Florida Residents Prefer Migrants to Americans Moving to State

Art Deco hotels in Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, Florida. Floridians in the state say that domestic migration has made life worse in the state, according to a poll.

More Floridians think that people moving from other parts of the U.S. have made life "worse" in the state than migrants from Mexico and Latin America, according to a survey.

Asked if "in your view, over recent years, have Americans moving to Florida from other states made life in Florida better, worse, or not had an impact either way," 60 percent said worse, 10 percent answered better, while 30 percent responded that they had no impact either way.

But when asked about immigrants from Mexico and Latin America, only 46 percent said worse, 38 percent no impact and 16 percent said better.

Overall, 57 percent of Florida residents said life has generally changed for the worse over the course of their time in the state, 23 percent said it has changed for the better and 20 percent believed it had not changed, the CBS News/YouGov poll showed.

The survey was conducted in May, surveying close to 1,600 people. About 1,200 were registered voters in the state. It had an overall margin of error of 3.1 percent.

It asked residents about a range of political and economic issues in Florida, and housing costs and migration were hot issues.

The Context

Florida has experienced substantial migration into the state over the past few years, and people moving there from other parts of the country have contributed to the rise.

The Sunshine State had four of the five fastest-growing metropolitan areas and three of the top 10 that gained the highest number of new residents in 2023, compared to the previous year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Migration to southern parts of the U.S. has been a trend following the COVID-pandemic when lockdown policies in some areas of the country ushered in remote working. This freed up people to move to areas with warmer weather and a relatively cheaper cost of living.

In 2023 Florida had the fastest-growing metro area in the country. Wildwood-The Villages, between Tampa and Jacksonville, reported 5 percent growth in population to nearly 152,000 people, Census Bureau data shows.

Lakeland-Winter Haven with a 4 percent jump in population to about 818,000 was the second fastest-growing metro area while Ocala and Port St. Lucie came in as the fourth and fifth fastest-growing metro areas, with 3 percent rises.

Views

One consequence of population growth in the state has been an escalation in competition for housing. This, experts say, has contributed to a rise in housing prices and the cost of rent in Florida.

Florida, which is popular with older domestic migrants, has been ranked 40th in the nation when it comes to affordable homes, according to a recent analysis from Realtor.com. The median listing price of a home in the state went from $336,000 in February 2020 to $450,000 in April, data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data shows.

And, although rent in the state has declined recently, compared to the national picture, the median rent in Florida is $2,513 a month, close to $400 more than the national median, according to Zillow.

Housing costs are something Floridians are deeply concerned about, according to the CBS News/YouGov poll. Asked whether the cost of housing is affordable, 82 percent answered unaffordable, and 50 percent of those said it was "very unaffordable."

Asked whether it is easier or harder for people to own a home in Florida today than it was for their parents' generation, 87 percent said it was harder.

What's Next

Experts in the state suggest that while some residents are moving out of the state for reasons such as high costs of homeowner insurance, trends suggest that Florida is still likely to see a positive net migration.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has pointed that this year between 225,000-275,000 new residents are forecast to move into the state.

"This growth, while still positive, is slower than the growth we saw last year. The demographics of Florida's population are going to shift, as Florida sees higher growth for ages 70+ than in the age range of 20-65," they said. "Population declines for those ages 9 and under, ages 25-35 and ages 50-60 are creating further gaps in the talent supply as essential working age populations leave Florida."

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