Fears of a corporate exodus from New York City are likely to be a recurring feature of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s term, with each business real estate decision magnified as a potential tipping point signal that the Democratic Socialist’s tax, real estate and wealth policies are pushing businesses away.

The debate was amplified last week amid reports that private equity giant Apollo Global Management was planning to add a second headquarters outside New York City, in a southern U.S. state like Florida or Texas.

Since being elected, Mamdani’s administration has said it will look at every viable option to help raise revenue and fill a $5.4 billion budget deficit for the city, but his preference has not changed from what he ran on: “tax the rich.” That has resulted in a political standoff with New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, who facing her own reelection campaign, has said she will not approve increased taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

“It’s a fragile environment today and we should be careful with this budget,” said Steven Fulop, Partnership for New York City president and CEO, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday. His group represents corporate, investment, and entrepreneurial firms. In an op-ed he co-authored last week, Fulop warned that any plan to tax the rich and businesses will ripple through the cost equation for every New Yorker. “With New Yorkers already leaving the state in search of a lower cost of living, further raising prices could send even more folks packing and undermine the state’s long-term economic growth,” he argued in the Newsday piece.

“Large companies [are] certainly exploring other options: cheaper labor costs, lower taxes, less political uncertainty,” Vikram Malhotra, managing director, real estate equities at Mizuho, wrote via email.

That’s nothing new. Lower-cost regions like the U.S. South are increasingly attracting both businesses and workers with cheaper real estate, lighter tax burdens, and fewer regulatory hurdles.

Wall Street is diversifying its office space footprint

Finance firms are among the big corporations that have been heading south and expanding into Texas and Florida from both U.S. coasts.

JPMorgan just built a new office building in Manhattan, but has more workers in its Dallas offices than New York City. Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management moved from New York City to St. Petersburg, Florida. Wells Fargo is moving its wealth management headquarters from San Francisco to West Palm Beach. Ken Griffin’s hedge fund giant Citadel moved its headquarters from Chicago to Miami, a relocation announced back in 2022. Griffin remains involved in at least one major new project in New York City.

While all these moves reflect a longer-term trend that is a risk for New York City, data from commercial real estate firm JLL covering the first quarter of Mamdani’s term shows that demand for office space and rents in Manhattan are up, while vacancies are down, continuing a trend that was in place at the…

A shift in the U.S. housing market may finally be opening the door for first-time homebuyers as improving affordability and rising inventory create new opportunities across several key regions.

Jacksonville, Florida, leads the list as the top market for first-time buyers this year, followed by Birmingham, Alabama; San Antonio, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Houston, Texas. 

Each of these cities is benefiting from a more favorable balance of home prices, available inventory and buyer competition, according to a new Zillow analysis.

Zillow’s rankings are based on several key factors, including rent burden, the share of affordable listings, inventory relative to renters and the concentration of buyers in their prime homebuying years. 

The top 10 markets for first-time buyers in 2026 are:

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville ranks first, with rent consuming 23.1% of income. Nearly 47.8% of listings are considered affordable, supported by relatively strong inventory at 5.9 homes per 100 renters.

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Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham stands out for affordability, with more than 55.6% of homes within reach and 6.2 listings available per 100 renters.

San Antonio, Texas

With a lower rent burden of 20.2% and 47.4% of listings deemed affordable, San Antonio offers a balanced entry point for buyers.

Atlanta, Georgia

About 45.2% of listings are affordable in Atlanta, where moderate competition is paired with steady inventory levels.

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Houston, Texas

Houston’s affordability rate sits around 40.2%, supported by a large population of buyers in their prime homebuying years.

St. Louis, Missouri

Affordability is a key strength in St. Louis, where 67.7% of listings fall within reach for first-time buyers.

Detroit, Michigan

Nearly 64.8% of homes in Detroit are affordable, combined with relatively manageable competition.

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Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh benefits from a low rent burden of 18.4%, with about 48% of listings remaining affordable.

Baltimore, Maryland

Approximately 61.8% of homes are affordable in Baltimore, though inventory is tighter at three listings per 100 renters.

Louisville, Kentucky 

Louisville rounds out the top ten, with 54.1% of listings considered affordable and a steady supply of homes.

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Mortgage rates are still elevated, and housing inventory sits about 20% below pre-pandemic…

From the moment you step through a private foyer and into the sun-washed living area, it’s clear that $44 million buys more than just a view; it buys a masterpiece.

At the legendary Four Seasons Surf Club in Surfside, Florida, the modern coastal aesthetic is defined by striking architecture and a warm glow all around, illuminating custom millwork and slatted wood feature walls. Outside, rows of crisp white umbrellas line tranquil pool decks that reflect resort-style luxury.

For titans like former Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz, this is the new “Wall Street South” — a place where floor-to-ceiling glass erases the line between a high-stakes boardroom and the turquoise horizon of the Atlantic.

“It seems like the frequent thread that we discuss is, if they can facilitate business here, why would they do it in a place that is freezing cold? They may as well do it sitting next to the ocean,” The Corcoran Group’s Mick Duchon told Fox News Digital during a showing of a $21.95 million unit in the same residential building Schultz just moved into.

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“What I find with a lot of the buyers that are looking in this space in the market, they never really retire,” he continued. “So they’re looking for the next step in their adventure, like [Schultz], and it’s an exciting place to take that step.”

Last month, Schultz and his wife announced they had relocated to Florida for their “retirement phase,” leaving Washington state after nearly half a century. Schultz shared the news in a post on LinkedIn, recounting how he, his wife Sheri, and their golden retriever, Jonas, made the move from New York City to Seattle 44 years ago.

“We were starting a new life,” Schultz wrote, recalling how Sheri would be their primary income earner as he started a new job “at a place called Starbucks” in September 1982.

“The spirit of continuing forward has long underpinned our approach to life—in business, in philanthropy and most importantly, as a family,” Schultz further wrote. “We will be forever grateful for the memories made in Seattle and the relationships built along the way… To the family, friends and partners who made Seattle our home for so many years, thank you.”

He and his wife purchased a $44 million penthouse at the Four Seasons Surf Club Residences, The Wall Street Journal first reported, down from an initial listing price of $55 million. It features five bedrooms, a rooftop terrace, central courtyard, private garage and oceanfront cabana.

Schultz’s…

Affordability has gone from being a dry financial term to an all-purpose hot button. Groceries, health care, child care, cars, gas — you name it, and affordability is attached to it these days. And then there’s housing, one of the stickiest issues in America’s affordability discussions. 

On March 12, the U.S. Senate passed a massive housing bill addressing affordability and supply, mostly of single-family homes. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, chock-full of more than 40 provisions, garnered rare — by today’s rancorous political standards — bipartisan support, tallying a 89-10 vote. The bill features a slew of financing, permitting, zoning and environmental reforms aimed at lowering housing costs and speeding up new home construction.  

The House passed an equally bipartisan, if pared-down version in February. The Senate bill, which adopted many of House provisions, now moves back to the lower chamber for consideration, where it’s facing an uphill battle, primarily over the contentious issue of whether large institutional investors should continue buying and renting homes, a practice decried by both progressive stalwart Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — a co-sponsor of the ROAD Act — and President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order in January calling for an end to the practice. 

Ironically, that so-called “build-to-rent” portion of the housing market is relatively small compared to another one — factory-built manufactured homes — which received a huge boost from the ROAD Act and is far more consequential toward the overarching goal of building more homes. 

The bill allows manufactured homes to be assembled without a permanent chassis, increases federal loan limits for buyers and relaxes zoning regulations on where they can be sited. Those changes go a long way toward removing the stigma hanging over low-priced “mobile homes.” 

“That is the challenge we’ve had,” said Dr. Lesli Gooch, CEO of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association. “The stigma comes from what our houses look like and the elevations we’re able to offer. We will 1774893605 be allowed under our federal building code to build more housing types,” she said. “We were constrained for 50 years that every house we built had to be on a permanent chassis.” 

By allowing for removable chassis, the bill will enable manufactured homes builders to innovate designs, said Bill Boor, CEO of Cavco Industries, one of the industry’s largest companies, in an email statement. “While we’ll still make permanent-chassis homes, the ability to also make removable chassis homes will continue to break down zoning barriers and increase the supply of lower-cost, high-quality homes,” he wrote.

In anticipation of the legislative changes, Boor says Cavco has invested heavily in retooling its existing plants to increase capacity and change its production processes where possible….

For a South Florida native, the silence and serenity are what hits you first.

Just a stone’s throw from the relentless horn-honking of Surfside and the designer-clad crowds of Bal Harbour Shops, Indian Creek Village exists in a vacuum of enforced peace. There are no sirens or tourists, and certainly no uninvited guests — only the whistle of the Atlantic wind and the rhythmic clap of waves against private piers.

Behind massive entry gates and dense tropical foliage lies a 300-acre fiscal safe haven where America’s billionaires aren’t just buying homes, but investing in a sovereign-level of security that Julian Johnston, one of Miami’s top luxury brokers, says is now the ultimate commodity.

“It is a political sanctuary. I’d say, also, the security itself is extremely tight. I mean, when you drive up, if you don’t have permission to get on, [the police] are actually quite rude, and they tell you to go away,” the Corcoran Group agent — who has more than $10 billion in sales under his belt in the area — told Fox News Digital during a private tour of Indian Creek.

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“I think Indian Creek is an island unto itself,” he continued. “As a community… you’ve got the marina nearby, you can walk to the Four Seasons and go to the beach, and it’s a lower-density construction. So there’s not as much traffic, and it’s just a beautiful place to live.”

Commonly known as the “Billionaire Bunker,” successful business leaders and celebrities including Jeff Bezos, Carl Icahn, Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Julio Iglesias, Adriana Lima, David Guetta, Don Shula and others have long called Indian Creek home. The ultra-exclusive neighborhood made recent headlines for its newest resident, Mark Zuckerberg, who paid a record $170 million for an under-construction property.

The migration is fueled by more than just sunshine; it is a tactical retreat from a wave of tax-the-rich proposals sweeping through blue-state legislatures like California, Washington and New York. While lawmakers and unions move to enact aggressive new levies on capital gains and unrealized wealth, the “Billionaire Bunker” provides a predictable fiscal fortress. 

“Even starting with South Beach and Miami Beach, there’s only a thousand homes on the water, approximately… There’s only four real islands in this location that the owners own the roads, so you cannot get on without permission,” Johnston said. “People covet privacy, security … and so with such limited inventory, prices have risen very fast in the last couple of years.”

EXCLUSIVE: The New York-to-Florida corporate pipeline just gained one of the most valuable brands in global sports.

FC Barcelona, the world-renowned soccer powerhouse, is officially shuttering its North American headquarters in Manhattan to plant its new flag in downtown Miami at One Biscayne Tower.

It’s a move that CP Group Managing Partner Angelo Bianco says highlights a “liberating” business environment that traditional hubs like New York simply can no longer match.

“Miami has some special characteristics that no other market can compete with, New York or otherwise, and that is its geography and its cultural makeup,” Bianco exclusively told Fox News Digital. “The combination makes it irresistible to certain businesses that want to expand and track business in the Americas.”

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“It’s a very business-friendly environment. And if you want to have a business and operate and grow it the way that you want, you have a very supportive government here,” he continued. “And I think that has an element to helping facilitate the huge migration that we’re seeing into the state of Florida.”

FC Barcelona is the third-most valuable soccer club in the world, just behind Real Madrid and Manchester United, with an estimated worth of $5.65 billion, according to Forbes. Its executed lease agreement with CP Group at One Biscayne Tower is accompanied by four other new tenants, including Reimagined Parking, Levey & Associates, Drummond Advisors and Kirkwood.

The lease announcement comes less than three months before the Magic City hosts seven 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, with as many as 1 million visitors expected for the games. Miami-Dade County is also projecting the event to generate a $1.5 billion economic impact.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, an FC Barcelona spokesperson confirmed that “the Club is finalizing their conditioning of the new office” with its grand opening happening “in coming weeks.”

“I think the tenant is moving to a market that’s more like itself, rather than the other way around. Miami is already hot and on fire and already has a very cool, chic, hip vibe to it,” Bianco said. “And I think they chose to be in Miami in our building to be part of that.”

When it comes to courting other non-traditional corporate tenants to move away from the standard law-and-finance office mix, Bianco argued the physical aesthetic of One Biscayne Tower — with its multimillion-dollar renovations to conference centers,…