Thou­sands of Flori­da trans­plants are leav­ing the Sun­shine State

Despite expe­ri­enc­ing a pan­dem­ic pop­u­la­tion boom, near­ly 500,000 Flori­da trans­plants decid­ed to leave the state and move back north.According to data ana­lyt­ics firm Core­L­og­ic, there were near­ly two home­buy­ers mov­ing to Flori­da in 2023 for every one per­son leav­ing.
The dev­as­ta­tion of hur­ri­canes on prop­er­ty, ris­ing hous­ing costs, increased home­own­ers insur­ance rates, and pol­i­tics have been some of the rea­sons behind the Flori­da reverse migra­tion. It was esti­mat­ed last fall that the dam­age from Hur­ri­cane Ian could be $47 bil­lion in Flori­da.
Real estate web­site Zil­low is call­ing the Sun­shine State one of the more expen­sive states to buy homes due to the rise in prices by 60%.
NBC News inter­viewed Louis Rotkowitz, a trans­plant from New York, who bought a house in the West Palm Beach area in 2022 but found his com­mute with errat­ic dri­vers, ris­ing home­own­er costs, and the preva­lence of guns as not ide­al. He picked up and moved to North Car­oli­na.
“Every­one is walk­ing around with guns there,” he report­ed­ly said.
Anoth­er trans­plant from Con­necti­cut cit­ed the low­er salary and ris­ing insur­ance costs as “hid­den costs” and moved back north.
Okla­homa native Don­na Smith told NBC that ris­ing …