Florida runs second only to Texas as a population magnet, and for a retiree or a remote worker leaving a high-tax state, the arithmetic looks irresistible: no state income tax, no state estate tax, warm winters, property tax around a moderate 0.86%. The arithmetic is good. It just has a line item most spreadsheets from 2019 don't include, and in 2026, that line item can be the whole decision.
Start with the insurance quote, not the listing
Florida's homeowners-insurance market has spent the last several years in genuine crisis. A dozen insurers have left or folded, premiums in coastal markets have doubled or tripled, and the state-backed insurer of last resort, Citizens, became the largest in Florida, which tells you what the private market thinks. Statewide averages now run several times the national figure; on exposed coastline, annual premiums can rival a small mortgage payment.
So invert your house hunt. Get an insurance quote (and a flood quote, that's a separate policy, usually through the federal NFIP) before you fall in love with a listing. Ask for the home's elevation certificate and its roof age; both move the premium more than the kitchen does. A house $50k cheaper with a $6k-higher premium is not cheaper.
Renters dodge the direct bill but pay it through rent, and should still check the flood map; Florida leads the country in the gap between "technically not in a flood zone" and "wet."
The tax picture, for what it is
No income tax means pensions, 401(k) withdrawals, and Social Security go untaxed by the state: the core of Florida's retiree pull. Sales tax is 6%, up to about 7.5% with local additions. The homestead exemption knocks $50k off your primary residence's assessed value, and the Save Our Homes cap limits assessment growth to 3% a year once you're in. For a snowbird deciding which state to claim, Florida's residency paperwork (declaration of domicile, license, registration) is famously easy, which is exactly why your departure state may scrutinize it. Our California guide covers that trap from the other end.
Six Floridas: pick deliberately
- Miami / Fort Lauderdale: international, electric, expensive, and the most climate-exposed real estate in America. Rent before you buy here.
- Tampa / St. Petersburg: the balanced pick: real city, real beaches, a booming food scene, Gulf-side hurricane exposure.
- Orlando: inland (which your premium will reflect), theme-park economy diversifying into tech and health, the affordable family option.
- Jacksonville: the largest city by area in the lower 48, Navy money, the cheapest big metro, and the least "Florida" of the bunch in the ways people mean that word.
- Naples / Sarasota: retiree favorites, lovely and pricey, still rebuilding in places from recent hurricanes.
- Tallahassee: a college-town state capital that feels more Georgia than Miami.
Inland-versus-coastal is the most underrated decision in the state. Thirty miles can halve a premium.
What nobody warns you about
Summer is the off-season. June through September is a sauna with afternoon lightning on a schedule you could set a watch by; Floridians do their outdoor living October through May, the exact inverse of the Midwest. Hurricane prep is a June ritual (water, fuel, shutters), and schools publish their make-up-day plans in advance. None of this is a reason not to come; all of it is texture the brochure leaves out.
The first 30 days
Florida's DMV deadlines are the strictest of any big state: 10 days to register your vehicle once you take a job or enroll a child, 30 days for the license swap (FLHSMV). The upside of all that paperwork: it's also how you prove Florida residency to the state you left.
Run your own city against your candidate metro: the comparison prices the whole picture, insurance reality included, in about thirty seconds.