While costs have been rising across the country, some areas of Florida have been hit particularly hard. In the South Florida region, which includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, consumer prices in February were up nearly 5% over the prior year, compared to 3.2% nationally, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Homeowners insurance rates in Florida rose 42% last year to an average of $6,000 annually, driven by hurricanes and climate change, and car insurance in Florida is more than 50% higher than the national average, according to the Insurance Information Institute. While once seen as an affordable housing market, Florida is now among the more expensive states to buy a home in, with prices up 60% since 2020 to an average of $388,500, according to Zillow.
My comment the article discusses all of those people moving to Florida. What was not discussed in a lot of other articles was how many were leaving. People hate Florida when the vacation goggles come off.
Florida aspires to the low taxes, minimal social safety net, and lack of regulation you see in Mississippi.
That means that a lot of the costs of day-to-day life will be funded by insurance premiums rather than taxes, with a big skim rate to Private Equity and the attorney you’ll have to hire to get any payment from the insurer on a claim.
The Gov brags about making Florida a magnet for a certain sort of person. My neighbor bought a condo in Florida a couple years ago, plans to be down there permanently by next year. He is exactly the Gov’s sort of person. I’m sure they will be very happy together.
Florida has had a population boom over the past several years, with more than 700,000 people moving there in 2022, and it was the second-fastest-growing state as of July 2023, according to Census Bureau data. While there are some indications that migration to the state has slowed from its pandemic highs, only Texas saw more one-way U-Haul moves into the state than Florida last year. Mortgage application data indicated there were nearly two homebuyers moving to Florida in 2023 for every one leaving, according to data analytics firm CoreLogic.
But while hundreds of thousands of new residents have flocked to the state on the promise of beautiful weather, no income tax and lower costs, nearly 500,000 left in 2022, according to the most recent census data. Contributing to their move was a perfect storm of soaring insurance costs, a hostile political environment, worsening traffic and extreme weather, according to interviews with more than a dozen recent transplants and longtime residents who left the state in the past two years.
The Gov notes the change in voting patterns in the state, and takes credit for making Florida a magnet for a certain sort of person, like my neighbor, while repelling those who don’t conform. The Gov is accomplishing, on a small scale, what I proposed for the US: the west coast and northeast break off from the US and join Canada, while the rump Shiny-land wallows in ignorance, superstition, and bigotry. Everyone would be a lot happier.
Remember the piece someone posted here a week or two back, about states with regressive tax schemes? As I have commented, when people ask why I don’t leave Michigan: most states are run the same as Michigan. In fact, 41 states have regressive tax policies, with the top 1% paying a lower tax rate than the Proles. In a ranking of states from most to least regressive taxes, Michigan ranks 34th most regressive. Who did the article list as #1, with the most regressive taxes in the country? Florida.
