North Fort Myers was recently ranked number 12 out of the top 25 in the U-Haul Growth Index for growth cities in 2025.<\/p>\n
Twelve out of the top 25 U-Haul Growth Index cities were located in Florida: Ocala (1), North Port (2), Kissimmee (3), Clermont (5), Fort Lauderdale (7), St. Augustine (8), Daytona Beach (9), Panama City (10), North Fort Myers (12), Leesburg (16), Sarasota (18) and St. Cloud (19).<\/p>\n
Elite International Realty CEO Daniel Ickowicz said the U-Haul Index provides real-time data, rather than surveying people and guessing data. He said the index collects data from 2.5 million one-way moves that include trucks and trailers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives a sense for net migration \u2013 how many people are moving out versus moving in to have the net gain,\u201d Ickowicz said.<\/p>\n
With Florida having 12 out of 25 cities named, it shows that the Sunshine State is really a state where people want to live.<\/p>\n
He said the U-Haul Index shows that the big metro areas of Florida are not necessarily the go-to places, as the cost of living in the areas is not for everyone.<\/p>\n
The smaller cities \u2013 secondary cities, Ickowicz said are the destinations because they too have the amazing Florida weather without the metro prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have the affordability, quality of life,\u201d he said, adding that people want to pay less, but still have that lifestyle living close to a bigger city.<\/p>\n
The age of those traveling has also changed from not only retirees moving to Florida, but families, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have families relocating here, creating different demands, parks, public works and schools. Generations of people are moving and wanting to stay in Florida,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since the pandemic, Ickowicz said the growth in price has been about 30 to 40%, which is also a reflection of what has happened in the state. He said there is a 6 to 8% per year appreciation, almost double of the average of 3 to 4%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s linked directly to migration. They want to move to Florida because of the quality of life, sunshine, no state income taxes,\u201d Ickowicz said of why the prices went up.<\/p>\n
He does not believe the growth will continue at 6 to 7%.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people talk about bubbles and prices doing down,\u201d he said. \u201cWe might still see 2 to 3%. Maybe with interest rates going down it could help even more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida growth, he said, is sustainable because it is not just investors coming in and buying property, but real people who are moving here to retire and work for a longer-term move.<\/p>\n
Smaller communities such as North Fort Myers, he said benefit from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the value, accessibility, you can buy more for less. Space, a great community and lifestyle is now on people\u2019s radar,\u201d Ickowicz said. \u201cNow you have choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U-Haul Index, he said, is a very helpful tool that individuals use.<\/p>\n
\u201cReal people use it to make real decisions,\u201d Ickowicz said. \u201cWhen there are 25 cities being listed and 12 are in Florida, they start to do some research. Where in Florida do I want to be and (here are my) 12 top choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although there were many recurring cities from the 2024-2025 list, North Fort Myers is a newcomer in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Fort Myers was recently ranked number 12 out of the top 25 in the U-Haul Growth Index…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-166505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}