Cost of living in 10 of the major cities in Florida

• Of the ten places on the list, Miami-Dade County is the most expensive metropolitan area in Florida.
• Insiders examined data from the Economic and Community Research Council.
• Half of the ten Florida cities on the list have cost-of-living indices above the national average.

Florida is The fastest growing state in the United States and popular with retirees – they can also be very expensive.

To see how some of the largest cities in the iconic Sunshine State fared, Insider checked out the Community and Economic Research Council’s report cost of living index to various metropolitan areas in the United States.

The cost of living index measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the highest income quintile. press release Said from C2ER.

“Prices covering 61 different items are collected quarterly by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations and university applied economic centers in each participating metropolitan area,” the press release continued.

Insider looked at average prices from C2ER research and the aggregate composite index, which is based on six different categories like housing and transportation, to see how expensive it is to live in different large metropolitan areas in Florida. Data is for the first quarter of 2023 from participating regions; There were 10 Florida metropolitan areas that had data available for this quarter.

A composite index of 100 for a city means that its cost of living is equal to the national average. And while half of those 10 places in Florida had scores above 100, the other five were below the national average.

Miami was the most expensive of the ten places in Florida, with a composite index of 118.9, but its cost of living is not as high as other places in the country. Based on the C2ER indexes, none of the listed Florida cities appeared in the top positions when all 271 American places were ranked using the indexes. Manhattan, New York, has the highest composite index in the United States with an index of 222.0 in the first quarter of 2023.

Note that the researchers attempted to compare similar offers from participants in the mentioned cities. for average Apartment rentThe researchers looked at one-year leases for a 950-square-foot two-bedroom apartment in a compound suitable for a childless couple, which makes up the top 20% of income for the area, among other criteria. Doctor visits tend to measure average fee rates charged to a flat, uninsured patient. There are also certain criteria required to determine the price of the house, such as the living area must be 2400 square feet and it must be newly built.

Here’s how expensive it is to live in the 10 metropolitan areas in the Sunshine State. We also listed some average prices for goods and services for the first quarter of this year.

Did you move to one of these places in Florida to cover the cost of living, or did you decide to move out of Florida? Connect with this reporter to share your story on [email protected].

Update – August 27, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify that the list includes large cities in Florida—but not the largest—due to data limitations.