ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida is in the process of growing up. The state economy is more diversified now than ever, with an array of jobs in industries that didn’t exist a few decades ago. The pandemic pushed open a door that was already cracked. Through it came a lot of wealth, either actively or passively earned. Pricing is up everywhere and will likely continue to be sustained by the wealth of those who recently moved here.

As discussed on part 1 of this series, prime-age workers, 25 to 55, moving to Florida increased significantly from 2020 to 2022, with a positive net migration of over 175,000. We also identified the markets where they tended to move. In part 2, we examined the impact movers had on the markets they entered, depending on their salaries and ability to support higher asking prices for homes.

Now we’re going to take it home by offering some analysis and takeaways.

Analysis:

The standouts: Key West and Naples

Let’s start with the top right quadrant of the chart above, where mover income exceeded stayer income and price appreciation was over 35%. There are two standouts: Key West and Naples.

In both cases, the median sale price increased by 45% and 55% respectively, with median sale prices exceeding $500,000. The median sale price in Key West was $850,000 and the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island MSA was $598,000 in 2022

Both areas have long been wealthy pockets in Florida, particularly among retirees. What is interesting about these metros are the increase in out-of-state movers with high incomes. Wealthy people moving to these areas is a common trend, but that people moving in from out of state exceeded the wealth of people already there is notable. This is likely due to the trend of people moving to Florida during the pandemic when prices were still somewhat low, even in our high-cost areas.

Flush with cash-out equity from wherever else they came from (which was likely more expensive), these buyers were able to push prices up. The geographic proximity of Cape Coral-Fort Myers geographic proximity to Naples likely benefited from the spillover effect as people were able to get similar lifestyle and amenities found in Naples with slightly more affordable options.

Employment hubs: Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami

In the traditional employment hubs in Florida, like Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, each of these metros experienced both high income migration and price appreciation, though more pronounced in Tampa. This shows that people moving to Florida were able to retain or find high-paying jobs and continue to have an income that exceeded those who were already here.

One notable area is of course Miami-Fort Lauderdale. This metro area saw the highest ratio of mover to stayer income, but limited price appreciation. This is largely due to prices already being among the highest in the state and in some cases, the nation. Price growth on an already high-cost area isn’t as likely as a place where there is more room to grow.

However, don’t be fooled by its location on the chart. Miami experienced the highest growth of people moving to Florida who outearned those already here. This was one of the most talked about stories at the time, where technology, finance and other professional and business services companies were moving to Florida during the uncertainty of the pandemic looking for a place to continue to operate.

The takeaways

Florida’s growth is only going to continue. For people who have been here for a long time, these growing pains can really hurt as affordability erodes. It’s hard for locals to compete for homes when people from other parts of the country come in and push prices up. It’s also harder for people coming from other countries who now have to compete with domestic wealth for properties.

If you’re working with local buyers, be mindful of the pressures on pricing and how creativity and compromise may be helpful for Floridians to stay here. If you’re working with out-of-state buyers, remind them that while their dollar does go farther here than it likely did where they came from, the seemingly deep discounts that brought people here in 2020 have largely gone away. Pricing is up everywhere and will likely continue to be sustained by the wealth of those who recently moved here.

Jennifer Warner is an economist and the Florida Realtors Director of Economic Development.

© 2025 Florida Realtors®

ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida’s median sale price climbed significantly between 2020 and 2022, with some markets exceeding a 50% increase. While price growth has slowed significantly over the last 18 months or so, homes so far have held on to these higher values. For owners already in these markets, this price appreciation (and potential gains in equity) was somewhat welcome, even though it often comes with a higher property tax bill. More money, more problems.

It does beg the question – where is all this money coming from to support these higher prices? From a monthly payment perspective, higher sales prices were largely offset by savings from lower interest rates through mid-2022. What has really sustained higher prices over the long run, however, is the impact of younger and, in many cases, wealthy, people moving into Florida.

In this three-part series, Florida Realtors® will release information that takes a deep dive into the movers and stayers to explain this market phenomenon.

Analysis of movers

Looking at data from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS), focusing on net migration into Florida by age group over time, tells a lot about the uniqueness of the 2020-2022 time period. Before we start, note that this data only reflects domestic migration, meaning it only represents people moving between Florida and the other states in the U.S. We exclude net foreign migration because this Census survey does not capture the number of people who moved from Florida to foreign destinations. Also, be aware that data from 2020 are missing from this data set due to survey response issues, but we can still learn a lot about this time period from the 2021 and 2022 data.

Start with the chart below, which shows migration numbers to and from Florida, focusing on the 65+ age group. The positive blue bar indicates in-migration, the green negative bar indicates out-migration, and the red dot indicates net migration. This tracks with Florida’s historical story, which is that retirees love to move to Florida to enjoy their golden years here. We typically see more in-migration of this group with a smaller amount of out-migration, though that has ticked up slightly from historic norms during this 2020-2022 time period. From 2012-2019, Florida saw about 51,000 people leave, whereas in 2021-2022 approximately 67,000 people left. Still, overall net migration stayed on trend, with more people moving in at that time to offset those who left, but it is notable that out-migration was slightly higher as Florida’s economy began to change.

Retirees (65+)

Looking at another age group, people in their prime working ages, from 24 to 55, have always been major movers into and out of Florida. Yet, despite this level of mobility, the net effect of this age group on Florida’s population growth has historically been rather nominal, with departures canceling out a large share of the arrivals. Looking at a similar chart for this age group, Florida averaged a net increase of about 33,000 people per year from 2012-2019. Everything changed in 2021 and 2022 when a significant shift occurred, and about 175,000 prime working-age individuals migrated to the state. That is an average of 87,000 people per year. Compared to the historic average from 2012-2019 of 33,000, this marked a significant uptick.

The reasons for this shift are myriad and include the telecommuting revolution that allowed people to work from anywhere because of the pandemic. Prime working-age people were among the main beneficiaries of this trend, particularly for those working in industries that allowed an easy transition to remote work. With established careers and reputations at their current employers, the stretch to log into a Zoom call from a beach house wasn’t as much as for a younger person just starting out.  Florida was also a prime beneficiary for migration due to relatively low housing costs, lack of a state income tax and overall better climate for those looking to avoid the issues stemming from living in tight urban areas.

Prime Working Age (25-54)

Next, we broke these migration numbers down a little further by metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to see where the highest concentrations of these working age people ended up.

Two metros in Northwest Florida, the Panama City and Crestview areas, emerged as the highest percentage of net in-migration of prime-age individuals. This speaks to the allure of the affluent pockets of the state that attracted people who were able to telecommute to their jobs but live anywhere else. For example, Alys Beach in Walton County is nestled in this area and has been a hot spot of high-end development over the last several years. Much of this development is targeting younger people and seems to have found its niche among the untethered worker.

The next three on the list, the Jacksonville, Miami and Palm Bay areas, are the more traditional employment hubs, which implies that people may have been bringing their jobs with them, or companies in Florida were able to attract talent into the state. Florida’s economy has been steadily diversifying for years, but now seemed more attractive to people who were considering quality of life. The Miami area particularly made news as corporate relocations among financial and tech firms during this time implied a more long-term strategy than just a temporary move to outmaneuver a virus.

In part 2, we will dive further into the ACS data and look at the impact of movers at the metro level, examining both the incomes of movers and stayers, along with home price growth.

Jennifer Warner is an economist and the Florida Realtors Director of Economic Development.

© 2025 Florida Realtors®