Americans Still Want Out of Expensive Metros, But Florida’s Big Cities Are No Longer the Escape

A two-bedroom in Miami takes 31.9% of median household income, more than in New York (23.5%). Movers head to Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville and Huntsville.

MIAMI, FL, UNITED STATES, November 10, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — A record share of house hunters is looking to leave home for another metro, but Florida, the default escape from high-cost cities for most of this decade, has stopped absorbing them. A new Slower Sundays analysis of Census data released October 29, 2026 shows why: in Florida’s largest metros, rent now takes a bigger share of household income than in New York, San Francisco or Chicago, the cities many movers are leaving.

Slower Sundays compared the median two-bedroom rent with median household income in 118 US metro areas, then set the results against the latest Census migration estimates. The contrast is sharp. Miami, Tampa and Orlando lost residents to the rest of the country in 2024-25. Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville and Huntsville, where rent takes a smaller share of pay, each added between 12,351 and 24,404.

Key findings

1. The urge to leave is at a record. 19.1% of house hunters looked to relocate to another metro in Q1 2026, the highest share in Redfin’s records back to 2021. Q2 2026 came in at 18.7%, the highest second quarter on record (Redfin, 2026). Redfin notes actual moves are likely lower than in 2021-22.

2. Florida stopped absorbing them. Florida’s net gain from domestic migration fell from +310,892 in 2021-22 to +22,517 in 2024-25 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The Miami metro lost 113,724 residents to domestic moves in 2024-25; Tampa lost 1,539 and Orlando 1,785.

3. Florida’s big metros now cost renters more of their pay than New York, San Francisco or Chicago. A median two-bedroom takes 31.9% of median household income in Miami, 27.0% in Tampa and 26.1% in Orlando. In New York it is 23.5%, in San Francisco 24.4%, in Boston 23.9% and in Chicago 21.0%. The US figure is 22.1% (Census ACS, 2025).

4. Miami tops all 118 metros. At 31.9%, Miami is the only metro in the study above 30%, the line HUD uses to define housing cost burden, and it leads second-place Los Angeles (27.9%) by a wide margin. Seven more Florida metros (Tampa, Sarasota, Melbourne, Lakeland, Orlando, Fort Myers and Daytona Beach) sit in a tight band between 26.0% and 27.0%, near the top of the list.

5. The new map runs through the Carolinas and the mid-South. Southeast metros with large domestic gains in 2024-25 include Charlotte (+24,404), Raleigh (+19,974), Jacksonville (+17,360), Nashville (+16,967), Huntsville (+12,351) and Greenville, SC (+11,375) (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Rent there takes 17.9% (Huntsville) to 23.8% (Jacksonville) of median income.

6. Pressure is still building at home. Chicago’s median two-bedroom rent rose 11.0% in one year, from $1,485 to $1,648, against 4.9% for the US (Census ACS, 2024 to 2025). New York’s rose 5.8%.

“Families still want out of the expensive cities. What changed is where the math works,” said Sol Lakein, founder of Slower Sundays. “For years Miami was the escape from New York rent. Today a two-bedroom in Miami takes a bigger share of a local paycheck than one in New York. We built Slower Sundays so families can run those numbers before they move, not after.”

Rent and income data for all 118 metros is at slowersundays.com/rent.

Methodology

Rent share is 12 months of median gross rent for a two-bedroom unit, divided by median household income for the same metro, from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2025 1-year estimates (tables B25031 and B19013). Gross rent includes utilities the renter pays; median household income covers owners and renters alike. Migration figures are Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates of net domestic migration, July 2024 to July 2025. Relocation intent is from Redfin’s Q1 and Q2 2026 migration reports. Every difference cited between Miami, Tampa or Orlando and New York, San Francisco, Boston or Chicago exceeds Census margins of error at the 90% confidence level.

About Slower Sundays

Slower Sundays (slowersundays.com) is a free relocation guide for families leaving expensive metros for places with a lower cost of living and a better quality of life. It publishes cost of living, rent and commute data for 118 US metros, state migration trends, plus free rent, budget and home affordability calculators. Every figure on the site carries its source and year.

Sol Lakein
Slower Sundays
hello@slowersundays.com

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