For decades, the standard play for wealthy out-of-state transplants was to head straight for the high-octane flash of Florida’s East Coast. But as California’s housing affordability challenges, homelessness and proposals for higher taxes have pushed some families to a state of constant “high alert,” a secondary corporate and residential gold rush is quietly emerging along the Gulf Coast.

Driven by an I-75 corridor stretching from Tampa to Marco Island, Hollywood elites and high-net-worth families are trading the challenges of major West Coast cities for what transplants describe as a “smaller, safer Beverly Hills,” helping fuel a multibillion-dollar real estate boom in historically quiet retirement havens.

“This is actually very, very common, especially the younger that the family is. I think that the older the demographic gets, they are coming specifically for one reason, and that’s either retirement or to be close to family. But when you have a younger family… or someone that just graduated college, they are looking for lots of different life transitions to happen, wherever that is. So they are not just looking for where they’re familiar with vacationing and what that kind of lifestyle is, they want to know what it’s like to live there,” Compass agent and Naples native Madeline Tracy told Fox News Digital.

Her clients, longtime Los Angeles actors Philip Levens and Carolyn Stotesbery, recently purchased a home in Naples after spending more than two decades in California.

SILICON VALLEY ELITE DROP RECORD WEALTH TO BUILD FLORIDA’S NEW ‘TECH CAPITAL’

“I flew into Tampa, St. Pete, Sarasota, went all the way down the coast and I kept saying, ‘No, this isn’t where I would want to live.’ And I was actually getting a little depressed thinking, okay, well, maybe this side of Florida isn’t what we need,” Levens recalled. “I remember I drove to downtown Naples, and then I took a right there that goes to the dead ends of the beach. I got out of the car… I called my wife and I said, ‘This is where we’re going to live.’”

“He was FaceTiming me from the beach,” Stotesbery said, “and he just had a sparkle in his eye, and showed me the beach and the city, and loved the architecture and the colors, and it just really called to us.”

“Tampa down to Naples is a unique corridor because it gives you, in that two-and-a-half-hour geographical drive that you would have… you have both culture, you have the arts there, but you’re able to settle in a more quaint community that isn’t as urbanized as it may be on the East Coast,” Kolter Urban Senior Vice President Ed Jahn told Fox News Digital.

The Gulf Coast migration could soon see an extra boost as newly-minted millionaires from tech IPOs like SpaceX — and eventually Anthropic and OpenAI — move their capital and residencies to tax-friendly Florida, finding more price flexibility along the state’s western coastline as markets like Miami become oversaturated.

For Levens and Stotesbery, their move is fueled by what they describe as a desire to escape concerns about public safety and city governance in major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles.

“The first thing I notice is there’s no homeless people in homeless tents, [homeless] cities and garbage,” Levens said. “When you come from a city that is not well-run, like Los Angeles, you immediately notice the difference, and just everything seems to work.”

“I was walking my daughter in the stroller in Los Angeles and there was a homeless man like lying on the ground while I was strolling past,” Stotesbery said. “It just really kept my nervous system on high alert, and so when we came here, just the entire vibe of the city made us feel just more at ease and peaceful.”

Naples has transformed significantly over the last 15 years from a quiet retirement town with agricultural remnants into an elite luxury destination that now attracts premier global brands. Upon his first visit, Levens said it reminded him of Beverly Hills.

CALIFORNIA EXODUS 2.0: HOW SPACEX, TECH IPOs COULD TRIGGER THE NEXT MASSIVE WEALTH FLIGHT TO FLORIDA

“Downtown Naples has a very similar architectural style to Beverly Hills. That struck me right [away], I saw that immediately. But also, Beverly Hills is a very clean, safe area, but it’s still surrounded by Los Angeles. And so you don’t have that here. You have swamps or… the ocean,” he explained. “So Naples as a whole is much safer than Beverly Hills, and it’s cleaner, too.”

“When I was five years old, okay, Waterside Shops was not Waterside Shops. It was a strip mall with a Victoria’s Secret in it, and next to the CVS was a chicken farm. So it has so drastically changed over time with just the commercial aspect of it really building up,” Tracy added. “They do have this exclusivity feel, but also this extension of feeling like, oh, this feels like home, this feels something familiar where I just came from that you can’t get [anywhere] else.”

“The East Coast did seem quite hustle-and-bustle for us and our family,” Stotesbery also noted. “Peacefulness was a big part of what I valued for my daughters growing up and our children in general… If we wanna go off for a weekend to Miami, like we can go off for a weekend to Miami or to Delray or the East Coast, have a date night over there, bring in grandma, watch the kids. But what do we want for our overall experience day to day?”

The wave of liquid capital emanating from recent gains in the technology sector, private-company liquidity events and financial markets has lowered the average age of luxury buyers, creating a younger class of affluent primary residents. This trend has benefited developers like Kolter Urban, which has more than $3.2 billion invested in active Gulf Coast developments.

“When you come from a city that is not well run, like Los Angeles, you immediately notice the difference.”

– Philip Levens

“These buyers that are in the financial markets, whether they’re in cryptocurrency… or private equity, that group of buyer wants flexibility, wants convenience. And the urban condo high-rise lifestyle that is centered in great walkability areas, such as Sarasota, St. Pete, Tampa, down in Naples, offers them that,” Jahn said.

According to the local real estate professionals and recent transplants, overcoming the hesitation to relocate often leads to a ripple effect: Once a household makes the move, friends and colleagues in higher-tax states frequently express interest in following suit.

“Focus on the lifestyle, not the house. You can make a house into a home by changing the floors, by changing whatever you want. But it’s so, so important that you do what Carolyn and Philip did and come down, experience the neighborhoods,” Tracy encouraged.

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“It’s a big move from California to here. It’s 3,000 miles and there’s a lot of things your friends say, ‘Why? How can you leave?’” Levens said. “So it’s a difficult move, but I would say just do it… Fortune smiles on the bold. Just make the move and things will fall into place the way you need them to.”

“There’s always a reason to talk yourself out of something like this,” Stotesbery said. “But when you decide, ‘I want to change, I want a new lifestyle, this isn’t working for me anymore,’ and you stop procrastinating and move past that fear and that anxiety, it’s so worth it.”

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Shares of Billionbrains Garage Ventures, the parent company of digital investment platform Groww, have been volatile. Yet behind the short-term price swings, a bigger trend is emerging: institutional investors are showing increasing confidence in the company’s growth story. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Mutual Funds both raised their holdings in Groww during the June 2026 quarter, signalling that large investors are optimistic about the company’s ability to benefit from India’s rapidly expanding retail investment market.

The optimism is also supported by Groww’s strong Q1FY27 performance. The company delivered a strong Q1FY27 performance, with net profit surging 94% year-on-year and revenue climbing 66%. Following the results, several leading brokerages maintained a positive view on the stock, with some raising their price targets.

With institutional ownership rising and earnings momentum improving, the key question for investors is — should you Buy, Sell, or Hold Groww shares?

Groww Q1FY27 Results: Profit nearly doubles, Revenue jumps 66%

The company reported a 94.44% year-on-year jump in Q1FY27 net profit to Rs 735 crore, compared with Rs 378 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Groww’s revenue from operations also witnessed a sharp uptick, rising 66% to Rs 1,504 crore from Rs 904 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

What are brokerages saying after the Q1FY27 results?

Global brokerage Jefferies has maintained a positive stance on Groww and assigned a target price of Rs 250, indicating a potential upside of around 21%.According to Jefferies, Groww is well positioned to benefit from the structural shift in household savings from traditional fixed-income products toward equity and market-linked investments. The brokerage highlighted Groww’s product-agnostic platform, noting that expansion into newer products and services could increase customer engagement and improve wallet share.

Jefferies has raised its FY27-FY29 earnings per share (EPS) estimates by 1-6%, with the revised target price also reflecting a valuation roll-forward to September 2028. The brokerage noted that the stock currently trades at around 45 times FY27 estimated earnings, with an expected three-year EPS compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 30%.
JM Financial has turned more positive on Groww, upgrading its rating from Sell to Buy and increasing the target price to Rs 250 from Rs 170. The brokerage said its confidence in Groww’s growth outlook has improved after the company delivered a resilient performance despite a slowdown in retail trading activity compared with the previous quarter’s peak.
JM Financial highlighted improving operational efficiency, with Groww’s cost-to-income ratio declining by 3 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 36%. The brokerage has raised its FY27, FY28, and FY29 EPS estimates by 4%, 6%, and 11%, respectively. It now values Groww at a 50% premium to Angel One, compared with 20% earlier, citing stronger earnings growth, better margins, and a larger customer asset base.
Motilal Oswal has also retained its Buy rating on Groww with a revised target price of Rs 250. The brokerage expects Groww’s broking order volumes to grow by more than 20% during FY27 and FY28, supported by continued market share gains and improving revenue per order. It believes additional growth drivers could come from businesses such as Margin Trading Facility (MTF), Loan Against Securities (LAS), and wealth management services.

Motilal Oswal has increased its earnings estimates by 1% for FY27 and 3% for FY28, factoring in improved operating efficiency. The revised target price is based on a valuation of 38 times FY28 estimated EPS.

The rise in institutional ownership, strong customer growth, improving operational efficiency, and positive brokerage commentary indicate growing confidence in Groww’s long-term story.

For long-term investors, Groww’s expanding ecosystem, rising retail participation in equities, and institutional backing remain key positives. Short-term investors may need to monitor valuation comfort and market volatility before taking fresh positions.

Groww shares doubled investor wealth since listing

Billionbrains Garage Ventures made its stock market debut on November 12, 2025, listing on both the NSE and BSE. The company’s IPO was priced at Rs 100 per share, while the stock opened at a listing price of Rs 112 per share. Since then, the stock has delivered strong returns. Currently trading around Rs 203 per share, Groww has more than doubled investor wealth from its issue price in just about eight months.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch 9 will run on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear Elite processor, according to newly leaked promotional images that confirm months of prior reporting about the smartwatch’s biggest hardware shift in years, just days ahead of the device’s official unveiling.

The leaked marketing materials, shared by longtime leaker Evan Blass through his “Leakmail” newsletter, include an image explicitly labeling the standard Galaxy Watch 9, not the higher-end Watch Ultra 2, as “Powered by Snapdragon Wear Elite.” The image marks the clearest visual confirmation yet that Samsung is moving away from its longtime in-house Exynos chip for the flagship version of its smartwatch line, following a series of earlier leaks that had pointed toward the same conclusion.

The end of an Exynos era

The shift represents a significant change for Samsung’s wearable strategy. The Galaxy Watch series has relied exclusively on Samsung’s own Exynos chipsets for years, a choice that had actually worked in Samsung’s favor during an extended period when Qualcomm’s competing smartwatch processors lagged behind in performance. With Qualcomm’s chip technology having since closed that gap and, according to recent reporting, surpassed Exynos in key performance metrics, the open question heading into this year was whether Samsung would abandon its in-house silicon for its watch lineup entirely. The newly leaked images suggest the answer is yes, at least for the standard Galaxy Watch 9 model.

Qualcomm first announced the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip earlier this year, describing the 3-nanometer processor as offering substantially faster overall performance along with expanded capacity for on-device artificial intelligence tasks. At the time of that announcement, Qualcomm also confirmed that Samsung would be adopting the chip for at least one upcoming device, though the exact model lineup remained unconfirmed until this week’s leaked imagery.

What the new chip is expected to deliver

According to multiple reports tracking the Galaxy Watch 9’s development, the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip is expected to bring a meaningful jump in both raw performance and power efficiency compared with the outgoing Exynos W1000 processor used in the Galaxy Watch 8. Estimates from industry reports have pointed to as much as a 50% performance boost alongside power efficiency improvements of up to 30%, translating into longer battery life alongside faster processing.

The chip’s dedicated neural processing unit is also expected to enable more advanced on-device artificial intelligence features without requiring a constant connection to a paired smartphone, including capabilities such as real-time fitness coaching and instant smart reply suggestions generated directly on the watch itself. Additional connectivity upgrades tied to the new chip are expected to include Bluetooth 6.0 support and ultra-wideband compatibility for more precise device tracking and location-based features.

Samsung’s own marketing has already confirmed the shift

Beyond the leaked images, Samsung itself began teasing the Galaxy Watch 9’s new processor directly through its own official channels earlier this month. Three promotional videos posted to Samsung’s newsroom described a Snapdragon-based processor replacing the company’s Exynos chip, alongside a wrist-raise gesture designed to activate Google’s Gemini assistant and expanded health-tracking features Samsung has described as functioning like a personal coach for nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress management.

Those official teasers, combined with the newly leaked promotional renders, leave little doubt about the processor switch heading into Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event, scheduled to take place in London on July 22. The Galaxy Watch 9 is expected to launch alongside the more rugged Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, as well as Samsung’s next generation of foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8.

What remains unconfirmed

While the chip switch itself now appears effectively confirmed through both leaked marketing materials and Samsung’s own teasers, several details about the Galaxy Watch 9 remain unofficial ahead of next week’s launch event. Samsung has not yet confirmed pricing for the new smartwatch, though some industry estimates have suggested a starting price similar to the Galaxy Watch 8’s prior pricing structure. Exact per-model specifications, including potential differences between the standard Watch 9 and the Ultra 2 in terms of processor configuration, battery capacity and additional hardware features, are also expected to be detailed formally at the Unpacked keynote rather than through leaks.

Reports have also pointed to a refreshed design for the new smartwatch generation, with leaks suggesting a return to a more streamlined aesthetic alongside updated software built on the newest version of Google’s Wear OS platform. Additional expected features include expanded durability certifications and support for activities such as trail running and dive detection, according to Samsung’s own promotional teasers.

With Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event now just days away, the Galaxy Watch 9’s full specifications, pricing and broader software features are expected to become official during the July 22 keynote in London. Given how closely this week’s leaked marketing images align with Samsung’s own recent teasers, industry observers say there is little remaining uncertainty about the smartwatch’s core hardware direction, even as final pricing and additional feature details are still expected to be revealed formally at next week’s event.

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