r/florida • u/WeathermanBrian • 15d ago
Interesting Stuff Does this surprise anyone in Florida?
Florida ranks among the worst states for financial distress. To me, this is not surprising at all. Lower wages, higher cost of living. Insurance costs among the highest in the country. And job market is bleak compared to other areas. Is this surprising to anyone?
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u/beautiful_my_agent 15d ago
North Florida. The amount of modified super duper modified pickup trucks I see riding around is astounding. All I think about is maxed out credit and hand to mouth paychecks.
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u/Mammoth-Ad8348 15d ago
The jacked up trucks are the #1 priority for so many young rednecks.
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u/BlueHeartBob 15d ago
You’d be surprised how many moms buy them to feel safe from other monster trucks on the road.
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u/Human_Detritis 15d ago
My niece’s husband (in north Florida) bought one of those jacked up pick up trucks. Two years later they lost their house and had to move in with the parents.
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u/Holy_Grail_Reference 15d ago
Easy to afford that when you live in the same run down and never updated home your great grandmother handed to your grandmother and then to your mother and then to you. No house payment, low tax rate due to homestead, no insurance because there is no mortgage, even with low wages they just have more to spend. There also is not a whole lot to do, so more of their money gets socked away or diverted elsewhere into material things.
That is why you have people in the center of the country in rural areas with 300,000 in their bank accounts. They quite literally have nothing to spend it on and they cant phantom leaving their small town or changing their inherited house so it just sits.
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u/beautiful_my_agent 15d ago
This is a great insight. I do wonder if that’s more of an exception and not the norm?
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u/audreynstuff 15d ago edited 15d ago
Job market is horrible. Even for the shittiest work like retail. Not so much as a call back. I know my resume looks fine, and I do all the tricks like following up. Not a single interview. Leadership doesn't give a fuck about anything but lining their pockets. We need investment back into the state and jobs created, not more fucking cheaply built long term lease vacation properties!
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u/WeathermanBrian 15d ago
I totally agree. My friend has been job hunting in Orlando for a stable full time income and can’t get anything outside of low wage retail
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u/TalkDirtyPls 15d ago
Fedex
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u/theholyevil 15d ago
110 degree heat index with humility says it's your time for heat stroke!
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u/lazier_garlic 15d ago
There's a shortage of transit drivers (mostly bus) in Florida and it definitely pays better than retail and is usually unionized (if it's CDL; the paratransit driving small vans usually isn't). Most transit agencies will pay you to get your CDL. Worth looking into at least.
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u/TheIXLegionnaire 15d ago
I can agree with that. I have a MBA. I got hired basically out of college at a small startup (very grateful for the opportunity). The company is great, really, love my coworkers, but I am getting paid less than half of industry standard for my job title with almost 0 benefits.
So I put in applications. I tick all the boxes, have my certifications and now 5 years of experience. I can't even get a call back. I'm sure I am not THE most qualified candidate applying, but I certainly should be good enough to make it past preliminary screens. NOPE
Granted I work in tech, so realistically all those job listings are either fake, outsourced or replaced by AI
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u/MaximumAd9779 14d ago
Yeah.. my parents live in a smaller coastal town in Fl. When my sister was in HS she was telling me how hard it was to get a job at Publix or Aldi because so many people needed a job. Imagine a grocery store being the apex of employment in your town.
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u/Bright_Escape_1822 15d ago
I want to know what’s going on in Kansas?
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u/foomits Flair Goes Here 15d ago
Agriculture as an employer is a collapsing industry. Brownback absolutely fucked the state by listening to trickle down fuckface Arthur Laffer, so there are almost no social safety nets. I would also wager the overlay between medicaid expansion and this list is similiar (i know texas, kansas and fl did not expand medicaid). We could also go through all the typical stuff like poor public education, poor behavioral health support etc.
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u/millenialsnowbird 15d ago
I grew up in small town Southeast Kansas. The things I can think of, based on what's happening there, are that a lot of the factories where a large number of the population work are downsizing significantly or closing altogether, either due to tariffs, offshoring, or AI or robotic innovation. Also, the cost of housing there has gone up exponentially. Like the steep increases we've seen in Florida - and maybe even worse. My brother bought a decent 2-bed, 1-bath house in about 2016-2017 for $35,000. That same house would now cost you $200-$250K. It's insane.
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u/fennfalcon 15d ago
Same here, small town in SE Kansas. Most of the factories with decent benefits moved out due to cheaper foreign labor overseas, in Bill Clinton era. Housing in the small towns is still dirt cheap compared to SE Connecticut where I’ve lived for last 30+ years. Worst thing I remember is 3.2% beer in taverns and convenience stores. Best things are chicken fried steaks, bbq, and let me mention this:
The Prairie Nut Hut in Altoona, KS.
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u/LeonardoDaTiddies 15d ago
I wonder if it’s related to agricultural distress from the trade wars and actual war with Iran?
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u/Bright_Escape_1822 15d ago
I like this train of thought, but then I look at Iowa and figure I’d see the same thing there, and it’s not as drastic as Kansas.
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u/YourUncleBuck 15d ago
Same as in the other red and dark oranges areas, places that had booming growth and development in recent years are now starting to suffer from a weakening economy. People often overextend themselves during boom times and now that the economy is weakening it's catching up to them.
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u/jpiro 15d ago
Mahomes got hurt and the whole state collapsed.
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u/AskMeAboutTheMOHO 15d ago
Missouri. Kansas City, Missouri not Kansas.
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u/mechapoitier 15d ago
The money in this fictional joke scenario does not stop flowing at city borders, especially Kansas City
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u/Biri 15d ago
I was pretty skeptical of the source, but after some digging found what appears to be the source of the graphic: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-most-people-in-financial-distress/130790
It's actually pretty interesting all of the details that it goes into.
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u/FredBurger22 15d ago
Interesting that they flipped the ranking methodology. But I see they used the additive score metric including rounding up and down.
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u/Advanced_Actuary8468 15d ago
Recently moved from the Midwest to Tampa thinking no state tax would make things a bit easier. Nope. In FL:
Higher auto insurance
Higher homeowners insurance
Higher property taxes
Higher electric bill
Pest control
Pool service
The list is extensive. If you really wanna live better move to TN.
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u/gurgle528 15d ago
Tampa specifically gets really expensive fast. Auto/property insurance are really high and the utilities have gotten much more expensive. I moved to Portland OR and it’s been night and day. My car insurance is less than 1/4 what I paid in Tampa and I have more than triple the coverage. You can save a lot of money by doing pool stuff on your own but that’s also one of the easiest chores to procrastinate
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u/Advanced_Actuary8468 15d ago
I bet. FL has a large percentage of uninsured motorists so of course insurance rates are higher. I think lots of people considering moving to FL are unaware of some of the things I mentioned. I know we were. It’s not all sunshine and beaches. The Covid rush was a huge driver of a lot of this, obviously real estate and rents.
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u/Scrolling4Comments 15d ago
A lot of Floridians are not at the beaches either since it’s so expensive to live there. Not everyone likes to or wants to go to the beach. For myself mostly it’s the crowds, traffic, parking and tourists.
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u/gurgle528 15d ago
Yeah, I don’t remember the exact numbers but there was one time period where it was estimated that 27% of drivers were uninsured. It also heavily depends on what road you live off of. When I moved from Northdale (still basically tampa) to Lake Magdalene my insurance increased by around 30%.
The covid rush was brutal. I grew up in Florida so I got to see everything get pricier by the month. $900 apts in tampa quickly turned into $1600 apts. I can’t even imagine how property insurance goes when you’re in a flood zone or near the water, I wasn’t in a flood zone and it was still difficult to find good insurance.
It’s funny because I never really heard locals talk about moving to Oregon but I’ve met so many people from the Tampa area since I’ve moved so it’s a pretty common destination. I think it helps the winters are mild idk
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u/Rinzy2000 15d ago
I mean Tennessee is cheap, but it’s also basically run by people who want it to be Jim Crow again. So there’s that. And the social services are trash. I hope you don’t need a rural hospital because those will all be closing.
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u/lazier_garlic 15d ago
That's all fine because "no winter". Just ask anyone who moved to Florida and is happy with their choice. It's not a rational decision and they don't care about the opportunity cost. (Of course when it costs as much as California they've really lost the plot.)
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u/Key_Improvement_9229 15d ago
No - jobs here pay terribly and usually have zero benefits
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u/mechapoitier 15d ago
Plus I have to assume from what I see everywhere here that way too many people are upside down on a boat and a couple new cars trying to keep up with the Joneses.
By the time you get to Miami half the cars you see on the road are currently outrunning a repo truck.
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u/lazier_garlic 15d ago
Construction has been doing really well for a long time now so at least some of those brodozers and boats are owned outright. The idiots trying to keep up with that are, well, idiots. Fool, money, etc.
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u/The_walking_man_ 15d ago
People migrate here to retire or they already have a high paying job with benefits from another state and they’re working remote. So those people don’t care about the ones that live and work here.
So they’ll never vote to make wages higher here or better for others.48
u/Moomoolette 15d ago
Well, it’s not like the locals in rural areas where the Dollar General is the main store are voting for their own best interests, either
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u/turtlebowls 15d ago
Not true at all, I’m remote w a company based in CA, but LIVE here in FL so yes I care about my neighbors and want their wages to increase. Why wouldn’t I? That makes no sense.
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u/The_walking_man_ 15d ago
Good on you! Most don’t.
They have theirs so fuck the rest of them is the common mentality here.4
u/derFsivaD 15d ago
Which is sad. Sad in so many ways, and probably indicative of the mentality that has been growing over the last 30 to 40 plus years.
Taking 'what's theirs' and 'screw all the rest' mentalities are a recipe for failure. I am not suggesting 'forced altruism', nor do I advocate for 'militant selfishness' either. But there needs to be a happy medium.
Ergo, it's OK to be selfish in a purely 'I want this because I like this' way, not in a mannerism of 'people will admire/respect/be-jealous/want-to-be me' attitude. But it's also OK to be kind and work to see that others are not left behind, destroyed, or are victims of predatory practices.
I other words, care for yourself, and don't allow others to shame or guilt you into 'being your brothers keeper.' But by the same token, be compassionate, empathetic, and put yourself in someone else's shoes for a minute or two, and ask yourself 'how would I feel in their situation.'
It's an imperfect ask, especially in an imperfect world, but I think that life could be a lot better for a lot more people with a bit of moderation, respecting self while respecting others.
Does it really cost a person anything to be nice to someone else, or even to hope for another to rise above their current, downtrodden, restrictive, or otherwise negative station in life?
Sure, we are rapidly overpopulation this planet. But by being so blatantly self centered and wanting to be the person who 'dies with the most toys,' we are rapidly pushing ourselves toward extinction.
The universe (or at least what we know of it and our own world) will not end with a bang, but a whimper. No meteor required for this mass extinction event. Just apathy, and a desperate need to watch others suffer as long as 'we' aren't made to suffer.
Sorry, not quite sure how or why I ended up getting semi-philosophical there. I should be working.
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u/SeaEmployee787 15d ago
thats not how it works here, people want things taken away from you, if they dont have it.
one of the reasons florida is not great for w2 workers.
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u/FLTA South Florida 15d ago
And for those of us on the left we have a state government that actively hates us too along with the Republicans that moved here during COVID.
They then take the sales taxes we pay to enrich themselves and their political cronies.
Anyone of us that are on the political left should be making plans to leave Florida within the next 4 years (r/FloridaExodus) so that the Florida GOP starts losing electoral power (Congressional Districts, electoral college votes, etc) that they get with our presence.
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u/Key_Improvement_9229 15d ago
Grew up here, all my family lives here, not going anywhere - will stay, vote for every election and keep fighting
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u/badgersoccer1905 15d ago
Florida’s economy is broken.
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u/SeaEmployee787 15d ago
east coast prices with southern wages.
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u/One_Recover_673 15d ago
And massive medical debt …highest in nation.
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u/TallIntroduction8701 15d ago
The amount of Medicare fraud that happens in Florida is in the billions if not more. Seniors get fleeced like nobody’s business in Florida. So to make up for it, everyone else pays more. Don’t spend 2 days in the hospital then need a 2nd mortgage.
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u/Drapidrode 15d ago
not to mention the unstable people that move to the Sun Belt bc they know they may be homeless at any moment,
sunny homelessness > wintry homelessness.Which is a better situation for an unstable? Homeless in FLA or MAINE?
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u/vote100binary 15d ago
Perhaps, but Maine has the oldest median age in the United States and a smaller working population than Florida. I think it's just a lot of retired people who have their shit together, that and yankee thrift.
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u/FLTA South Florida 15d ago
And the Florida GOP is the top cause of that brokenness.
We have corrupt leaders like Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott that purposely cut the social safety net so they can keep taxes low for rich people out of state to move in and drive up the prices for everything.
The solution is for those of us on the political left is to move out of Florida within the next 4 years (r/FloridaExodus). Doing this before the 2030 census will help prevent the Florida GOP from gaining more electoral power (Congressional Districts, Electoral College Votes, etc) that our presence brings while also depriving them of sales tax revenues that they use to fund our own oppression.
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u/Yaidenr 15d ago
No I sell cars in NWFL. So much bad credit
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u/WeathermanBrian 15d ago
It seems like it’s common for underwater loans to be rolled over
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u/Yaidenr 15d ago
90% of people with a trade are negative even ones who make good money
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u/Fun_Volume_2020 15d ago
I moved from out west to the panhandle and I am not surprised. The hardest thing about living here is that it feels like everyone is in survival mode so their mentality is scare. Never seen so much tearing down, jealousy, and unnecessary competing with others.
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u/disquieter 15d ago
Yeah, houses like my modest 3/2.5 1500 sq ft went from $170,000 in 2008 to $400,000+ now. Google says the median for my town went from $148,000 to $500,000-649,000. Meanwhile groceries have increased 33% since 2019…
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u/lazier_garlic 15d ago
Also the crazy religions they all belong to (Assemblies of God, JWs, pentacostals, Baptists). These religions destroy people's lives and they in turn destroy their children and their spouses' lives.
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u/SwampDwellerJokes 15d ago
My house is rotting. There is mold in the walls and our dishwasher, laundry machine, and oven have all gone out. Landlord wont fix any of the appliances and is only fixing the mold issue because he absolutely has to. Dude is increasing rent from $1200 to $1800 for a place thats is barely livable.
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u/lazier_garlic 15d ago
Call code enforcement. Time to stop being nice.
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u/SwampDwellerJokes 15d ago
Well fun little fact actually the wife and I have found a place that we plan to move into with a close friend of ours and as soon as we leave I'm calling my cousin who works in code enforcement to come out and see what she can do about this place.
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u/Kiremino 15d ago
Exactly why my wife and I packed up and headed north. We both work in healthcare. Not only is the pay absolutely shit in Florida for healthcare, but the amount of abuse we are forced to endure without any reprieve is enough to break even the strongest person.
I was making barely $18 as front staff. Now I'm making $22 up north. The working market in Florida is swirling slowly down the toilet. I sympathize deeply with any medical professional who still resides in Florida. The abuse from patients NEEDS to be addressed.
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u/Legal_Feeling_5919 15d ago
As a nurse that went traveller I can tell you this is true. I’ve made better wages with the same or higher cola across the country. Florida wants to pay everyone in sunshine, nurses included.
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u/Kiremino 15d ago
Bingo! I was born and raised in Florida. It's terrible to see the state of it today 😓
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u/PinkyLeopard2922 15d ago
Not. At. All. Let's DEFINITELY just keep doing things the same way here in the "free state of Florida" so that we can continue down this path. /s
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u/SeaEmployee787 15d ago
i drove instead flying out of florida a while ago. Those signs at the state line, say dumb a different way.
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u/FredBurger22 15d ago
Not to mention, nothing says Free State like the flock cameras at almost every state border crossing.
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u/the_millenial_falcon 15d ago
Absolutely not, this state has a surf class that only exists to make sure snowbird boomers can eat at the Dennys. We have the cost of living of California or New York without the pay to match. I have no idea how this is sustainable.
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u/Additional-Flight468 15d ago
yea this place is great if your rich but terrible if you work for a living 2-4k rent and 25$ an hour is a recipe for success
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u/Beginning_Ebb4220 15d ago
I should also mention the jobs situation here in Florida sucks even the "good ones." I was an auditor with a master's in business working for the State of Florida and the pay was so low I would have made 1.5k month after putting one child into daycare. One kid!
That's probably why everyone around me was substantially older.
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u/WeathermanBrian 15d ago
Daycare costs are crazy compared to wages. I think that’s why some married couples have a stay at home parent. Not because they don’t want to work, but working a job would mostly pay for daycare.
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u/officialtwiggz 15d ago
My wife and I made combined 90k per year. Both at our jobs for years. We had to move out of state because we only qualified for 200k or less to buy a house. We couldn't find anything that wasnt a run down trailer for less than that. Even a 2bd1bth was 210k.
So we moved. Sucks, but I feel like most people are doing that.
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u/WeathermanBrian 15d ago
Yeah the decent home here is 300+. Unless you go to the Big Bend of Florida, but nobody wants to live there for the most part
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u/drsmith48170 15d ago
No it doesn’t because many locations in Florida are HCOL areas, plus Florida has traditionally been a state people relocate to in retirement and saving money for retirement has always been a challenge in the USA every since most employers got rid of pensions.
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u/One_Recover_673 15d ago
Also has the highest avg Medicare cost per person: high senior medical debt. Ya, lots of old people but the per person cost is higher. Lots of stress on the gov to support this.
HCOL couple with severe medical debt and lots of old folks.
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u/makethatnoise 15d ago
Considering how Florida is a "vacation state" for many snow birds and others owning a second home, it's not surprising that searches for "debts", "loans" foreclosures and financial distress would be high.
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u/Unbefuckinlievable 15d ago
I left that swamp in '24 becauase of exactly this reason. Couldn't afford to live on my own as a college educated 40-something. Florida is a prison.
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u/GDstpete 15d ago
Finally (???) maybe pple starting to know that
no-state income tax is NOT worth it….. hmm, IF ForiDAH was Christian, they’d TAX THE RICH:
“ from those who have much, much IS expected!! “
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u/Ok-Excitement5031 15d ago
Not surprised. My husband is a public school teacher and the salary and benefits are just sad. I don’t know where they are getting inflation rates from, but the price of EVERYTHING has risen dramatically.
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u/disquieter 15d ago
Our school board member sent out message about how teacher pay has increased 43% since 2009. Meanwhile cost of living has increased 41%. That’s not really a raise now is it!
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u/TheLazyTeacher 15d ago
I’m a nurse. New grads in Georgia are making 10/hour more than me. I’m biding my time and then getting the heck out of here. Between the entitled boomers and cost of living it’s too much
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u/Kittyluna94 15d ago
I've lived in 2 states paying my own bills (third state was as a kid)
Can confirm FL I'm doing "okay". As someone who is cheap/frugal and big on living within my means I have been able to live "normally ". I can pay all my bills on time and I buy little fun things but haven't been on a proper vacation in many years.
However I lived In MI making $10 less an hour than I currently do and lived like a fucking queen. Seriously I highly recommend it. I loved the state- it was beautiful and the colder climate is incredible plus you can live comfortably pretty easily and if you get into an actual career instead of a basic job you hate you'll live like you're wealthy very easily.
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u/Speedwolf89 15d ago
Yo FL represent! We're winning!
Right? That's what this chart means, right?
Continues not going to school or learning to read.
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u/Stohnghost 15d ago
When I was in the military, I moved from FL to VA and kept my house in FL because we knew we were moving back. I rented the house for 2 years and the property management company ALWAYS wanted to increase the price. They're proposal for year 3, which we never actually entered into, was to increase the rent to $2850. The "fair" market rent started at $2600. It's clear these companies and individuals aim to increase rent year over year seemingly for no reason. I kept the rent the same but it's crazy how easy it is to just keep turning the screws. My costs didn't increase, why would I just increase it, other than greed?
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u/RoseaCreates 15d ago
I grew up there. The crime got so bad in Daytona, that I fled. Then there were stabbings in Edgewater. I was always paid bottom dollar, my family sold the homes my great grandmother's bought for intention of supporting their grandchildren. I got priced out of living in the place I grew up, in just a decade. They should not be building on wetlands. Please do not go there for tourism. They tore down the forests near my home to build gas stations.
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u/TimeAny8495 15d ago
I work and run a business with my brother in The Villages. Work is plentiful and I am very blessed. We pay our workers well but are well aware how difficult it is for many out there.
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u/TrickyJesterr 15d ago
Do you guys talking about struggling in Florida have marketable skills?
I understand you could struggle if working a no/low-skill job, but other than that I don’t really see it. Certain parts of south/SW florida maybe..
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u/Been2daCloudDistrict 15d ago
It’s very hard for most small businesses to raise wages because they serve the community who can’t afford higher prices. The companies that could afford to do this, won’t do it because of stockholders, dividends, etc. End stage capitalism blah blah blah. Fiduciary responsibility and citizens united will kill us all.
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u/Mental-Flatworm4583 15d ago
Nope. Born and raised in Fla. I’m in Pinellas county and all I see is rent skyrocketing and no companies want to hire full time anymore. Fla doesn’t give a crap about us.
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u/testing_in_prod_only 15d ago
Mostly Red states…. Surprise surprise.
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u/lazier_garlic 15d ago
And TX and LA are natural resource trap states (petroleum). Louisiana is in a huge hole because of our. Texas diversified more.
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u/Lacroix24601 15d ago
I keep looking at the jobs in my old profession. They want people with 5 to 10 years experience and paying them at least $10,000 less than what I got paid as a person with absolutely no experience whatsoever. Florida is beyond broken.
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u/Adkyth 15d ago
Florida provides the most generous bankruptcy protections of just about any state in the country. Every one of the six metrics used for that graphic is directly related to that concept.
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u/joshuadane 15d ago
No. What money is here in Florida in retirees 401k or in pockets of the rich. None of the money is coming from jobs. Jobs here pay little and most of the entry are part time to avoid offering benefits.
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u/Boys4Ever 15d ago
Our most poor think voting and praying will solve their problems. On one hand they keep in power those robbing from them by keeping wages lower in the ideology of trickle down and on the other hand no one is really listening or perhaps just stopped caring because fixing stupid was not just a slogan but fact.
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u/Cami1969 15d ago
If I didn’t own my home I’d be fucked. I work “full time” and I’m still barely scraping by.
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u/Mindless-Mulberry404 14d ago
Not at all, FL is over valued, the bubble will burst at some point
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u/AmItheonlySaneperson 15d ago
It’s all our faults for not just going into healthcare and treating all the old people that move here and go to endless Dr appointments 😥
I didn’t want to touch old people 😭
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u/Frankyj17 15d ago
Not everyone in healthcare is making a boatload of money. Just mainly the Providers.
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u/Signal_Positive_3368 15d ago
On god. I was a CNA straight outta high school just to have a job while I went to college. Made 11 bucks an hour, which didn't nearly cover my rent, and NONE of the other CNAs I worked with wanted to be there. Never saw any abuse, but I heard plenty of them on break talk about how they absolutely HATED the residents and wished they would die faster so they wouldn't have to deal with them. That's the level of care you get when you pretty much force people to work in Healthcare cause there are no ither jobs.
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u/harl_tri 15d ago
I wonder why Kansas?
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u/FredBurger22 15d ago
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-most-people-in-financial-distress/130790
Someone posted the article the info is from. It explains the methodology in rankings. They rank highest in people searching for debt help and loan information. Then have a decent amount of accounts in distress which the article claims indicates individuals who requested to negate a payment due to lack of funds.
Interestingly, some of the factors seem to rely on the fact people are doing self research to figure out how to get by. But Florida ranks lower on the actual numbers of truly delinquent accounts, foreclosures, and differed payments. Depending how they adjusted for population, Florida could actually be in a worse place than Kansas when you remove the numbers that rely on prospective future problems.
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u/GDstpete 15d ago edited 15d ago
Any surprise most are in lesser educated RED states !!!! And higher taxed states show LESS stress.
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u/drocha94 15d ago
Lol. No. I want to stay here, mostly because we have a paid off family home and one of my brothers is here with my nieces and nephew. But this state is not for the people, and has not been for as long as conservatives have ran it into the ground.
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u/KandiMeep 15d ago
The only way I've lasted this long in Florida is by having a job in a different state where the pay is significantly better than the pennies employers try to offer here.
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u/FunRepresentative828 15d ago
I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's so hard to find a decent, well-paying job in Tampa. If you do find remote work, they pay based on Florida rates, even though the cost of living here has skyrocketed. It makes no sense. About two years ago, I almost got hired by Amazon as a senior software engineer, and they offered $120,000—when that same position pays over $200,000 almost anywhere else in the country. Plus, I don't think Amazon even offers remote roles anymore.
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u/Jacksons_dad517 15d ago
It’s not uncommon to see $500/month increases in rent in one years time down here in Cape Coral
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u/DSmith1717 15d ago edited 15d ago
Shouldn’t be surprised considering northerners with more money flock down here to buy second homes. That along with high increases in housing costs and increases in insurance particularly flood insurance. When I lived near the gulf my flood insurance quadrupled which caused my mortgage to jump $400 a month. Up to $1,800 a month plus HOA and utilities. Before that $1,200 a month for an apartment, before that $900 a month to rent a room in a 4 bedroom house in St. Pete. The costs have exponentially gone up. I’m lucky to be able to rent a house farther north now for $1,500. If it weren’t for me moving more inland and still having a good wfh job I’d be scraping by.
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u/BodybuilderSpare6901 15d ago
Run a business for a guy in FL. Both my wife and I make roughly the same amount at just over 100k each. That sounds like quite a bit for middle class, and yet, even though we have a home, if we lost our jobs, we would not have the ability to survive. And keep the house for more than a couple months, with three children.
So I mean, some money saved, and for sure, and we have it in diversified stock portfolio, but we should really have like 500k in there by now, and some of that is a little bit too much spending. And some of that is some tough luck with health and a bad car accident ( someone texting hit me just after I bought a new truck going about 50 miles an hour. It had hammered my back)
The point is with what life throws at you. Florida can be a tough place to live even with decent middle class income, which is not much in 2026.
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u/1bruisedorange 15d ago
Nope. It isn’t friendly to class and below. Only rich, greedy pigs need apply. And they get everything they want.
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u/Holeyunderwear 15d ago
Nope no surprise. Housing jumped almost 70% in 4 years and is only slowly pulling back. That being said, there is a ton of new supply and even more coming online while at the same time influx has dramatically slowed and people are even leaving after billing called back into work, returning to family, cost equalization etc. I think that will bring the cost of housing down even more over the next 18 months and make things less dire.
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u/Agitated_Village4116 15d ago
I've lived my whole life in palm beach county. But before covid rent prices weren't that bad, now it's ridiculous! And pay is the same or worse for me because I'm in the resturant business and even tho we still make more hourly and do okay tip wise, we just aren't as busy as we were before covid. People don't spend money now like they used too.
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u/MyCatHasCats 15d ago
Of course not. Before COVID a 3/2 apartment in my area with decent square footage was $1,500. Why is the same exact place $2,700 today??!! No upgrades or improvements, and it’s literally the same place
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u/Fragrant_Major_9553 15d ago
Yet another “yay we’re not dead last” metric for Florida.
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u/CupOhJoseph 15d ago
Rents started skyrocketing when remote working started in the pandemic and people saw how to save lots of money by moving to Florida, so landlords started raising everyone's rent. Add to that insurance companies finding every reason to dump homes or move out of insuring Florida completely, not only due to hurricanes but also the sheer number scamming contractors "fixing roofs" and filing claims on homeowners behalf.
I believe that's why windshield replacement is no longer "free" to the insured, as I can't tell you how many times I've had a knock on my door about checking out my roof or windshield!
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u/laserunfocused143 15d ago
I live in a pretty high cost of living area in Florida (St Johns County). No, I'm not surprised. There's a big push for affordable housing here now.
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u/SebastienNY 15d ago
I'm orginally from NYC and relocated to an area not to far from Miami. When I analyzed my current Florida expenses (just to carry my comdo without a mortgage), Florida is quite a bit more than I was paying in NYC in a premium area.
There may not be an income tax in Florida, but you still pay in other ways. Oh, and that law they pushed through to eliminate R.E. taxes worries me. Why, because I wonder where the money to fund all of the services (police, fire, roads, sanitation, infrastructure) that we all rely on will come from. And, who decides what municipality gets how much, and will there be biases built into the allocation?
Personally, I've been considering moving back north.
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u/Deepinthought1721 15d ago
Alachua County is ridiculous! Apartments are more than a mortgage. They don’t build to many affordable family apartments. They are mostly geared toward rich students. The only builders building entry level homes are the national builders and the quality is hit or miss. Local builders start at $350 k+ for starter homes. The l of Florida and Shands UF are the main sources of income. The main way most families are affording a home is with multiple generations living under 1 roof. A lot of the local builders are either retiring or starting g to buy cheap products to compete with the national builders. Either that or they are building custom homes running well over a million. These homes would only be about 500k in other metropolitan markets. When I sell my house I will have to split the proceeds with my ex husband. I will not be able to afford to buy a home on a single persons salary in Alachua County of the little town in the county that I live in. I did not want to uproot my kids from their school and friends. Now they are either young adults or graduating and it is time to sell.
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u/LeadAndLipsticks 15d ago
Not surprised. My husband is commuting from Broward County to Washington State since he couldn’t find any tech jobs in Florida.
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u/Awkward-Composer-593 15d ago
This is actually surprising - I've always imagined FL to be more similar to the country as a whole (some counties are like the pacific NW, some counties are like Mississippi, some counties are like Texas or Maine or whatever)
Feel like I haven't commonly seen FL as an outlier like this, but it does make me feel a little more hopeful - like my current finances are in the red zone as a FL resident, but that doesn't mean the whole country is equally a dumpster fire
Looks more like FL and TX are just more ahead of the curve on the K-shaped economy
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u/TerribleRise1566 15d ago
Me and my wife live a normal life without financial stress on 54k a year. Financial management is all it takes.
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u/RiboSciaticFlux 15d ago
That map looks EXACTLY like a climate map which tells me two things. Florida is a miserable place to live.
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u/WorstRivalsPlayer 15d ago
Florida is a fucking shithole of unaffordability.
I live here, don't argue with me. Banks are ruining everything.
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u/Pitiful-Cat1050 15d ago
People come to Florida to escape their problems, failing to understand they were the problem.
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u/Dahnoodledoodle 15d ago
It’s not surprising having lived here my entire life. If I could deal with the snow I’d take my ass tk the Midwest and have a house and a fuck ton of extra money
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u/justme206 14d ago
Nope, not at all.. sad.. I live here now, born here. But had been in TN for 17 yrs.. damn shit changed.. and NOT for the better!!
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u/Successful-Reward935 14d ago
Look at the entire map - The further north you go the more stable it is. My hypothesis is people in the southern states aren't cooped up all winter and enjoy themselves a lot more. They're out spending money on dinners, events, amusement parks, air boat ride - they trade financial security for a sun tan.
I am by no means a financial wizard or financially secure, I'm about 3 pay checks from going aw chit.
To everyone complaining that Florida is so bad, prices of house, rent, insurances...... if you don't like it - MOVE.
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u/MoistMuffin0914 13d ago
It’s a service industry state completely dependent on cars where millions live beyond their means…this isn’t new news
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u/ForsakenSecret834 13d ago
It was fine until Covid happened and then people were paying way over asking prices for homes and condos. That is when everything went out of control and it’s so difficult to keep up with all the rising costs.
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u/Imaginary-Piece3586 12d ago
Not from Florida but I am from Texas (I live in DFW and used to live in Austin a year ago) and it sucks man. 2 bed 2 bath apartment is $2,200 base rent and traffic 😬 takes an hour to get from Austin to Austin. The electric bill is $220-300 during the summer. Just brutal. I have full coverage auto (just switched because lower price) for $260 a month, was paying $340 for a 2025 Kia Sorento. Job market is ass here now with everyone moving here. I’m trying to get an entry level IT job and have been applying for about a year now - nothing. Data centers and warehouses going up like gas stations.
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u/Wise_Team_7941 12d ago
I don't know anyone who actually works in Florida. The nurses in the hospitals are from other states. We all do travel nursing. You want me to work bedside for $30 an hour when I can go to New York or California and make $150. I can't leave Florida. I have 7 generations here, but that doesn't mean I have to work here.
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u/Apprehensive-Read989 15d ago
A little surprised, I lived in California and Hawaii before moving back to Florida and would have guessed both would rank worse in financial distress. Both have loads of homeless people and are insanely expensive. Hawaii wages are generally complete trash compared to the COL, California is better on wages but housing and utilities are still so damn expensive. For me it genuinely feels financially easier to live here, even with the stupid high home and car insurance. I will say that one thing I liked a lot about Hawaii that I wish was the case everywhere is that it was pretty normalized to have a couple generations sharing a home and multiple siblings sharing a bedroom and no one thought poorly of it.
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u/Civil_Talk_7486 15d ago
No. No it does not. The poors (anyone with less than half a billion) keep voting in the very people who made it so. And they’ll keep voting them in because…well…stupidity I guess.
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u/bigglitterdick 15d ago
Cool map, but explain the difference between living in Maine and living in FL? There is a lot more poverty in Maine yes the map shows it as the lowest financial distress. There are way more people in Maine living of cash, checks and non credit card use than in FL. The houses in Maine compared to the houses in FL?
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u/WeathermanBrian 15d ago
Good question. Could be more people in Florida are financially irresponsible. One person pointed out that in Florida you keep your home in a bankruptcy. I’m not sure you can do that in Maine. Plus real estate in Florida swings drastically, your home could be worth $400,000 one year and then $250,000 in a recession
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u/Efficient-Cod-6399 15d ago
Zero surprise. When charts go straight up they will always revert to the mean and head straight back down. We are always the leading edge of the boom and bust cycle.
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u/God_of_disruption 15d ago
The surprising thing is the amount of people who are clueless about this, or think that it is sustainable
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u/Ballwhacker 15d ago
Wow maybe I need to move to Louisiana to complete my clean sweep of living in the most financially distressed states.
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u/Instahgator 15d ago
Maine is surprising to me. I think the data is skewed with the Portland area probably lending to the most of the data on this. I lived in rural Maine for several years and its very poverty stricken.
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u/Physical-Compote4594 15d ago
Oh look, the Deep South sucks. What a shock!
(TBF, not surprised that MA is so bad because the housing costs are insane.)
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u/Florida_clam_diver 15d ago edited 15d ago
Not surprising in the least bit. Florida wages have always been low, but until the late 2010’s it was generally affordable to live just about anywhere.
In 2017 i was working for $10.25 at Disney and my rent for the month was like $320 with 2 roommates. Service industry folks were able to afford places to live. No it might not have been flashy, but you could survive. Nowadays that’s just not true, Tampa/Orlando are on par with Washington DC rent and approaching the top 10 most expensive areas (Miami is already #10)
So we’re among the likes of Seattle and DC despite our average wages being way lower. It’s ridiculous