Peter Thiel Says Moving to Florida from Silicon Valley Is Too Expensive (Miami: lease, insurance)

[CXT2000]

Lol, another told you so.... when a billionaire says it's too expensive to relocate to Miami, even with low taxes, you got a problem. It also confirms a lot of things I've heard from the grapevine, such as: companies only moving their HQ legally, slowing down plans or backtracking, hiring not up to expectations. Some companies have even quietly left Miami altogether for other parts of the country or back to SoCal/NYC.

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel said he’s reluctant to move his operations to Florida from Silicon Valley because housing prices have soared.*

“If you buy a house in Miami today versus just three years ago, you’re paying four times as much for a monthly mortgage payment

That kind of economic cost is probably not enough to offset all the wokeness in the world or even the taxes

[elchevere]

One needs to keep things in perspective. Thiel’s Founders Fund employs a grand total of 106 employees (other sites, such as Zoominfo, cite 50 employees). His not moving his entire firm here isn’t the same as a Google, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon, etc each laying off 10,000 employees. He still has leased space for some of his employees in Miami and I’m fairly certain the $18M home he purchased on Venetian Island has appreciated handsomely in the past few years.

He isn’t wrong though.

https://rocketreach.co/founders-fund...ounders%20Fund.

“Founders Fund isn’t shunning South Florida altogether. The firm, along with Jack Abraham’s VC Atomic, leased space in 2021 at The Annex office building at 215 Northwest 24th Street in Wynwood. “

https://therealdeal.com/miami/2023/0...-florida-move/

[elchevere]

Another thought or two—is Thiel trying to negotiate concessions with the city/state and/or how much does his sudden change of heart have more to do with his being gay and Florida’s LGBTQ policies?

[beach43ofus]

Maybe he should move it to Texas instead, like Tens of Thousands of other California companies have done.

We won't miss him in Florida, we've got more companies, & people< moving here than we know what to do with.


Or, maybe its just Miami's prices that are too high. The median price in the state of Florida, is < 1/2 the median price of a home in Cali:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/st...price-by-state

[elchevere]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Maybe he should move it to Texas instead, like Tens of Thousands of other California companies have done.

We won't miss him in Florida, we've got more companies, & people< moving here than we know what to do with.


Or, maybe its just Miami's prices that are too high. The median price in the state of Florida, is < 1/2 the median price of a home in Cali:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/st...price-by-state

Yeah, not buying he cannot afford Miami. Service worker, ok; him, no.

[CXT2000]

Funny enough, adding now the ridiculous rents for office space (which again, makes no sense considering 60% of workers are back full time), moving costs, insurance costs, construction costs, energy costs, lack of local talent, admin costs, etc... It does not make sense to relocate so SoFla. If you want to relocate to Florida, it's either Tampa or Orlando. If not, you have 49 other states and hundreds of cities to choose from. Hell, this is how I nabbed Miami companies to move their HQ's to Canada lol, larger talent pool and factoring costs and currency exchanges, they're saving on average, $30M per year. Even with higher taxes and cold weather 3 months out of the year, large corporations can save more than in low tax jurisdictions.

At the end of the day, it shows how billionaires are still cheap and only liked Florida because of low wages and the culture of exploitation. Now that housing costs are high, it lacks the cultural infrastructure you find in older cities, not being a world class city + everything I mentioned above... It's not worth it.

I know he's a DeSantis lover, but the guy is an inept governor. A lot of companies moving there are all Republican donors (or sexual assaulters, weirdly enough), but since tech and finance is still relatively liberal, it's scaring off investors (hence why VC contracted the most in all of North America in Florida and Miami).

Point is, what Thiel said does not surprise me. The elite wanted to take advantage of Miami, capital came in all at once, it got too hot and overvalued, crypto blew up in their face, job hiring's are slower than anticipated, companies and talent quietly left and the locals are paying the price, as always.

[FL_Expert]

Originally Posted by elchevere

Another thought or two—is Thiel trying to negotiate concessions with the city/state and/or how much does his sudden change of heart have more to do with his being gay and Florida’s LGBTQ policies?

It’s difficult to know what his real intentions are. It could be true it’s too expensive; he can obviously afford it but his employees may be burdened by current mortgage rates. Or it’s something more complicate like he’s trying to negotiate or something about LGBTQ policies. He’s extremely intelligent and strategic so who knows, I just assume he’ll get what he wants in the end.

[kidyankee764]

Thiel’s comments have nothing to do with cost, and everything to do with his not supporting DeSantis’ crusade against the woke. In the same breath, he urged DeSantis to focus on economic issues (which I agree with).

Housing aside, Florida is a much more business friendly state. Corporate tax is about half, and there’s no income tax compared to California’s, and that’s before factoring in the billionaire tax that’s likely to pass this year. Housing in even Miami-Dade County (median house price $600k) is still quite a bit less than Silicon Valley (median house price $1.4m).

I like and respect the guy, but seeing someone from Silicon Valley claiming Miami to be too expensive is sort of laughable.

[Corrie22]

”If you buy a house in Miami today versus just three years ago, you’re paying four times as much for a monthly mortgage payment,” he said.

He's obviously not thinking about ”his” mortgage payments....he's thinking employees

"I think DeSantis would make a terrific president. If he’s the Republican nominee, I will strongly support him in 2024,” he said. "But I do worry that focusing on the woke issue as ground zero is not quite enough."

[MacroEconomist]

South Florida is a wonderful place to LIVE but not a wonderful place to WORK. Workers in NYC/SF/LA/Chi are far superior to those here.

SFL is and will always be a great gateway to LatAm, and a wonderful place to retire, but there are just too many downsides with respect to culture, weather (hot AF right now), etc. for the next Meta or Google to ever come from here.