Pros and Cons of Living in Miami (2024)

A lower cost of living

Everything is less expensive down here, and you can get much more bang for your buck despite the inflationary policies of the government and central bank.

Sure, the market has really rebounded from the turmoil of 2020, and the Miami real estate market is only expected to continue to strengthen after a temporary expected dip in prices in 2023, but the prices here are still eminently more affordable, and typically of better quality and newer construction, than places like New York or the West Coast.

For example, let’s say you’re a New Yorker who just loves living in the Meatpacking District of the West Village, and can’t imagine living anywhere else because NYC is the capital of the world right?

Well, when it’s time to upgrade to a bigger living space, perhaps because you have a newborn on the way, we bet you’ll start having second thoughts once you start going through the available housing inventory in the West Village.

If you never look anywhere else because you don’t know better, than you might actually be depressed and settle for a 3 bedroom in an old, brown, unattractive co-op building with crazy board members and neighbors that you can barely afford for $3 to $4 million.

But how depressing is that? Or, you could move to Miami and purchase a 4 bedroom, 3,000+ square foot penthouse condo in Edgewater, right on the water with direct bay and ocean views, for the same price.

And for that kind of money, you won’t be getting an ugly, unattractive building built before your grandmother was born. No, it’ll be a new construction or very recently built building with more amenities than you can imagine.

Gone will be the days where you’ll have to compete with highly competitive, but ultimately very confused people, for a membership at Soho House just to be able to access a pool in New York City.

And we mean this in the nicest possible way, because often through no fault of their own, many New Yorkers simply don’t know any better. They don’t realize that competing for a shoe box isn’t the only way to live.

Long gone are the days when every Ivy League graduate wanted to go to Wall Street, and to work on Wall Street you had to live on the Upper East Side. With the advent of remote work and the decreasing importance of finance vis-à-vis tech and other industries, “equities in Dallas” is no longer a put-down as it was on Wall Street in the 1980’s.

A thriving transplant community

We’ve heard over and over again how recent transplants to Miami feel like they’ve made more real friends here in the past year than they have in 5 or 10 years in NYC. Perhaps because so many people are new arrivals, Miami has the vibe of orientation week for newly arriving freshmen on campus. Everyone is excited to be here and in contrast to NYC where it can be difficult to plan with people because everyone is always “too busy,” people in Miami are simply down to hang and make friends.

People are just open to meeting new people, and introducing people to each other. The atmosphere is so open that it’s not uncommon for people to actually make friends with each other in random public places. In contrast in NYC or San Francisco, pedestrians are trained to not make eye contact with others, perhaps out of fear of being assaulted by a belligerent drug addict, criminal or homeless person.

A lower tax burden

You didn’t think we’d forget about taxes right? Florida is one of 9 states that don’t have a state income tax. Don’t worry, for those of you traumatized by local city incomes taxes like in NYC, Florida’s constitution bars the imposition of an income tax. This means blue leaning counties such as Miami-Dade cannot unilaterally impose a Miami city income tax.

But where does the government get its money then? Surely, the property taxes and sales taxes must be higher in Florida then right?

Nope. Florida has a state sales tax of 6% on most items, with many essential items like most grocery items being excluded. Miami-Dade County also collects a 1% sales tax, for a total of 7% in sales tax in Miami. This is lower than the 8.875% in sales tax levied in NYC, not to mention the special tax rates of as much as 18.375% for renting parking garage spaces in NYC.

What about property taxes? Well, the average property tax rate for a purchase is usually around 1.8% to 2% of the sale price. If you’re able to get the Homestead Exemption because it’s your primary residence, then property taxes in future years are reduced by reductions in the assessed amount.

So yes, property taxes are admittedly high, but they are as high or higher in parts of New York such as Westchester County which sports the highest property taxes in the country.

Ease of doing business

It’s simpler, easier, faster and cheaper to start a business in Florida. Keep in mind that Florida doesn’t have much in the way of Mickey Mouse (i.e. arbitrarily made up) taxes such as the NYC Unincorporated Business Tax or the NYC Business Commercial Rent Tax.

While strict, licensing is relatively straightforward and the people who work at these state agencies are usually responsive, compared with agencies in other states where you can never get a response.

The same goes for employment laws and COVID restrictions and requirements, it’s simply easier to navigate as a small business in Florida where you don’t have to abide by pages and pages of COVID regulations to operate an office.

Good governance

Let’s face it. The low taxes and sunshine have always been there for Florida, so why are people fleeing New York in droves? Though a convenient excuse for politicians in California and New York, the pandemic really can’t be the reason people are continuing to migrate out of these states.

After all, New York only recently still had extensive mask and vaccine mandates when the narrative was that vaccines actually prevented the spread of COVID. And earlier in the pandemic, New York and California had the toughest lockdowns and NYC had the highest infection rates, especially among nursing home residents, thus achieving herd immunity much faster.

So if the exodus out of New York was purely out of fear of COVID, then surely people should be stampeding to go back to New York now that the pandemic is over?

So what has changed? Surely, it couldn’t have anything to do with how some of these deep blue cities like NYC and San Francisco are governed. However, from what we hear from recent transplants to Miami, that is exactly the reason for their departure, the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back if you will.

From many interviews with recent transplants from blue states, it seems to boil down to taxation without representation. In fact, since Democrats reportedly outnumber Republicans in NYC anywhere from 6-8 vs 1, there is zero representation for any view points that differ from the Democratic establishment.

Essentially it boils down to this. Many New Yorkers who have left disagree with not just the high levels of taxation, but in how it’s used with zero say in the matter. We keep hearing about New Yorkers who’ve walked by the same street in TriBeCa for over 10 years, and the street somehow has been in construction the entire time with no improvement. It’s stories about seeing a dozen construction workers earning union prevailing wages joking around a pothole, with only one guy working on a jackhammer. Even more infuriating, that same pothole was just fixed the previous week.

What’s worse, it’s quite obvious to private sector workers just how well compensated public sector workers in New York are. What private sector worker do you know gets a defined benefit pension of $200,000 or $300,000 per year for life? At today’s low interest rates, you would need well in excess of $10 million, after tax, in the S&P 500 to generate that sort of perpetual income stream.

Pro Tip: Curious about moving to Miami? Learn more about where to live in Miami with our Miami neighborhood guide. Remember, Miami has many different, interesting neighborhoods to choose from. There’s truly variety in living choices here vs in NYC where everyone wants to live in the West Village.

The traffic

This is a common, and often valid, complaint about living in Miami. The traffic in this city can get pretty bad, especially around rush hour and on the I-95. This problem is compounded by the fact that Miami is known for aggressive and bad drivers who often get into accidents. Here in Miami, traffic signs, lights and rules are more of a suggestion vs a requirement for many drivers. It’s often joked that actually using your turn signal is a sign of weakness. Furthermore, due to a lack of public transportation, bike lanes and the spread out nature of the city, most people tend to drive or take rideshares, which only adds to the number of cars on the road.

Yet, however bad the traffic can be in Miami, the traffic is worse in New York and the West Coast. In fact, the traffic in Miami cannot compare to the horrific traffic jams you see in Los Angeles or trying to get out of NYC on a summer Friday afternoon.

The people

A common complaint by elitist New Yorkers is that the quality of the people in Florida can’t compare to that of New Yorkers. They complain that people in Miami are inconsiderate, don’t have manners, are rude, uncouth, vain, flashy, transactional or uninteresting.

Can you imagine some bitter New Yorker airing these grievances all at once? Is this someone you’d prefer to hang out with? Also, have you spent much time recently on the dirty streets or subways of NYC?

While people will generally smile and acknowledge each other here in sunny Miami, which the Financial Times recently called the most important city in America, in New York you’re just hoping to not get shoved onto an oncoming subway train.

While it’s true that there may be some cultural differences to get used to in Miami-Dade County, we’d argue that you can find equally rude or even more annoying people anywhere, including in NYC.

After all, there’s been a huge influx of transplants, pioneers rather, from different parts of the country, many of whom are very interesting people with the will and ability to start a new life somewhere new. If you don’t like who you’re hanging out with, make some new friends.

Keep in mind that after the great, post-pandemic migration which is still in progress, finding community in Miami has never been easier. We’ve heard plenty of transplants who have tried living in Miami pre-2020 say that it wasn’t doable then due to the difficulty in finding like-minded people, but years later they would never live anywhere else.

The heat and humidity

A common complaint against living in Miami is the heat, especially during the summer. However, as we’ve previously discussed while it can get quite hot in the summer months with average temperatures in the mid-high 80’s, the beach is much more accessible for everyone and you have less of a “concrete effect” vs NYC.

So yes, if you’re living in Doral or Homestead, there is the possibility that you’ll experience higher than average temperatures during the summer. But what do you expect from living inland in a tropical climate? If you landed in a tropical island, would you want to live in the jungle interior?

The point is, it’s arguably hotter in NYC during the summer, and the beach is much more accessible with numerous public parking lots close to some of the best sand beaches in the world. Plus, waterfront living is significantly more affordable than on the West Coast or New York.

There’s lots of bugs

This is one that gets a lot of hype, but one that we haven’t witnessed in real life living in Miami. Sure, in terms of bugs there are occasionally cicadas and cockroaches that you’ll see, but no more than in New York. Most critically, these are bugs you might very occasionally see outside, vs in your apartment as can often happen in NYC.

Why is this the case? We think it’s because New York can be so dry that if you’re away for an extended period of time, the water in your drains will dry up and cockroaches from New York’s dirty sewers will crawl right up into your apartment.

In contrast, we’ve almost never heard about cockroaches within an apartment being an issue for the vast majority of decent, clean apartment dwellers in Miami. Keep in mind that if you have a house, then you’re more likely to get bugs if you leave your doors open. But perhaps that’s common sense and to be expected?

You’ll find alligators in your pool

This complaint really is unheard of. Perhaps this is possible, per various viral YouTube videos, in swampier parts of Florida. But no, we’ve never heard of alligators in any pools in Miami. We don’t see alligators either in the various canals or rivers in Miami either. However, you will find lots of adorable manatees, a neutered cat colony in Miami Beach, and iguanas and various tropical birds!

Everyone has a gun

While Florida may have the highest number of concealed carry permits in the country, we’ve never seen a civilian brandishing a weapon in Miami because open carry is not allowed. So yes, it’s much easier to buy a gun here in Miami, but people are not running around waving firearms and police officers are fairly abundant.

In fact, because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and the ability for citizens to purchase and carry firearms (unlike NYC, where citizens cannot carry even a blade longer than 4 inches), people are generally quite respectful to each other. People don’t just go up to harass, insult or attack people randomly as may actually happen more frequently in New York, due to the threat of deadly force in defending oneself.

This is a rather controversial and complicated subject, but overall we see a reduction in street violence and harassment from gangs, criminals and homeless people vs in NYC.

It’s too expensive

Sadly, this is true especially when you compare real estate prices vs local incomes, which can typically start as low as $30,000 to $40,000 per year. So although real estate prices aren’t as expensive as NYC, the relatively low incomes of the local population make housing affordability more of an issue.

Fortunately, Florida has much more relaxed zoning regulations vs New York and especially the West Coast. Because there are very few historical neighborhoods and developers can simply build as long as they can buy up the lots, there is a lot more construction and thus a lot more housing. As a result, homelessness is ironically less of an issue here vs in California or NYC.

With that said, the impact of the mass net migration to South Florida on local inflation should not be minimized. Due to the sheer amount of people and wealth that have moved to Miami and South Florida, prices these days are getting on par with that of NYC, especially for activities such as dining out.

There’s no culture

This is a common complaint you’ll hear. It’s true, Broadway only exists in NYC and Miami doesn’t have something as institutional as Carnegie Hall or the Met Gala. However, how often do you go to see the opera or a ballet performance in New York? If you’re a regular, then you’re probably not someone who’s looking to move in the first place.

With that said, there are more cultural institutions coming to Miami, and it’s only a matter of time we believe before Miami gets a Broadway of its own. You can already see the progress that is happening with Formula 1 choosing Miami as the location of its 2nd US based race starting in 2022.

The restaurant scene isn’t as good

While historically this may have been true, with offerings focused on high prices for a party atmosphere, Miami cuisine has evolved over the past couple of years as transplants have demanded better service, better food and generally expected a higher level of quality that has forced restaurants to improve.

This change in the culinary landscape has been accelerated by the opening of Miami locations for many famous NYC restaurants such as Carbone and Cote. Furthermore, the Michelin Guide is finally coming to Miami, with much credit to the dramatically improved culinary scene here.

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