agents who make money convincing New Yorkers to relocate.<\/p>\n

And since the Post didn\u2019t bother providing raw numbers, that \u201c166% spike\u201d could literally mean inquiries went from three to eight. A phone call isn\u2019t a move. Honestly, the number is almost certainly made up.As for real numbers?<\/p>\n

\u201cSales of luxury homes in Manhattan jumped in November, countering fears that the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor would drive out wealthy residents,\u201d Bloomberg reported<\/a>. Buyers signed contracts on 176 homes priced at $4 million or more, up 25 percent from the month prior. These included condos purchased for around $24 million each. Not exactly a market in retreat.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an even more telling statistic: Luxury housing inventory is down.<\/p>\n

\u201cInventory actually fell 16 percent in the luxury market from October 2024 to October 2025, indicating that there is no flood of New Yorkers selling their homes and leaving town,\u201d reported<\/a> USA Today. If the wealthy were running for the exits, inventory would be skyrocketing. Instead, it\u2019s tightening.<\/p>\n

Of course no one likes paying higher taxes. Even those of us who believe in a functional government don\u2019t enjoy writing the check every year\u2014we just see it as the cost of a society that works. So it\u2019s natural for wealthy New Yorkers to gripe about an extra two percent tax on incomes over $1 million<\/a> (which likely won\u2019t happen anyway; Albany leaders seem uninterested in backing Mamdani\u2019s campaign proposal).<\/p>\n

But the reality is that New York City\u2019s wealthy residents get a lot for what they pay. Another Bloomberg story<\/a> features David Bahnsen, a Republican wealth manager who sits on the board of the conservative National Review. He despises the city\u2019s liberal politics, calling them \u201ccontemptible.\u201d And while he frets about potential tax increases, he isn\u2019t going anywhere.Bahnsen openly acknowledges that New York gives him advantages he can\u2019t get anywhere else\u2014the clients, the talent, the nonstop drive of the place. What really hooks him, he says, is \u201cthe energy of the city, the ambition.\u201d That spark doesn\u2019t exist in the low-tax red-state enclaves conservatives claim are paradise. Certainly not in Florida.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s not just staying\u2014he\u2019s thriving: morning jogs in Central Park, Broadway shows, dining out every night, walking 40,000 steps on a typical weekend, even working out of offices that are steps from the Museum of Modern Art. Sounds pretty good, actually.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s really the dynamic at play: The wealthy stay because New York gives them a lifestyle they can\u2019t replicate anywhere else. The city\u2019s appeal isn\u2019t just the museums, the theater, the restaurants, or the talent pool\u2014though all of that matters. It\u2019s the density of opportunity. It\u2019s being in a place where the most ambitious people in the world cross paths every single day. Deals get made over coffee because everyone who is anyone is already there. Entire industries cluster on the same few blocks. For people with the freedom and means to take advantage of all that, the cost of living is simply baked into the price of admission. <\/p>\n

For them, the taxes aren\u2019t a deterrent because New York City delivers something tangible in return: world-class public amenities, a creative and economic ecosystem unmatched anywhere in the country, and an energy that makes even the most stubborn conservative wealth manager admit the city is worth it. As Bahnsen said\u2014perhaps after skimming another anti-tax screed in the magazine he bankrolls\u2014Central Park alone is \u201cworth the cost of living in the city.\u201d <\/p>\n

And he\u2019s right. Where else can you step out of a skyscraper, walk a few blocks, and be surrounded by 843 acres of urban wilderness, all maintained and accessible because New Yorkers collectively pay for it? And nothing Mamdani has proposed threatens any of that.But New York City\u2019s price of admission isn\u2019t the same for everyone. The amenities, energy, and opportunity that make New York irresistible to the wealthy don\u2019t trickle down\u2014they get walled off by the city\u2019s staggering cost of housing, child care, transit, and daily life. If you can\u2019t buy your way into the version of the Big Apple that\u2019s thriving, you get squeezed into the version that isn\u2019t. And eventually, you get pushed out entirely.<\/p>\n

Northwestern University professor Winters highlights that point. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are worried about the outflow of the very wealthiest people\u2026 when in fact the biggest outflow of people is among those who can\u2019t afford even the basics of staying there,\u201d he warned. <\/p>\n

The rich aren\u2019t fleeing Mamdani\u2019s New York. But the working class and the struggling middle class? They\u2019ve been leaving for years because the price of admission keeps rising while their access to the city\u2019s prosperity keeps shrinking.<\/p>\n

That is the energy Mamdani tapped into. That\u2019s what led to his resounding victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that is New York City\u2019s real challenge in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

From Your Site Articles<\/p>\n

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