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A wealth boom is powering crucial parts of the metro area’s economy and has shrunk its population

MIAMI—Miami is booming, with waves of wealthy people drawn to the metro area in recent years. Yet there is a countercurrent: Its population is shrinking.

The result is a glittering urban center that is richer, smaller and built to cater to upscale living. Gone are the gritty warehouse districts, the nocturnal desolation of downtown and the shabby chic of South Beach. It is now a sophisticated, cosmopolitan hub with gleaming Cartier boutiques, avant-garde art installations and luxury districts dotted with Michelin-star restaurants.

The new economic order is squeezing out the middle. The growing ranks of the affluent fuel the area’s economy with avid consumption and fuller tax coffers. At the lower end are the retail, hospitality and construction workers who service them but are finding it increasingly difficult to stay. While the city of Miami itself continues to grow slowly, the broader county population is declining.

“Miami is becoming very different,” said Richard Florida, an urbanist and author who lives part of the year in Miami Beach. “We have never witnessed this kind of relocation of wealth,” he said, but “it’s getting harder and harder for the young professional to enter.”

Miami has long lured wealthy people from the U.S., especially the Northeast, and abroad. The influx went into overdrive during and after the Covid pandemic, as newcomers from a wider swath of the U.S. started pouring in. Business leaders such as Ken Griffin, who relocated his hedge-fund firm Citadel from Chicago to Miami, cited a more business-friendly environment, and professionals who could work remotely came for the warm climate and vibrant lifestyle.

People moving to Miami-Dade County from other states had on average $178,000 in adjusted gross income, more than double that of people who left the county for other states, according to an analysis of 2022-23 Internal Revenue Service data by Maria Ilcheva, associate director of the Jorge M. Pérez Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. Those coming from Manhattan earned on average $358,000, and those from Chicago earned on average $711,000.

The number of millionaires in Miami soared 94% to 38,800 between 2014 and 2024, according to Henley & Partners, a residence and citizenship planning firm. That was the second-largest percentage increase among the U.S. cities it studied, behind the San Francisco Bay Area.

Such wealth is powering key sectors of the Miami economy. The million-dollar real-estate market is outperforming the overall housing market in Miami-Dade County, said Gay Cororaton, chief economist at the Miami Association of Realtors. Million-dollar-plus sales of single-family homes increased 20% in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, while overall sales of such homes rose 7%.

The Miami Design District, a onetime furniture center that fell into disrepair in the 1980s, is now a luxury destination with scores of designer fashion houses, art galleries and sleek architecture featuring glass facades and geometric forms. From 2019 to 2025, sales grew 350%, said Craig Robins, chief executive of developer Dacra. Foot traffic, based on cars parked in the area, increased 250%. Luxury brands including Bulgari and Fendi have expanded their boutiques, and a condo project, hotel and office buildings are in the works.

New establishments catering to a rich clientele crop up regularly.

The Seia Club, an invitation-only private club on the 55th floor of a high-end office building in the Brickell financial district, opened in March, featuring gourmet cuisine and a curated art collection. Nearby is Amazónico, a restaurant, bar and lounge that opened in September and has locations in cities including Madrid and Dubai. Its owners chose Miami for their U.S. debut.

CollectionSuites just completed a second phase of its luxury storage suites for collectors of cars, art and wine to showcase their prized possessions. Each space runs $3 million to $5.5 million and includes an auto gallery, a lounge area and a fully appointed kitchen.

The infusion of wealth has sent tax revenue soaring. Property taxes levied by Miami-Dade County rose 66% to $3.43 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year from $2.07 billion in the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to county data.

Whether these trends generate broader economic benefits has been a subject of debate. The Miami-Dade Beacon Council, an economic-development organization, said the area is becoming a more diversified global business hub, driven by sectors including finance, technology, healthcare and logistics. Financial-services jobs increased 8% from 2021 to 2026, and average wages rose to $232,000 from $163,000, the organization said.

Yet some economists say an insufficient supply of high-paying jobs, coupled with rising living costs, is driving away college graduates and the middle class. High-income job growth has slowed in recent years, according to data from John Burns Research & Consulting.

Lower-income people are getting squeezed the most. Half of all households in Miami-Dade County are cost-burdened—meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing—according to a 2023 study by the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida. The county has a gap of more than 90,000 affordable units for renter households with incomes below 80% of area median income, the study found.

For years, Miami-Dade County has been losing growing numbers of people through net migration to other states. In 2025, the rate of people leaving metro Miami for other places in the U.S. was higher than that of any other large metro area, according to an analysis published last month by Jed Kolko, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Miami is the new San Francisco—at least in the sense that housing affordability is pushing people out,” he wrote.

Rising home prices have prompted many people to leave traditionally working-class neighborhoods such as Overtown, said Annie Lord, executive director of Miami Homes for All, which focuses on producing more affordable housing.

Jasmine Jamison, who grew up in Liberty City and worked as an administrative secretary for the county, moved to Locust Grove, Ga., outside Atlanta, in 2022 with her husband and their five children because they needed more space and could no longer afford Miami rents. They settled in a four-bedroom house that costs about $2,500 a month—the same amount they were paying for a smaller townhouse in South Florida.

The couple’s income—from her current job as executive director of a nonprofit and his as a truck driver—stretches further in Georgia. Four of her close friends from Miami have joined her in the state.

“Miami has become impossible,” said Jamison, 33 years old. “Everything is so different now.”

Matt Kuscher, who owns three restaurants in Miami, has seen many of his employees struggle to continue living in the city. Some pack into homes with family and friends, while others turn to motels they rent by the week. One of his managers moved north to Broward County and now commutes as much as an hour each way.

Kuscher is building 10 studio apartments above one of his restaurants in the Wynwood neighborhood, a once-edgy area now packed with stylish stores and expensive eateries. He plans to rent them out to service workers in the area at affordable rates set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Kuscher recently attended a conference organized by Miami Homes for All in Overtown, in the shadow of swanky new towers downtown. The aim was to highlight new approaches to small-scale development that could increase the stock of affordable housing.

“It’s a way to prevent total mass displacement of the community from those neighborhoods,” said Lord, of Miami Homes for All.