In the aftermath of much well-heeled panic about a potential mass exodus of New York millionaires and billionaires following the election of Zohran Mamdani, the contrary is already happening, and Manhattan luxury apartment buyers are voting with their wallets.
Signed contracts for Manhattan homes costing $4 million or more rose to 176 in November, a 25% increase from October’s 141 deals, according to fresh data from brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel. New signed contracts of more than $4 million increased at more than twice the rate of the overall market, the report noted.
I mean, back in the 1980s, there really was a big exodus of fossil fuel companies from the Northeast (NY / NJ / CT) down to the Gulf Coast. My dad was part of that transition, forcing us to leave our beautiful garden state home and decamp to the armpit of America, Houston TX.
But this was a decision made at the executive level largely due to the Nixonian Southern Strategy combined with a national reorganization of Republican and Democrat aligned business interests. The downturn in the O&G economy made real estate in the Gulf Coast dirt cheap, while land prices in the New England area stayed relatively high. And the reorganization helped Reagnite voting coalitions finally flip states like Texas and Florida after decades of entrenched Dixiecrat control.
Nothing like that is shaping up in lower Manhattan specifically for the year 2026.