It depends on your objective, and the three cities are genuinely different. Miami is the tax-friendliest and easiest entry: Florida levies no state income tax, it is the #1 US market for foreign buyers (MIAMI REALTORS International Report), and you can buy freehold directly with little friction. New York is more restrictive: roughly 70% of Manhattan's residential inventory is co-op, and co-op boards frequently reject foreign or LLC buyers — so foreign buyers should favour condos — and New York State charges its own estate tax on top of the federal one, with a 'cliff' that can tax the whole estate once you exceed ~USD 6.94m even by a dollar. Los Angeles is the priciest per square foot and California's income tax on rental income is heavier. As a rule: Miami for tax neutrality and liquidity, New York for trophy condos with eyes open, LA for lifestyle. Confirm the specifics with local counsel for your case.
Miami: the path of least resistance
For most international buyers, Miami is the natural starting point, and the reasons are structural rather than fashion. Florida has no state income tax, which matters enormously if the property will generate rental income or if you spend enough time in the US to have a state-residency question — the income the property throws off is not taxed a second time at state level, unlike in New York or California. Miami is also, by the MIAMI Association of REALTORS® International Report, the single most active US market for foreign buyers, which means the whole ecosystem — brokers, closing attorneys, foreign-national lenders, property managers — is built around exactly your situation rather than treating it as an exception.
Practically, buying in Miami is close to frictionless by US standards. Condos and single-family homes are held freehold and you can purchase directly, or through an LLC for liability and privacy (remembering, from our LLC question, that the LLC does nothing for estate tax). There is no board vetting your nationality or interrogating your source of wealth before it will let you buy, as there is in New York's co-op world. This combination — no state income tax, deep foreign-buyer liquidity, easy direct ownership — is why Miami suits both the pure lifestyle buyer and the investor optimising for tax neutrality and resale. It is also the one US city where GADAIT already runs a dedicated, French-speaking buyer's-agent desk, which is the right place to go deep on process, FIRPTA, LLC use and Florida property tax.
New York and Los Angeles: trophy assets with a rulebook
New York rewards buyers who understand one structural fact: roughly 70% of Manhattan's residential inventory is co-operative (co-op), not condo. In a co-op you do not buy real estate — you buy shares in a corporation that owns the building, and the co-op board can vet, interrogate and reject a purchaser, with no obligation to explain why. Boards are frequently unwilling to approve foreign buyers, buyers who want to purchase through an LLC, or buyers whose income and assets sit outside the US and are hard for the board to verify. The practical answer for an international buyer is to focus on condominiums, where ownership is real property, subletting is freer and foreign/LLC ownership is normal. Layered on top is tax: New York State imposes its own estate tax in addition to the federal one, with an exclusion around USD 6.94 million and a notorious 'cliff' — exceed it, even slightly, and the exemption can vanish so that the entire estate is taxed, not just the excess.
Los Angeles is easier than New York on ownership mechanics — no co-op board culture to clear — but heavier on running tax. California's state income tax is among the highest in the country and bears on rental income, so an LA rental is less tax-efficient than the identical Miami one; price per square foot at the top of the market is also high. LA's appeal is lifestyle and land — space, privacy, indoor-outdoor living — rather than tax neutrality. So the honest matching is: choose Miami for tax neutrality, liquidity and ease; choose a New York condo (not a co-op) if a Manhattan trophy is the point, with the state estate-tax cliff planned for; choose Los Angeles for lifestyle, accepting the California tax drag. The market-structure, tax and co-op points here draw on the MIAMI REALTORS International Report, the Tax Foundation's state property- and estate-tax data, New York State's estate-tax guidance and standard co-op market practice; confirm the specifics for your target building and profile with local counsel before committing.
Sources
Primary and expert sources behind this answer:
- MIAMI Association of REALTORS® — International Report (Miami ranked the #1 US market for foreign buyers; Florida has no state income tax) ↗
- National Association of REALTORS® — Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate (foreign-buyer volumes, ~47% all-cash, financing patterns) ↗
- Tax Foundation — Property Taxes by State & State Estate Tax rates (effective property-tax and state-level estate-tax comparison) ↗
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance — Estate tax (state estate tax in addition to federal; ~USD 6.94m exclusion with a 'cliff' that can tax the whole estate once exceeded) ↗
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. US estate, gift and income tax, state-level rules and foreign-ownership restrictions are technical, differ by state and change frequently. Every figure and structure here — especially anything touching estate tax and succession — must be confirmed with a US tax adviser and an estate/succession attorney (and, for French buyers, a French notaire) for your specific case before you act.
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