Record number of New Yorkers moving to Florida

 NY Post:

Dazed and abused by high taxes and rising crime, more New Yorkers fled to Florida in 2022 than any year in history, according to new data.

A staggering 64,577 Empire staters exchanged their driver’s licenses for the Sunshine State version last year, according to figures from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

“They come in every day,” a staffer at a Jacksonville DMV office told The Post this week with a weary laugh. “I hear all the complaints. I feel like a therapist sometimes.”

The worker said the venting refugees harbor a long list of grievances — with taxes and eroding quality of life at the top of the list.

“It’s slowed down a little bit,” she said of the stampede. “But not by a whole lot, I can tell you that.”

Last year’s record-shattering number comfortably eclipsed the prior mark of 61,728 New Yorkers who made the Florida switch in 2021, according to the data.

Fashion designer Alvin Valley, who moved his main residence to Palm Beach, previously told The Post that the demographics of those moving south has expanded in recent years.

“First it was the billionaires,” he said. “Then it was the rich following behind them. Now you have the middle class.”

The license transfer metric is considered a reliable indicator of migration patterns as it suggests a lasting decision to relocate.

The 2022 exodus marks a 39% increase in outbound migration to Florida from New York compared to the last pre-pandemic year of 2019 — and a resounding 46% surge compared to just five years ago in 2017.

Despite the drawdown of most COVID-19 restrictions in New York, outgoing flights to Florida remained sharply elevated in recent months.

A total of 15,595 New Yorkers transitioned to the state in the final quarter of 2022, including more than 5,000 last month alone.
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Dozens of other states — including New Jersey, California, Illinois and Pennsylvania — all set new records for outbound migration to Florida in 2022, the figures show.

New Jersey created the second highest number of new Floridians in 2022, with 32,184 license swaps, up from 32,083 in 2021.
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The lockdowns during the Covid pandemic were an imporatnt factor as well as the consfiscatory taxation in the blue states.  What is not to like about warmer weather and lower taxes?  It is the same motivation that is seeing an increase in movement to Texas.