THANANIT – stock.adobe.com
Deep-pocketed Zoomers are bidding adieu to life in Illinois, Washington and Massachusetts — and saying hello to being residents of New York, Florida and Tennessee.
According to new findings from the financial technology company SmartAsset, those are the top three states for exits and arrivals by the wealthiest members of Gen Z.
To determine where the demographic — defined as households under the age of 26 who earn more than $200,000 a year — are coming from and going to, SmartAsset analyzed recent tax returns, which showed that the Empire State, Sunshine State and, perhaps most surprisingly, the Volunteer State are rich young people’s current most popular destinations.
New York, with its net gain of 773 high-earning Gen Z households, was found to be the top terminus for migrating Zoomers, 1,262 of whom moved in and 489 of whom moved out between 2021 and 2022, bringing the state’s percent of wealthy Zoomer households to 0.74%.
Florida came in a far second, attracting only 89 such households, or eight times fewer than New York, with 288 demographic households moving in and 199 moving out.
Tennessee came in third, but by a small margin with its net inflow of 33 affluent Gen Z households.
Colorado, meanwhile, had a net inflow of 24, Texas a net inflow of 18 and Arizona a net inflow of 14.
On the other side of the coin are the Prairie State (Illinois), Evergreen State and the Bay State.
More than anywhere else in the United States, SmartAsset found that Illinois lost the most wealthy Gen Z households, or 80 in total.
Washington had a close second, with its net 78 households loss, followed by a nearly tied Massachusetts, which lost 76 households.
As to why these moneyed youth are jumping states, SmartAsset noted that “due to their age and income, they may be more prone to moving for economic and lifestyle opportunities than some older counterparts.”
Also of note is that members of Gen Z have a longer time frame ahead of them in terms of their careers and investments, meaning they could “potentially have a larger lifetime impact on their communities.”