What moving to Florida actually saves you

The fourteen states people move to Florida from

State income tax at the top marginal rate on that state's median household income — the ceiling, not the typical bill — next to the housing side of the subtraction. A negative housing figure means Florida costs you more:

Housing costs more here. All of it.

Property tax plus home insurance in Florida runs $11,264 a year — the median property tax bill of $2,793 plus $8,471 for a standardized policy. On those two lines together, Florida is the most expensive state in the country: all fifty of the others and the District of Columbia come out lower. Among the fourteen above, New Jersey is the closest at $-652 a year and Pennsylvania the furthest at $-6,679.

The income tax is what makes the move work, and only the income tax. Anyone telling you Florida is cheap to own a home in is selling something. What Florida does is stop taxing what you earn — and for a household with real income, that is usually more than enough to cover a worse housing bill. For a retired household living on Social Security, which is not taxed by most states anyway, the arithmetic can go the other way entirely.

Every state, side by side

The same four columns for all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Each column uses one source applied identically everywhere, which is what makes the comparison legitimate:

A positive figure in the last column would mean Florida is cheaper on housing than that state. There are none — the column is negative for all 50 of them, and that is the finding, not a rounding artefact. Insurance is what does it: $8,471 against a national picture where most states sit under $3,000.

Where these numbers come from

Median property tax paid and median home value: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 five-year estimates, table B25103 — the same table for all 51 territories. The effective rate is our own arithmetic, tax divided by value, not a published figure. State income tax rates: Tax Foundation, 2026 individual income tax rates and brackets. Home insurance: Quadrant Information Services for Insurance.com, a standardized $300,000 dwelling policy priced in all 51 territories — chosen over the NAIC state table because that one is stale and because a standardized policy is the only figure that can honestly be compared across states. Florida millage: Florida Department of Revenue, 2025.

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