It’s Officially More Expensive to Live in Miami Than New York 

As a wave of wealth has flocked to South Florida over the last few years, Miami‘s transformation has been impossible to miss. The demand has driven home prices to new heights, with the cost of everything else, from food to insurance, climbing along the way. 

New data now confirms what many residents of the Sunshine State have already been feeling in their pocketbooks. According to a new Bloomberg report, the Miami metropolitan area is now more expensive than the greater New York City region for the first time on record, citing the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The outlet also reports that South Florida‘s consumer price index has climbed 36 percent since 2019—one of the largest increases in the country, trailing only Tampa.

Housing remains one of the biggest factors. While Miami buyers still get more square footage for their money than buyers in New York—the median home price was $357 per square foot in June compared to $537 in the New York metro area, according to Realtor.com—many buyers say the savings disappear once they factor in insurance, property taxes, and maintenance costs.

“It’s no longer just about the purchase price,” Corcoran agent Michael Buttacavoli told Bloomberg. “It’s about the total cost to own.”

RELATED: How Ultra-Wealthy Buyers Are Redrawing the Global Luxury Real Estate Map

For the first time, Miami’s cost of living has surpassed New York’s.

C. Taylor Crothers/Getty Images

Florida homeowners pay the highest insurance premiums in the country. According to Bloomberg, citing Insurify, the average annual premium reached $8,292 last year, roughly four times what homeowners in New York pay, and costs are expected to keep climbing. Property taxes have also surged. Data from Attom shows property taxes in the Miami area have jumped 62 percent since 2019, more than double the national average.

RELATED: Luxury Buyers Are Driving Home Prices to Record Highs

Other everyday expenses are rising too. Bloomberg reports private school tuition, restaurant bills, and insurance costs have all increased over the past year. Meanwhile, salaries haven’t kept pace. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the typical household income in the Miami metro area is about $1,000 below the national median, and professionals also often earn less than their counterparts in New York. Bloomberg reports that the average lawyer in the New York metro earned roughly $51,000 more last year than in Miami.

Even as it becomes less affordable for middle and lower incomes, South Florida continues to attract the ultra-wealthy. Billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Howard Schultz, and Citadel founder Ken Griffin have all expanded their presence in the region in recent years, in some cases spending hundreds of millions of dollars to amass contiguous properties. According to real estate agents interviewed by Bloomberg, the result is an increasingly divided market: affluent buyers continue to compete for trophy homes, while some professionals who once viewed Miami as a lower-cost alternative to New York are reconsidering whether its soaring housing and lifestyle costs still make sense.

Authors

Abby Montanez

Abigail Montanez is a staff writer at Robb Report. She has worked in both print and digital publishing for over half a decade, covering everything from real estate, entertainment, dining, travel to…

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