Posted on 12/17/2025 12:31:49 PM PST by Miami Rebel
Once the darling of American transplants, Florida’s appeal seems to have dimmed. Just three years ago, Florida ranked among the nation’s top destinations for people making a move. But that momentum seems to have faded. Florida still offers the warm climate and favorable tax structure that remain major draws, but it’s lost ground on the crucial affordability factor. In the year through November, just over half of global moving company Atlas Van Lines’ Florida-related moves were inbound, the firm said in its annual Migration Patterns Study — a near-even split between people moving in and moving out that marks a sharp shift from the pandemic era, when Florida ranked among the nation’s strongest inbound states. During the COVID-era peak, 60% of Atlas’ Florida moves were inbound — then the fourth-highest ratio in the country — as the state became the fastest-growing in the U.S., per Census estimates. But in 2025, for the second consecutive year, inbound moves accounted for only about half of the company’s Florida relocations, among the lowest shares Florida has posted in more than a decade. While the moving company cites Florida’s warm climate and lack of a state income tax as serious draws, rising housing costs, insurance premiums and climate concerns are increasingly pushing out residents, said Chellsie Parker, a representative of Atlas. Nationally, moving has slowed to its lowest level in decades. Only about 11% of Americans moved in 2024, down from more than 14% a decade earlier, according to Atlas, thanks in part to high housing costs nationwide.
States such as Arkansas, Idaho and North Carolina — where housing costs are generally lower — topped Atlas’ inbound migration rankings this past year, outpacing Florida’s middle-of-the-pack showing.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
They’re moving back to their rental house in Boise next year
Get a change of weather there and closer to the cabin
At the end of the day, it is all about cash flow. I live in Illinois and it doesn't tax retirement income and I don't have enough wealth to worry about estate taxes when I croak. I've made many trips to Florida. The weather is great during the winter months, but it also sucks for 4 to 5 months out the year. It is about the same in Illinois.
I have visited FL few time, but I cannot live there!
It is the steamy weather which make me sick.
AZ is hotter, but dry.
I like that!
I’ve been to Florida and the humidity there in summer was like being on the surface of Venus. Humidity makes me want to commit mass destruction.
In the past couple of years, the media have been spewing more and more negative articles about Florida. They are upset that the state has swung to the Republicans in the last few cycles.
I retired in 2003, and at one point had wanted to move to South Carolina, but then I discovered that they'd tax my State pension, and dropped that idea.
Pacific northwest? Endless rain, cloudy, snow, ice with a zillion leftist in the mix....We said no thanks to that!☺
Are you kidding? 100 in the high desert with very little humidity or 100 in Florida with Florida humidity?
lol....
It’s a generational thing.
It happens over, and over, and over again.
Sun, sand, palm trees, warm weather all the time? no Snow? Wow!
Then . . bad food & water, Palmetto bugs, Geckos, and Pythons, the phookin Heat and Steam, storms that blow your house away, no jobs, no time to even go to an overcrowded beach, and never forget . . . Florida Man right next door.
The reality is that Florida is half rich folks seasonal play ground, and half grinding dirt broke ghetto.
It’s run its course for this generation.
It’ll run again in another 20 years when the new people forget about it all over again.
I live in central Illinois and this has been the snowiest start to winter in over 50 years. We have had close to 20 inches of snow so far. For most years, that is about what we get for the entire season, maybe a bit more. It is warming up so most of the snow should be gone in the next few days, except for the snowplow mounds.
Daughter spent 6 years there and never wants to go back
Moved her down in August and back in August
That sucked moving her in that weather
I bet. Moving even in perfect weather sucks...Throw in Florida humidity...Nope..
I can always tell when the temperatures have gone above freezing here, because the tons of snow that settled on the metal roof of my apartment building, come sliding off like an avalanche, shaking the whole building. It did that earlier today.
A/C still legal in FL. I rather have it hot than freezing weather.
What’s the last time you benefitted with a payment from insurance? I stopped home insurance and am self insured for Auto liability as allowed in FL.
Exactly. I am dreading moving to WA state because of 300 days if rain every year. Plus property taxes are very high
Because if hurricanes.
I hate state income tax in AZ.
Plus dry heat makes old folks look like prunes.
Humidity keeps skin healthy.
I dropped home insurance 5 years ago. Should have dropped it 50 years ago when I became mortgage free.
It’s about free market forces. High demand drives up prices.
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