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Miami heat: Phones are ringing off the hook as California billionaires look to drop 9 figures on homes in the 305

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Miami heat: Phones are ringing off the hook as California billionaires look to drop 9 figures on homes in the 305


Saddy Abaunza Delgado has sold luxury real estate in South Florida for over three decades, typically to doctors or family business owners ready to spend as much as $8 million on a home in the Miami area.

Almost overnight, that’s changed. Her phones are ringing with billionaires — titans of tech and finance — looking to drop nine figures on waterfront properties.

“I got a flurry of requests and inquiries,” Delgado, who has landed two billionaire clients recently, told Business Insider. “I had a lot of Zoom calls with people coming in January after the holidays.”

While the Florida migration among everyday people may have cooled following a pandemic-era boom, billionaires are fueling a spree of massive purchases. They are largely looking to avoid a proposed California wealth tax, which Delgado said led to the busiest January she’s ever experienced. She’s not the only one; three other agents told Business Insider that inquiries picked up at the end of 2025 and continued into 2026.

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Google cofounder Larry Page dropped nine figures on properties in the 305 over the past few months, sparking a series of news articles about who might follow. His cofounder, Sergey Brin, is reportedly close to closing on a $50 million property, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly looking in the area.

“The Californians were never really a target market for us,” Delgado said. “California’s a beautiful state, but now, because of all the political situations and all the tax laws, it’s just coming in our favor.”

Florida’s billionaire population is growing. The state had 123 as of the start of the year, up from 110 in January 2025, according to Forbes data compiled by Americans for Tax Fairness.

California’s billionaires aren’t the only ones taking an interest. With Palantir planning to move its HQ from Denver to Miami, CEO Alex Karp may soon be putting down roots.

When Big Tech comes to call

People moving to Florida for tax reasons is nothing new. The state — which has a 0% income tax, including capital gains, and limited business regulation — has seen waves of ultrawealthy migration.

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During the pandemic and shortly after, Miami boomed, attracting people from the northeast and Chicago who were drawn by lax COVID-19 restrictions and lower taxes.

Big names from the world of finance, like Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Thoma Bravo, moved themselves, and then their companies, to the city. Crypto firms flocked to take advantage of Florida’s friendly policies — FTX, pre-fall, made a grand entrance by buying the naming rights to the local arena — and many big-name VCs ensured they had at least one partner on the ground to make deals.

The proposed billionaire tax is helping propel the latest wave.

At the end of last year, some billionaires began cutting ties with California ahead of a proposed Billionaire Tax Act deadline, which would impose a one-time 5% tax on California residents worth over $1 billion, including those who moved after January 1. The proposal hasn’t yet garnered enough support to make the November ballot, but that doesn’t mean rich residents haven’t threatened to leave the state.

Page spent over $180 million on three properties in Coconut Grove. Brin looks set to follow, with outlets including the New York Post reporting he’s in talks to buy a $50 million waterfront property on Allison Island. Zuckerberg, too, is looking to make a deal on billionaire bunker Indian Creek, as The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Representatives for Page and Brin did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on Zuckerberg’s potential move to South Florida earlier in February.

Finance set the table, now it’s tech’s turn to eat — and their meals are the most expensive yet.

“Before, having a $20 million or $30 million sale was an outlier,” Ana Teresa Rodriguez of Coldwell Banker Realty told Business Insider. “You needed to be very lucky to sell that.”

Data from Miami real estate research firm Analytics Miami shows that in 2018, one single-family home over $30 million sold in Miami-Dade County. In 2025, 19 homes priced over $30 million sold — a 1,800% increase.

Empty lots are even selling for $100 million, a price point unheard of in Miami before 2020, according to Analytics Miami.

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Water frontage has become the ultimate target for the ultrawealthy, and since there isn’t that much of it, it’s going for whatever someone is willing to pay.

“The prime single-family waterfront areas, like Star Island, Indian Creek, and the Venetian Islands, all those places, that’s prime scarcity,” Analytics Miami founder Ana Bozovic told Business Insider. “The influx of billionaires from California,” she said, will likely add to the “escalation of the market.”

More than mansions

Billionaires are famously high-maintenance, and attracting them is no small feat.

Douglas Elliman agent Dina Goldentayer said that the latest crop of Miami movers — coming from an already sunny state — aren’t just fascinated by the sun rays and glamour of South Florida.

“Miami has never been as sophisticated and as diverse as it is in 2026, and the level of wealth moving here is making Miami level up,” Goldentayer told Business Insider.

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Though the number of billionaires arriving in Miami enclaves is small relative to those neighborhoods’ total populations, their wealth is not. A dozen billionaires can have an outsize influence on a local economy.

“Wealthy people like to have access to really good financial advice; they want to have access to good legal advice,” Liam Bailey, the global head of research at Knight Frank, told Business Insider.

To attract that infrastructure, Billionaire Florida transplants Griffin and Stephen Ross put a combined $10 million toward a new effort to bring talent and companies to Florida’s “Gold Coast,” the stretch from Miami to Palm Beach.

Their push, called “Ambition Accelerated,” aims to attract tech and business sectors by working with founders, CEOs, and investors, CEO Mike Simas of the Florida Council of 100, which is running the initiative, told Business Insider. He pointed to the region’s expanding educational and healthcare options, such as new private schools and a Cleveland Clinic branch in West Palm Beach, as key selling points.

And of course, money — from tax savings to utility costs — is a big part of the pitch.

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“You’ve got a partner in government for your growth rather than a government that’s trying to cap that success with regulation or tax, or other burdens,” Simas said.

To be sure, Miami has been trying to make Miami happen for quite some time — and it’s a long way from becoming the next Wall Street or Silicon Valley.

“Even if compared to the size of the financial cluster in New York, it’s tiny, and the tech cluster in California, it’s tiny. What’s going on at the moment, in Miami, is embryonic,” Bailey said. “Over time, if you get enough of this kind of activity, you are basically constantly enhancing the depth of talent pool and the depth of opportunities.”

After all, a tanned and McMansion-filled Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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Miami, FL

3 hurt in fire on Lincoln Road that started underground

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3 hurt in fire on Lincoln Road that started underground


Three people were hurt after a building caught fire on Lincoln Road on Sunday, according to authorities.

The Miami Beach Fire Department said it was working a fire near 230 Lincoln Road.

The flames had spread from a fire in a manhole that “ignited an FPL vault of an adjacent building,” officials said.

Three people were taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center with minor injuries.

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The building was evacuated, and FPL has shut off power to the surrounding area, the fire department said.

Drivers were asked to avoid the area of Collins Avenue between 16th and 17th streets while crews worked the scene.



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“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Tommie Lee among 6 arrested during World Cup match in Miami, sheriff says

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“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Tommie Lee among 6 arrested during World Cup match in Miami, sheriff says


Reality television personality Tommie Lee — whose real name is Atasha Jefferson — best known for her appearances on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” was among six people arrested during the England vs. Norway FIFA World Cup match in Miami on Saturday, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.  

The sheriff’s office said 60,024 fans attended the match. Deputies also reported 19 ejections from the stadium, adding that all incidents were isolated and handled quickly.  

Authorities have not yet released the circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s arrest or any charges she may face.

A social media account that regularly reports celebrity news claimed Sunday that Jefferson was arrested July 11 and released July 12 after posting a $1,000 bond. The post also alleged she is facing a felony charge of interference with a sporting or entertainment event and said she later shared a video on Snapchat appearing to be in good spirits after her release.

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What we don’t know

CBS News has not independently verified those claims, including the reported charge, bond amount or release information, and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office has not publicly confirmed those details.

CBS News has also not independently verified what led to the encounter, and the sheriff’s office has not said what prompted deputies to take Jefferson into custody.

CBS News has requested Jefferson’s arrest report, booking information and any charging documents from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. A request for comment has also been sent to Jefferson’s representatives.

Reality TV star’s legal troubles in South Florida amid World Cup festivities

Jefferson rose to national prominence as one of the breakout personalities on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” before later appearing on several Zeus Network reality series, where she has remained a frequent cast member.

This is not Jefferson’s first legal issue in South Florida. In 2024, she was arrested in Miami Beach on a battery charge following an incident outside LIV Nightclub. Court records from that case alleged she physically confronted another person before officers took her into custody.  

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Saturday’s arrest comes as Miami continues hosting FIFA World Cup matches that have drawn tens of thousands of fans from around the world. Despite the arrests and ejections, the sheriff’s office said the event proceeded safely and described the incidents as isolated.  

This is a developing story. CBS News will update this article as additional information, including the exact circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s arrest and any charges, becomes available.



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Why I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami

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Why I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami


The reaction to the trade was predictable. The moment Pat Riley landed his whale and the Heat sent most of their young talent and a war chest of draft picks to Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the conversation turned away from how Miami finally landed the star they had been seeking, to calf strains and Giannis not being the superstar player that he once was.

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“He only played 36 games last year.” ”The calf injuries keep coming back.” “He’s 31, turning 32.” “They bet the franchise on a body that’s breaking down.”

Various voices on Giannis Antetokounmpo

I’ve spent Over 15 years working with youth, collegiate and pro athletes on exactly this question, not “is he hurt,” but “what does this injury actually mean for what comes next.” And I’ll say it plainly: I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT GIANNIS. Not in the way the panic merchants want you to be.

Let me be clear about what I’m NOT claiming. I’m not his trainer. I don’t have his imaging, his force-plate data, or his medical file. And I’m not going to insult you by telling you calf strains are nothing, because in a 31-year-old NBA forward with 13 years in the NBA, they are decidedly something. The fear has a real basis.

The soleus and the gastrocnemius, which are the two muscles of your calf, both funnel down into the Achilles tendon. When a calf is compromised and an athlete returns before it has its full capacity back, the load it can’t absorb has to go somewhere, and the Achilles is next in line. We’ve watched it happen on the biggest stages. Those are the facts and I take it seriously. I just don’t think it’s the story here.

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Here’s why…

He’s one of the most durable superstars of his era

Before we talk about what’s fragile, look at what’s been bulletproof. Strip away the two COVID-compressed seasons that the entire league played short, and strip away last year (where he wa shut down by the team), and across his other ten campaigns Giannis averaged roughly 73 games a season and never once dipped below 63. He cleared 72 games in 7 different seasons. For more than a decade, the single most physically violent player in basketball, a 6’11”, 250+ pound freight train who initiates more contact per possession than almost anyone alive — was, by availability, an iron man.

Tissue tolerance, connective-tissue quality, recovery capacity, and movement efficiency are stable characteristics of an athlete, and Giannis has eleven years of evidence that his are elite. One brutal season doesn’t erase that baseline. When a historically available athlete has one wrecked year, the honest question should be “what was different about that year.” And a lot was.

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The injuries are soft tissue, not structural

Here’s the piece that many are missing, and it’s the heart of my optimism. Call me a fan if you want, but I hate seeing ANYONE get injured. I’m rooting for Giannis to bounce back.

There are two broad categories of injury, and they age completely differently. The first is structural: torn ligaments, ruptured tendons, cartilage and joint degeneration, stress fractures. These leave a permanent mark. A reconstructed ACL is never the original. Cartilage doesn’t grow back. These are the injuries that genuinely shorten careers, because the tissue itself is changed forever and the clock only runs one direction.

The second category is soft-tissue strains or muscle. A calf strain, a groin strain, a hamstring pull. And muscle is the one tissue in the lower body that, when managed properly, heals back to full structural integrity. It is not a cumulative wound. A calf you strained in December and rehabbed correctly is not a weaker calf in March; it’s a healed calf. There’s no scar that compounds the way an arthritic joint compounds. Strains are frustrating, they’re disruptive to a season, and they recur when you rush them, but they are not a countdown timer ticking toward catastrophe.

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Now go down Giannis’s list from last season: a low-grade groin strain. A calf strain. A re-aggravated calf. An ankle sprain. A knee hyperextension with a bone bruise. Look at that honestly. The ankle sprain is acute meaning it’s a one-off mechanical event as opposed to a sign of decay. The knee hyperextension and bone bruise are traumatic. That could be somebody’s leg, a bad landing, a freak gather (no pun intended). A bone bruise heals. None of those four are degenerative. None of them are the kind of injury that feeds the next one.

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Which leaves the calf. The one real recurrence. So let’s talk about the calf specifically, because that’s where the argument is actually won or lost.

What a soleus strain is

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Cleveland Clinic

Your calf is two muscles doing two different jobs. The gastrocnemius is the showy one that crosses both the knee and the ankle, it’s fast-twitch, it’s what fires when you sprint and explode off the floor. The soleus sits underneath it, crosses only the ankle, and it’s the endurance muscle. It’s considered the postural workhorse that absorbs force every time you decelerate, land, and push off, thousands of times a night in the case of many athletes. Giannis’s recurring problem has been the soleus.

Soleus strains are classic high-mileage, fatigue-and-load injuries. They show up in athletes who run an enormous volume on a heavy frame which is the literal job description of a player who logged the third-highest workload on a bad team.

And here’s the critical part: soleus strains are notoriously slow to heal and notoriously easy to re-tweak. The calf is one of hardest lower-leg structures to truly load-test before return. It can pass every clinical check, feel 100 percent walking and even jogging, and still not have the deep capacity to handle a full-speed game’s worth of repeated max-effort decelerations. Return a week early and you’re injuring healed tissue that hadn’t been rebuilt to game-level capacity yet.

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Feb 6, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers talks to forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Last season was the worst possible environment for getting that management right. Consider the context Giannis was actually operating in. Milwaukee went 32-50 and missed the playoffs. The franchise eventually fired its coach.

Giannis spent the entire year as the center of a trade saga that, by every report, had him wanting out for over a year. A declining team with a disgruntled superstar and a front office weighing his trade value against his health is the textbook setup for muddled, hurried, incentive-conflicted return decisions which are exactly the conditions under which a soleus strain becomes two soleus strains.

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Now change the environment as he lands in Miami. Known for being an organization with a near-mythological reputation for conditioning and body management, a culture that has rehabilitated and extended careers other teams gave up on.

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He pairs with Bam Adebayo, which means for the first time in years Giannis doesn’t have to be the entire offensive and defensive engine every single night. As of now the roster isn’t fully complete but they will add to that so that there’s lower usage and a shared load. Real return-to-play standards instead of playoff-desperation math. You take the most fixable injury pattern on his chart and drop it into the best possible setting to fix it.

Feb 13, 2024; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives against Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) in the first half at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
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His game is built to age

There’s a movement argument too. Giannis isn’t a stop-start, pull-up, hard-cut guard whose game is one violent deceleration after another. He’s a downhill, long-stride force athlete. His value comes from length, gather, straight-line pressure, rim protection, and playmaking. Those are skills that lean on size and feel, and they degrade gracefully with age in a way that twitchy, change-of-direction games don’t. The same frame that makes him an injury talking point is the frame that lets him dominate without living on the edge of his physical limits every possession.

What would actually change my mind? If the recurring issue were structural, like a partial Achilles tear, chronic patellar tendon breakdown that imaging showed was degenerating, cartilage loss in the knee, I’d be writing a very different column.

If he came back this season and strained the same calf a third and fourth time despite a clean environment and proper protocols, that would tell me something about the tissue I can’t see. And the Achilles risk that follows calf injuries in some athletes is real enough that it should govern how Miami brings him back: slowly, on capacity-based criteria.

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EVERY great athlete in his thirties requires careful management. That’s just the truth.

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I’m not telling you he’s invincible. But I’m not willing to bet against eleven years of durability and the most fixable problem on the chart if you want. I’ll take the Greek Freak, the new setting, and the science that we’ll all be watching a productive age-32 season with a lot less fear than the headlines are selling you.

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