Writing — Travel
10 Reasons Not to Move to Florida
Why the fastest growing state in the U.S. may not be the best place for you to relocate
Moving to Florida seems attractive to many — sun, fun and friendly people. Well, this is the myth anyway.
As with all myths, there is a healthy dose of reality to go along with it. As a resident of the state for over 10 years now, I’ve experienced first-hand both the pros and cons of living in Florida. And while there’s plenty to love, I’ve compiled this handy list of reasons why you may want to rethink moving to “the Sunshine State”.
Keep in mind, this is not me trashing on Florida — I love the state myself — but it’s essential to be fully informed when contemplating any substantial move. Simply said, Florida is not for everyone, and it’s certainly not for the weak at heart.
1. Rapid population growth
In December, the U.S. Census Bureau named Florida the fastest growing state in the U.S., making it the third most populous state only after California and Texas:
This means Florida now has more people than New York state even. Wow. Now that’s saying something isn’t it?
Florida has been rapidly growing for decades now. In 1946 there were approximately 2.4 million people living in the state. In 2022, the number topped 22.2 million.
Rapid growth can potentially lead to a host of other problems, including fluctuating costs of living, crime, poverty, homelessness, etc.
2. Not only crowded cities but crowded towns as well
One might think the first place people head would be popular cities like Miami, Tampa and Orlando, which, to be sure, are already plenty crowded enough:
- Greater Miami area population: 6.8 million
- Greater Tampa area population: 3.2 million
- Greater Orlando area population: 2.7 million
But not anymore. The trend lately has been to move to smaller cities and towns. According to this recent article by Strategistico, places like Ft. Meyers, Doral and St. Cloud have all experience a growth rate of 30 to 45% between 2010 and 2020.
Amazing enough. But it was Parkland, which came into the national spotlight after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, that eerily came in first with a growth rate of 52%.
3. Rapidly fluctuating cost of living?
As mentioned, with rapid growth comes rapidly fluctuating problems, like a change in cost of living. While it may seem reassuring to read reports stating that the overall cost of living in Florida to be low, I appreciated the way real estate professional Ron Stack put things:
“People thinking of moving to Florida because they’ve saw someone touting the low cost of living in Florida should do research and proceed with caution because the cost of living in Florida can change faster than just about anywhere else.”
According to this report of the most expensive places to live in Florida, areas to most definitely avoid, unless you have substantial income, include the Keys, the Miami suburbs and of course, I would add Orlando to that.
I’ve personally dealt with the high cost of living in the Orlando area, low wages and the housing shortage. Don’t need stats to tell me how hard it can be to make it there.
4. Heat and humidity
During my five years working at Walt Disney World, the number one complaint I would hear is: “I didn’t realize Florida was this hot and humid.”
Oh, yes it is — talk about walking outside for five minutes in the peak of summer and being covered with sweat, shall we?
Of course, Disney makes bank on this by selling water, water fans and other such things. They also make bank on selling ponchos when the rain falls and in the “winter” (yes, it does actually get cold on a handful of days) by selling sweatshirts and jackets.
As I further learned from Ron Stack in this blog post, “Real Florida Pros and Cons Revealed 2022 — Moving to Florida”, one of the biggest complaints he hears from people who desire to leave include — what else — heat and humidity.
If you can’t handle the flames, stay out of the kitchen, eh?
5. Rising water levels and hurricanes
Recently, I published this popular article on Newsbreak: “Is Florida sinking under the weight of increased urban development?”
It’s no secret that due to melting glaciers and polar ice caps, the Florida water shoreline is rising, but with increased development, especially in heavily populated places, the problem just seems to be getting worse.
One thing I would seriously advise people to do is reconsider moving to the shore areas of Florida. This is really a case of Russian roulette as it only takes the next big hurricane to sweep a home into the sea.
And on the subject of hurricanes, there’s plenty of news footage documenting entire neighborhoods being desecrated by intense winds and/or flooding water. I mentioned several instances of such in this article: “The dirty little secret behind building houses on sand in Florida”.
6. Horrendous traffic, including many traffic accidents
Everyone complains about the traffic in Florida and I mean everyone. This is owing in large part to the sharp population growth, the many tourists on the road and a melding together of so many various driving habits derived from wherever people hail from.
For instance, Florida is big on U-turns, but many people moving to the area don’t understand U-turn laws one bit. Not difficult to surmise, this can make for a disastrous combination.
According to this article by Citation Nation, lack of highways and effective public transit only add to the problem. And I would personally add that the blaring and often blinding sun of the “Sunshine State” doesn’t help either.
7. Working in the theme park/tourism industry sucks
Many people move to Florida thinking that working in the theme park and tourism industry will be fun and lucrative. Here to tell you, it’s anything but.
Florida tourism has gotten expensive what with rising travel costs and the afore mentioned crowdedness. This makes for some unhappy tourists, and those unhappy tourists make people who work in the tourism industry miserable — it’s just a sick vicious cycle.
Trust me. Been there, done that. Five years as a mouse slave, hello?
8. Politics
It’s become well known which way Florida has been headed, politically speaking, lately: “Once a swing state, Florida becomes redder as GOP confidence grows” — PBS NewsHour.
Depending on your political persuasions, this could either be a great thing or a deal breaker.
Of course, with rapid growth, this could easily change. Perhaps it would be a great thing for more blue and indie folks to filter in. Or perhaps more red people can move to Oklahoma and North Dakota.
At least one problem then might get solved.
9. Strange and/or unfriendly locals
Moving to Florida thinking your going to make a ton of new friends? I’m not saying it can’t happen, although I’ve noticed there is a lot of contention between people who consider themselves to be “the locals” and all the “tourists”, which “the locals” consider anyone who has moved into the state in the last couple of decades.
Additionally, there are plenty of stories of Florida Man and Florida Woman doing the unthinkable. There’s even a Florida Man website, which attributes the problem to the crazy weather, an abundance of alligators, snowbirds and the “General Craziness” of Florida”.
There ya go. What more do you need?
10. The overall dissatisfaction factor
As I was rather shocked to discover, while there are indeed many people moving to the state of Florida, there are also many who leave due to being dissatisfied with living in Florida.
As I further learned from Ron Stack, some of the biggest complaints he hears from people who desire to leave include the very things included on this list: heat, humidity, crowds and tourism, lack of seasons, hurricanes, fluctuating costs, traffic, mosquitoes, alligators, etc.
What do you think? Do you live, or have you lived in Florida? Are you thinking of moving to Florida?
Need even more reasons not to move to Florida:
