Florida’s middle-class residents are being driven out of the state by rising costs and heading to cheaper parts of the U.S., according to a new report.
Many working Floridians are leaving the state due to affordability concerns, according to the Wall Street Journal. Key issues include soaring housing prices — driven by an uptick in wealthy residents moving in from other states — and rising inflation in the state, the Journal reports. The average home price in Florida has leveled off in recent years, now sitting at $375,000, but that is up from an average of $253,000 before the pandemic, according to Zillow.
The state’s population is changing, too.
Florida’s net domestic migration hit 22,517 in 2025, which is down significantly from 183,646 in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In addition to costs, deaths in Florida also started to outnumber births six years ago and fewer immigrants have been coming to the state under President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, according to the Journal.
Eric Finnigan, vice president of demographics research at John Burns Research and Consulting, told the newspaper: “The affordability picture has changed in Florida almost more than anywhere else in the country.”
About 90 percent of Florida residents are at least somewhat concerned about inflation, and about 80 percent are worried about housing prices, according to a 2025 survey by Florida Atlantic University’s Business and Economic Polling Initiative.
Dr. Monica Escaleras, chair of the university’s economics department and director of the initiative, said in a press release that Florida residents “believe in the ‘American Dream,’ but they are paying dearly for it.”
“The Florida promise of sun, growth and upward mobility remains alive, but it is getting expensive to hold on to,” she explained.
The poll also found that about half of respondents have “considered moving out of Florida due to the cost of living.” That suggests Floridians “feel squeezed enough to think about leaving,” according to Eric Ley, the initiative’s assistant director.
He added: “An affordability anxiety shadows Florida’s boom economy: can residents afford to live here and provide for themselves?”
Roberto Reyes, 39, told the Journal he moved from Orlando to Knoxville, Tennessee, last year to escape rising costs, including rent prices.
“I came here to grow to the next level. I couldn’t be happier,” he told the outlet.
The cost of raising a family in Florida is also on the rise. It costs an estimated $280,280 over 18 years to raise a child in Florida, according to a report published by LendingTree earlier this month. That marks a 10 percent increase from 2025, when the estimated 18-year cost was $254,031.
Housing affordability in the U.S. has sparked concern nationwide, too. There are currently more than 230 cities in the U.S — including 11 in Florida — where a starter home costs $1 million or more, according to a 2025 Zillow report.
Many Americans are also growing more concerned about the rising cost of necessities. About 66 percent of U.S. adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center in January said they’re “very concerned” about the price of food and other consumer goods, while 62 percent said the same about housing costs.
