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The Sunshine State has fallen from grace as a “tax haven” — prompting Lorraine English, 72, to maneuver from Bradenton, Florida, to Asheville, North Carolina, due to scary pure disasters and the rising price of homeownership.
Marketed as a tax haven, Florida lures immigrants with guarantees of zero revenue tax and particular tax breaks that accrue to long-time owners (1). It is a highly effective draw for residents of states with excessive revenue taxes, like California (as much as 13.3%) and New York (as much as 10.9%) (2).
Prime Picks
However storms have swept away a few of the monetary advantages of dwelling of the transfer. On high of weathering a spate of pure disasters, Florida owners like English have been blindsided by different prices. One of many largest charges: house insurance coverage.
Earnings tax haven, insurance coverage hell
Florida is the most costly house insurance coverage market (3) within the nation.
“Two years in the past, my owners’ insurance coverage with hurricane protection — not together with flood insurance coverage, which is a separate coverage — went as much as $7,000 a 12 months,” English advised Enterprise Insider (4).
How different states stack up: Assuming $300,000 of dwelling protection, the standard American pays $2,543. Insurance coverage.com says Florida residents pay $7,136 for similar protection (5).
Florida house insurance coverage has gone up due to insurance coverage fraud, inflation of development prices, and pure disasters, specialists say (6).
“The final storm I went by means of in Florida was Hurricane Milton,” English mentioned. She spent $6,500 fixing injury to her pool cage and thought of herself “fortunate.”
Florida’s tax haven standing is engaging to residents in states with excessive revenue taxes. Kiplinger says a retiree incomes $70,000 per 12 months in New York might pay roughly $4,000 in state revenue tax on their retirement revenue, whereas transferring to Florida would eradicate that tax (7).
How a lot of that financial savings is left after house insurance coverage charges? For a coverage on a $600,000 home, the standard NY home-owner pays $3,021 (8).
The standard Floridian pays $13,729. Say you and your companion are saving $4,000 every due to zero revenue taxes. In case your family pays $8,000 much less for revenue taxes however pays $10,000 extra for house insurance coverage, is it value it?
The elevated dangers have pushed a number of insurance coverage corporations — specifically Allstate and State Farm — to cease underwriting new insurance policies within the state.
However there are nonetheless methods in which you’ll be able to decrease your property insurance coverage.
As an illustration, you may store round and examine charges provided by high insurance coverage suppliers for 3 by means of OfficialHomeInsurance.com.
Merely enter some fundamental details about your self and the kind of house you personal, and OfficialHomeInsurance will flick thru their database of over 200 insurers and show the bottom quotes for you in simply two minutes.
You could possibly save a median of $482 per 12 months by purchasing round and selecting the perfect accessible charge.
Not simply house insurance coverage
Automotive insurance coverage charges in Florida have additionally skyrocketed in recent times. Common automotive insurance coverage premiums have risen by 75% between 2020 and 2025 — marking the biggest leap throughout the nation. Elevated insurance coverage losses on account of local weather disasters, extra frequent accidents, inflation, uninsured motorists and excessive ranges of litigation have contributed to the numerous enhance in automotive insurance coverage charges within the Sunshine State.
The excellent news? Procuring round and evaluating automotive insurance coverage charges from a number of lenders may also help you decrease this invoice — similar to with house insurance coverage.
Platforms like Insurify, which helps you to simply store round and examine quotes provided by respected insurance coverage suppliers. Simply by evaluating quotes and selecting the right deal, clients might see common potential financial savings of $1,100.
All it’s important to do is reply just a few fundamental questions, and Insurify will present you probably the most reasonably priced offers in as little as three minutes.
Not solely is the method 100% free, however you could possibly additionally save as much as 15% by bundling your automotive and residential insurance coverage.
Learn Extra: Right here’s the common revenue of Individuals by age in 2026. Are you falling behind?
Property taxes are rising
Florida has additionally been accumulating extra property taxes from residents. Some say it has been making housing much less reasonably priced. The nonprofit Florida TaxWatch says authorities levies have greater than doubled during the last decade, sooner than the tempo of inflation and inhabitants progress mixed (9).
Another excuse property taxes are rising: housing costs have spiked. Dwelling costs rose from about $250,000 to $375,000 in 2026 in comparison with the start of the pandemic, in line with Zillow (10).
For property taxes, Florida ranks in the course of the pack. Its efficient property tax charge of 0.79% is best than many states (11). Since new owners from out-of-state do not instantly profit from property tax caps, the perfect charges are in all probability unique to native, long-time residents (12). Florida property taxes are capped by the Save Our Houses Modification (13).
English cited rising property taxes as one of many causes she left Florida.
“My property taxes had been about $3,000 a 12 months,” she mentioned. “Altogether, I used to be round $10,000 a 12 months only for insurance coverage and taxes.”
Residents migrate to save lots of
Different Floridians are leaving the state to keep away from rising payments, too.
Sydney Buckley and her husband, René Barajas Jr., moved from the West Palm Seashore space to Greenville, South Carolina, in 2025. The couple advised the Wall Road Journal they could not discover any homes in Florida inside their price range (14). In South Carolina, they discovered and acquired a $350,000 home.
The mortgage cost is simply $100 greater than they had been spending on lease for his or her house in Florida. The couple additionally mentioned they pay a lot much less property tax and insurance coverage than they’d have in Florida.
The couple aren’t the one ones leaving for calmer pastures. In 2024, a whopping 506,246 folks moved from Florida to a different state. U.S. Census knowledge says high locations had been Georgia (52,371), Texas (52,219), North Carolina (33,591), New York (28,080), and Pennsylvania (25,048) (15).
Why these states? Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina rank as reasonably priced housing markets. U.S. Information ranks Florida’s housing affordability at 44 out of fifty, barely behind New York (16).
Spend money on actual property with out worrying about hidden prices
Buying a house — even in a horizontal transfer — is a large monetary choice. Accounting for property taxes, mortgage funds, insurance coverage premiums and the like could make even an affordable trying down cost balloon over time. Nevertheless, actual property continues to be a core a part of each the American dream and growing your fairness now, which may also help your internet value later.
There are additionally an increasing number of choices to faucet into actual property with out making a 30-year monetary dedication.
Platforms like Arrived have made it simpler than ever to spend money on residential housing with out taking over a mortgage or arising with a six-figure down cost.
Backed by world-class buyers like Jeff Bezos, Arrived helps you to spend money on shares of trip and rental properties throughout the nation with as little as $100.
Even higher, Arrived handles the day-to-day work of managing the property and overlaying bills all through the funding’s lifecycle. Any rental revenue generated is distributed to buyers month-to-month — after bills are deducted — supplying you with an opportunity to construct a passive revenue stream.
What’s extra, when you’re an investor with Arrived, you achieve quarterly entry to their newly launched secondary market, the place buyers should buy and promote shares of particular person rental and trip rental properties immediately on the platform. That method, you may adapt your technique to a quickly altering market.
One of the best half? For a restricted time, while you open an account and add $1,000 or extra, Arrived will credit score your account with a 1% match.
There are many actual property funding alternatives on the market, as long as you understand the place to look, however not all alternatives are created equal. These with extra capital available can develop past residential actual property and into different verticals.
Accredited buyers can now faucet into this chance by means of platforms akin to Lightstone DIRECT, which provides accredited buyers entry to single-asset multifamily and industrial offers.
Lightstone DIRECT’s direct-to-investor mannequin ensures a excessive diploma of alignment between particular person buyers and a vertically-integrated, institutional owner-operator — a classy and streamlined choice for particular person buyers seeking to diversify into private-market actual property.
With Lightstone DIRECT, accredited people can entry the identical multifamily and industrial property Lightstone pursues with its personal capital, with minimal investments beginning at $100,000.
— With recordsdata from Cole Tretheway
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Article Sources
We rely solely on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For particulars, see our editorial ethics and tips.
Griffin Funding(1); TurboTax(2); Bankrate(3); Enterprise Insider(4); Insurance coverage.com(5),(8); SouthState Financial institution(6); Kiplinger(7); Florida TaxWatch(9); Zillow(10); Rocket Mortgage(11); Tax Basis(12); Pensacola Information Journal(13); The Wall Road Journal(14); U.S. Census Bureau(15); U.S. Information & World Report(16)
This text offers info solely and shouldn’t be construed as recommendation. It’s offered with out guarantee of any form.
