Here's where all the wealthy, young people are moving this year
- Wealthy Americans ages 26 to 35 are moving to Florida, Texas, and New Jersey.
- Austin, Jacksonville, and Denver are popular destinations for young workers making over $200,000.
Wealthy, young Americans are flocking to Florida, Texas, and New Jersey — and away from New York and California — SmartAsset found in an analysis of IRS migration data from the 2021 tax year.
For Americans ages 26 to 35 making over $200,000 a year, cities including Miami; Austin, Texas; and Jersey City, New Jersey, are popular destinations.
Just 2% of Americans in this age group made over $200,000 a year, though this cohort comprised 16% of the demographic's income.
These results were similar to those of SmartAsset's study of high-earning Americans overall who made over $200,000 a year, amounting to 8.68 million people. Florida and Texas — both of which don't charge income tax — also topped that list, with California and New York at the bottom. Idaho and Montana were not as high on the list for younger Americans.
For young high earners, Florida was the most popular destination, as the state had a net gain of nearly 2,200, bringing the number of high earners in this cohort to over 23,500. Texas had a similarly strong net gain, just over 1,900. This was in contrast to the over 5,000 net young high earners who left New York, which still had the highest count of young high earners of any state.
One of the more surprising states with a large net migration was New Jersey, which had a net gain of over 1,000 — even though high earners in general left the state. Despite losses of nearly 2,700 high earners, New Jersey netted over 1,000 wealthy, young professionals. Many are moving to cities such as Jersey City and Hoboken, where rents for apartments have skyrocketed over the past few years.
Connecticut, which ranked sixth for net migration of young high earners, had a similar trend compared with all high earners.
New Jersey also has a high rate of high-earning young people, though Washington leads in this statistic when compared with both rich people overall in the state and the population as a whole. Over 13% of those making over $200,000 in Washington were between 26 and 35, and this value was 10% for California. Washington, DC, exceeded Washington state at 16%, even though it lost nearly 700 young, wealthy professionals.
Colorado, North Carolina, and Tennessee were also popular endpoints for this demographic.
SmartAsset's sixth annual study on where millennials were moving found cities such as Austin, Texas; Denver; Dallas; and Jacksonville, Florida, were attracting talent. On the flip side, New York City, Chicago, and Boston had outflows. Though Austin has become one of the least affordable US cities, partly because of steep housing costs, many top earners were moving into new apartments and suburban homes.
Are you a wealthy millennial or Gen Zer who relocated to one of these states? If so, share your story with this reporter at nsheidlower@insider.com.