Other real-estate leaders, however, argued that the data says differently.
Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel, told Fortune the trend of wealthy buyers scooping up luxury New York real estate has been on display all year, contrary to the recent narrative of elites fleeing the city.
“Throughout 2025 on a year-over-year basis, overall sales have risen, prices have risen, sales have risen faster than inventory, rents have risen, rental activity has risen, and especially in October and November,” Miller said. “I’m looking at this anecdotal argument, and the plural of anecdotal is not data.”
The city hit a recent trough of 8.36 million in 2022, but recorded two consecutive years of relatively sluggish growth since then. The NYC Department of City Planning argued in May 2025 that the last two years of growth suggest losses during the pandemic “were a short-lived shock.”
While Miller said he doesn’t know how Mamdani’s future policies will impact the city, he noted there’s no evidence to suggest a mass millionaire migration. “This whole thing is a classic misinformation scenario, where no one’s looking at actual data,” he said.
