Rich Young Professionals Flee New York By The 1000s: Here's Why

You don’t need me to tell you that COVID lockdowns have changed business forever by dragging remote work into the mainstream. Working remotely means that if you have a wifi connection, you can work from just about anywhere these days. This means young professionals can set up shop in any state that catches their fancy.

And why wouldn’t they want to be in New York? Right here in the center of everything. If you’re young and have lots of income, wouldn’t this be an ideal state to live in? Well, new data suggests that the new generation isn’t flocking to be in NYC or even Upstate – actually, they’re trying to get out of here as fast as they can.

Make The Money And Run

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SmartAsset dug into IRS data from 2019 and 2020 tax returns. They looked for anyone under the age of 35 that made at least $100,000 per year that had moved states. Calculating the outflow with the inflow, SmartAsset figured out which state had the most rich young professionals leave. Guess who was number 1?

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New York had the biggest exodus, with 28,741 young professionals fleeing and only 12,953 moving in - a net loss of 15,788. California had the second largest loss. SmartAsset found that two particular states took in the most young, rich, former New Yorkers, and it’s not too hard to guess why.

Who Took In The Most And Why?

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Everything’s biggest in Texas, including the influx of rich young professionals – 15,0224 moved in, while only 11,201 left. A grand net positive of 3,823. Florida took in the second-most at 3,411 net. Reasons for leaving were mostly economic. According to Better Homes and Garden’s HomeCity, New York is 21.9% more expensive in cost of living than Texas.

Texas and Florida are two of the seven states without a personal state income tax. New York Income Tax for a single person making $100,000 would be 5,803. New York also has an additional tax for anyone with an adjusted gross income over 107,650. There’s not much of a benefit in sales tax either; while Florida adds 6% and Texas tacks on 6.25%, New York state sales tax is 4%.

How Do Young Professionals Rank New York's Economy in Midterm Election Concerns?

With only a few remaining weeks to go until the 2022 midterm elections, a new Siena College Research Institute poll shows what issues New York voters are most concerned with. Data was collected between September 16-25 via phone from 655 likely New York State voters.

A majority 53% of New Yorkers are pessimistic about where the country is headed, while 47% think the state's future is in trouble. Environmental issues just edged out of the top 8, with 55% of those polled in favor of New York passing the proposed $4.2 billion environmental bond act in November.

How Does New York's Tax Burden Stack Up Against Other States?

We can count on two things in life. Death and taxes.

In the state of New York, we can count on those taxes being high. But how high is our tax burden in the Empire State versus other states?

Wallethub recently ranked each of the 50 states based on overall tax burden which they define as "...the proportion of total personal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes." These rankings base that ax burden number on property, income, and sales taxes.

Here are the top 10 states from those rankings, And, yes, no surprise - New York made the list. But are we that bad off? See where New York ranks!