To minimize the pain of Trump’s Tax Law, New Yorkers are moving South

New Yorkers are moving to sunny Florida not only for the natural beauty and a pleasant weather year round but to escape the tax reform imposed by President Trump. Trump’s legislation limits local and state deductions to $10,000.

The solution, for many, is to move to low-tax states such as the sunshine state or seek properties with tax abatements to suffer a smaller impact. Almost half of the taxpayers from Manhattan had used the deduction in the past, with an average of more than $60,000, with information from the New York Times.

“I work with a lot of clients in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey — so all high-tax states — and we are seeing a lot of them move south, especially to Florida,” Robert Westley, a certified public accountant based in New York City, in an interview to the Times. “With almost all of our clients it comes up, and I would say about half of them are looking into it.”

This is all good news to Florida; the housing market has been up ever since. Sales of single-family homes assessed at 2 million and above in Naples, for example, increased 25% during the second quarter of this year, according to the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

It might be hard to prove this increase is all due to the same factor, but real estate agents and brokers believe the tax law is playing a significant factor when choosing where to buy a house.

“I have about 10 clients, including three from New York, who are fleeing high-tax states,” said Niklas Ahola, a broker for Compass in Naples.