Google cofounder Larry Page recently drew his line in the sand on a beach on the opposite side of California — and it cost him over $170 million.
California has proposed the Billionaire Tax Act, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on residents worth over $1 billion. Page, whose net worth is $269 billion as of January according to Forbes, isn’t giving California the option to tax him and is deserting the Golden State for a state on the opposite extreme of taxing the wealthy: Florida.
The proposed bill, which doesn’t appear on the ballot until November, would retroactively tax billionaires living in California as of January 1. Conveniently, Page reportedly located a Florida residence just before then.
Page purchased a 4.5-acre compound in Miami’s glamorous Coconut Grove neighborhood in December 2025 for $101.5 million, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Miami-Dade County property records show late restaurateur Jonathan Lewis previously owned the property.
And for good measure, property records show a trust linked to Page bought another property — less than a mile away from the other — for $71.9 million in January this year. The trust, Tropical Frontier Revocable Trust, lists Florida attorney Benjamin Babcock and Mary McFadden Quisenberry, the chief operating officer of Palo Alto, California-based Rosewood Family Advisors, as trustees. Babcock declined to comment on the transaction.
Tax filings from Page’s family foundation, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation, show Rosewood Family Advisors provided tax and accounting services for the foundation in 2024. Rosewood Family Advisors could not be reached for comment.
Page also filed to move a number of his businesses from California to Delaware, Florida, and Texas, Business Insider reported earlier this year.
Many wealthy Californians move to Florida
An agent involved in the $101.5-million transaction, Danny Hertzberg of The Jills Zeder Group, declined to comment on this particular deal. He said wealthy Californians have been lining up to buy homes in Florida recently.
“We started feeling an impact, let’s say in early December, which really picked up going to the end of the year,” Hertzberg told Business Insider. “California’s dominating the high end of the market. The market right now, in terms of offers and active buyers, has a huge California presence, and it’s directly related to 5% net worth.”
Wealthy people moving to South Florida isn’t a new trend, though some of the most recent residents made large splashes. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, arguably, became the most notable Florida mover after building his own compound on an exclusive island in Miami’s Biscayne Bay.
South Florida tried a somewhat rebrand in the early 2020s as the Silicon Valley of the East and did attract some movers. This latest shift has serious legs and the potential to change the perception of South Florida, according to Hertzberg.
“All of the movement I’ve seen from California is primary residences — people putting roots down and planning to be here,” Hertzberg said. “I think that may push along an already strong existing trend as Miami emerges as a major destination for finance and tech.”
“With the level and caliber of people that are looking, that have already acquired properties here, and that are moving here, I do think, on the overall business perspective of Miami, it’s already one of the major players in the country, if not the world,” Hertzberg added. “And it’s going to be elevated as one of the premier destinations for those industries of finance, tech, and everything related.”
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