Stay or go: Why Americans are drawn to — or sick of — living in Florida

A popular sentiment cry among Floridians moving out: the Sunshine State has gotten too crowded.

It’s one of the main reasons Ryan and Jami Wilson moved from Fort Myers, a city along the Gulf of Mexico, to Greenville, which is more affordable, family-oriented, and less crowded, the Wilsons said.

“We stopped going to the beach because you couldn’t get there anymore because the traffic would be miles long,” Jami Wilson said. “You could never find a place to park.”

In 2021, the couple sold their 1,800-square-foot three-bedroom home in Florida for $425,000, nearly double what they paid five years earlier. They bought a 2,400-square-foot, four-bedroom home with an acre of land in Greenville for about the same amount.

Read more: We left Florida because it got too hot, crowded, and expensive. Now, we live in South Carolina, where it’s harder than we thought to make friends.

For decades, one West Palm Beach neighborhood was an “idyllic” place where everyone knew each other, said David, who asked to withhold his last name for privacy reasons. But during the pandemic, wealthy out-of-state movers swept in, paying millions for homes and changing the neighborhood fabric, he added.

“The number of people who were moving down and spending crazy amounts of money was insane,” David said. “Their attitudes were so different from what everybody was used to; they were demanding people not familiar with the kind of calm lifestyle we were living.”

To top it off, his homeowners insurance skyrocketed, and he wondered if he could afford it once he retired.

So he sold his West Palm home there for $2.6 million, making a $1.6 million profit, and bought a Savannah, Georgia, home for around $700,000.

“Savannah felt right,” he said. “The islands of Savannah reminded us of the old Florida.”

Read more: I’m fleeing Florida after almost 40 years because ‘Rolls Royces, Range Rovers and Maseratis took over’ and my home insurance skyrocketed.

“Keeping up with the Joneses becomes so much more significant when your kid is going to school with kids who fly private and have drivers and when the gala event for the school fundraiser goes from $100 per ticket to $1,000 per ticket,” said Holly Meyer Lucas. “It’s just exhausting having to keep up with that for certain people with these income ceilings like nurses, firefighters, cops, and even doctors now.”

For that reason, she added, many middle-class Floridians are moving to more affordable, down-to-earth cities in neighboring states such as Huntsville, Alabama; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Greenville, South Carolina — places she collectively calls “the Villes.”

Read more: Wall Street and money moved into South Florida, driving up prices. Now some residents want to move out.

The cost of a home in South Florida — a region that includes ritzy spots on the Atlantic coast like West Palm Beach and Miami — has increased substantially since the pandemic began.

New construction of apartment buildings and houses will skew high-end , housing expert Jonathan Miller told Insider, while fewer developers will build housing priced for the middle class.

The lack of affordable places to live pushes out many people looking for a cheaper cost of living — a pressure that’s unlikely to ease soon.

“Miami and most of Southeast Florida have rebranded into more luxury markets. I don’t see that as a fluke or an anomaly,” Miller said. “Price structure has reset.”

Read more: Why the middle-class can’t afford to live in Miami

Tampa is hot right now, and it’s not just the weather.

The city of over 398,000 on Florida’s West Coast is one of the most popular spots for Gen Zers to move to. One reason is its growing startup sector, which has attracted young entrepreneurs like Joe Steilberg, 27.

“As soon as I got here, it was such a warm, embracing environment. Everyone I met was like, ‘Let me introduce you to my friends. Let’s go to the beach,’ Steilberg said. “I’ve never looked back. For me, Tampa has been the 1A of Florida cities. It’s the perfect combination of a big city like Miami and a small community like Jacksonville.”

Read more: Tampa is becoming a Gen Z hotspot. 5 recent arrivals share why the city’s ‘becoming the new Miami.’

Alissa Musto relocated from Massachusetts to Tampa in 2020 to keep her career as a singer alive.

“I was inspired to move to Florida because, while live music and entertainment was shut down nationwide during COVID, Florida’s economy remained open, making it one of the few places in the country where I was still able to work in my field,” she said. “I have been booked solid since relocating.”

She fell in love with it, and her cost of living is much less.

Read more: I moved to Tampa, Florida, to keep my career as a musician alive. It’s more cosmopolitan than I expected, but I still don’t own a car.

Terri Peters moved with her family to Florida in 2016 from Maryland. She doesn’t see alligators much, which surprised her. She doesn’t mind the heat, but hates the traffic.

“Aside from the obvious things like no snow and exponentially more humidity, there’s a different political vibe down South and a lot more Southern hospitality,” she said. “Plus, Disney World is here, which makes me — a journalist who covers theme parks — very happy.”

Read more: I moved my family to Florida 7 years ago. I mostly love it, but life here has been filled with surprises.

Have you moved into or out of Florida recently? Do you want to share your story? Email reporter Kelsey Neubauer at kneubauer@insider.com.