Affordable Housing 'Lost In Conversation' Of Miami's Wealth Boom, Officials Say
The Sunshine State has become the safe haven for billionaires fleeing from proposed wealth taxes, but as Miami welcomes the influx of the ultra-wealthy and their companies, current residents are struggling to keep up with rising costs and rents.
The population in Miami-Dade County has started to shrink as a result, reinforcing the need for the area to add more affordable housing if it wants to retain its economic progress, developers, Miami-Dade County officials and affordable housing advocates said at Bisnow’s South Florida Affordable Housing Summit on Thursday.
"For every billionaire that we recruit, it yields the additional need for affordable units, and sometimes that gets lost in conversation," Florida Housing Finance Corporation Chair Sandra Einhorn said at the event. "We're so focused on economic development, and we're so focused on rolling out the red carpet."
Both founders of Google, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Palantir founder Peter Thiel and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have all bought houses in the first few months of 2026 amid proposed wealth taxes in California and Washington state and a pied-à-terre tax on second luxury homes in New York.
Beyond the 0.01%, Miami's millionaire population grew 94% between 2014 and 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Henley & Partners.
But Miami-Dade County lost more than 10,000 residents between 2024 and 2025, putting it among the top three counties in the nation with the largest population declines, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“That wasn't the first year that we've seen that we have this danger,” Miami Homes For All Executive Director Annie Lord said onstage at Gale Miami Hotel and Residences in Downtown Miami.
Miami-Dade County is facing an affordable housing deficit of more than 90,000 units for residents earning less than 80% of the area median income, or about $75K annually, according to a 2025 report by Miami Homes For All. Miami residents spend nearly 34% of their income on rent, making it the least affordable city across 182 markets ranked in an April report by WalletHub.
Even with oversupply in multifamily causing market rents to soften and leasing activity to slow, rents have still increased by 40% over the last four years alone, according to the Consumer Price Index. The average price per month for a one-bedroom unit is $2,580, according to an April Zumper report.
"That's way out of the range of a lot of folks," Swerdlow Group Chief Strategy Officer Michael Liu said.
Liu called on executives at the companies growing their businesses in Miami to do more to bring down the cost of housing. Swerdlow is building a 5,703-unit mixed-use development in Little River, with more than 2,200 of the apartments restricted to those making up to 60% of the area median income.
"I'll give credit: There are some employers that are trying," he said. "Unfortunately, they're not the big people."
Citadel, a hedge fund led by billionaire Ken Griffin, has already brought to Miami or hired 400 employees in the city while it prepares to build its 1.3M SF headquarters in Downtown Miami. Amazon opened a 76K SF office in Wynwood last year, while Apple moved into 42K SF in Coral Gables.
"If they want to do something to help them get the jobs, or get those at the lower level to get the jobs, come up with some money to help these folks pay the rent," said Liu, who was the director of the Housing Department in Miami-Dade County for 10 years before joining Swerdlow.
The most notable measure the state has made to combat the affordable housing crisis is implementing the Live Local Act, which gives developers tax breaks and the ability to override local zoning rules as long as they dedicate at least 40% of their project to units affordable to those making 120% of the AMI.
But developers have questioned the law's ability to get at the core of affordable housing because the shortage is more critical for those making below 100% of AMI.
Between now and 2030, 70% of the jobs created in Miami-Dade County will pay less than $20 an hour, or about $40K a year, which is about 50% of the AMI, Lord said.
"People come to paradise, not for the billionaires," Einhorn said. "People come to paradise for the workers that we are losing."
"I think that it's important, not as an afterthought, not as a check-the-box, but for developers to truly look around at the community that they're looking to develop in and embrace that neighborhood, embrace that community."
