While speaking at the the National Conservatism conference last week, Thiel pointed to high real estate prices as an indicator Florida is in real danger of "becoming like California."
"The temptation on our side is always going be to just say we’re not California… We don’t like tech, we don’t like California, we don’t like the woke stuff," said Thiel at the first night of the conference.
“All of that’s true," he continued, "but it’s not a way we get back to broad-based growth that’s not just some kind of real-estate racket. We have all these different states where we’re trying different things, and I think DeSantis is probably the best in terms of offering a real alternative to California. But if we’re going to have a high-growth alternative, the test is, do the real estate prices come down? And the fact that real estate in Florida has melted up over the last two or three years is not evidence that you’re succeeding in building a better model than California. I worry that’s evidence you’re becoming like California.”
Thiel's comments come as Florida overwhelmingly leads the country in home price increases. A report from last month found Tampa saw a 35% increase in year-over-year prices in June, which was the highest in the U.S., followed by Miami, with a 33% jump.
Notably, the state is also dealing with a rapidly collapsing property insurance industry, with five carriers deemed insolvent since February, and thousands of policies a week pouring into the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which was created as an insurer of last resort.
"Hey [Gov. Ron DeSantis], clearly you’re struggling, distracted, and busy playing politics with people’s lives,” Newsom said in a tweet. "Since you have only one overriding need — attention — let’s take this up & debate. I’ll bring my hair gel. You bring your hairspray. Name the time before Election Day.”