Palm Beach average age drops rapidly as lockdown-weary New York families flee to Florida 

Coastline of Palm Beach, Florida

Virus-weary young New Yorkers are packing up and moving to Florida’s Palm Beach, turning the island into what estate agents are calling a “Hamptons of the South”.

With less of a need to work out of offices in Manhattan, which levies some of the highest taxes in the country, young professionals are abandoning the Big Apple in favour of a quieter life.

Palm Beach, which has long been popular with retirees, is now seeing an influx of younger families.

The median age is “dropping faster than SpaghettiOs from a toddler’s highchair,” a Sotheby’s realtor said in a recent letter to clients.

The frenzy has increased since March, making it one of the fastest growing real estate markets in the US. One-time New Yorker Anna Raytcheva, who used to work at Citigroup before starting her own hedge fund, moved earlier this month.

“Without the pandemic, it wouldn’t have been as easy to make the move,” Ms Raytcheva told Bloomberg.

“I’m able to focus without much distraction, but have the flexibility to take advantage of the nice weather.”

The South Florida Business Journal also reports that a New York investing group purchased an apartment complex on the island for $47 million, pointing to a longer-term shift. 

Coronavirus USA Spotlight Chart — cases default

The rise in popularity of sun-drenched Palm Beach mirrors the boom The Hamptons, located on Long Island’s South Fork, experienced in the 1980s as finance workers began buying up property for a break from hectic city life.

“It used to be, you were frowned upon if you lived somewhere while you were having fun, while everyone else was in a cramped apartment,” said Mimi McMakin of Kemble Interiors.

“Now, people are actually allowed to have a life, and how lucky they are to figure out they can do it where it’s pretty and the streets are clean, and there are flowers and people getting around on bicycles.”

According to change of address requests obtained by the New York Post in November, over 300,000 people are estimated to have left the city since the onset of the pandemic.

Palm Beach is where the Trump family is expected to set up home after the president leaves office next month. Donald Trump moved his official residence from New York to his Mar-a-Lago hotel last year.

Wife Melania was reportedly seen touring schools in the area for 14-year-old son, Barron, last week.

Daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, meanwhile, have recently bought a $30 million lot of land on nearby Miami’s high-security Indian Creek Island — known as the “Billionaire’s Bunker”.