Like any good billionaire, Peter Thiel has a knack for sensing trends before they catch on. He was the first outside investor in Facebook (META )and is co-founder of PayPal (PYPL) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR).
Now that he is worth north of $8 billion, Thiel spends more time fostering pet projects and speaking out about political causes he cares about. Thiel routinely donates to many conservative and libertarian candidates and has been a staunch critic of Google (GOOG), calling it "seemingly treasonous" in 2019.
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Never one to shy away from a lightning-rod issue, Thiel appeared on the "Honestly with Bari Weiss" podcast and offered his thoughts on the current state of affairs in Florida.
Thiel Says Florida Is Too Expensive
Thiel told Weiss he'd considered moving his ventures to Florida from Silicon Valley, but had a hard time justifying the cross-country move since it had gotten so much pricier.
"If you buy a house in Miami today versus just three years ago, you’re paying four times as much for a monthly mortgage payment," he said.
Florida, and Miami in particular, have seen home prices skyrocket since the onset of the covid pandemic in 2020. In 2022, Miami posted the fastest housing market growth rate ever at over 15% year-over-year. Local analysts say the premium for living in the Miami-Dade area has gone up approximately 40% since 2020.
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Thiel Gives His Opinion About Gov. DeSantis
Thiel's disappointment doesn't end at Florida's rising cost of living. He added that Florida gov. Ron DeSantis' ongoing feud with Disney (DIS )was a distraction that could ultimately hurt Florida.
"The focus on identity politics, on the woke religion, is probably a distraction from stagnation. It's a distraction from economics," he said of DeSantis' effort to curtail perceived progressivism in Disney's policies.
"That kind of economic cost is probably not enough to offset all the wokeness in the world or even the taxes," he said.
Political grandstanding aside, Thiel added that he thinks DeSantis could have an earnest shot at success in the 2024 presidential race -- if he sticks to the right issues.
"I think DeSantis would make a terrific president. If he’s the Republican nominee, I will strongly support him in 2024,” he said. "But I do worry that focusing on the woke issue as ground zero is not quite enough."
DeSantis has not yet officially declared that he will be running for president in 2024. He has, however, previously declared that "Florida is where woke goes to die."
