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3471South Florida’s once-booming housing market is cooling fast. The number of homes for sale in the region has quadrupled since 2022, reaching the highest level in nearly a decade.
Many residents are packing up and moving out, overwhelmed by rising costs and an affordability crisis that’s pricing out the middle class.
Soaring Inventory, Falling Demand
In April, nearly 52,000 homes were listed across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, according to data from Reventure.
That’s a huge jump from just 12,825 listings in 2022, when the pandemic migration boom was still in full swing.
“It’s kind of like this perfect storm now,” said Nick Gerli, founder and CEO of Reventure, in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, according to Newsweek.
He cited three major reasons for the spike in listings: locals being priced out, fewer people moving in, and homeowners choosing to sell due to higher costs.
The trend isn’t limited to South Florida. Homeowners throughout the state are struggling with higher property insurance premiums and homeowners association fees.
Gerli noted that many families who could afford to buy before the pandemic no longer qualify for a mortgage.
“They can’t even qualify for a mortgage in many cases, and that’s just resulting in a constriction in demand at the local level,” he said.
Pandemic Boom, Post-Pandemic Burden
Florida saw a massive population surge during the pandemic, as people sought sunshine, space, and relatively low costs.
Between 2021 and 2023, about 2.76 million people moved to the state. But the influx caused housing prices to skyrocket.
The median sale price of a home in Florida jumped from $240,000 in 2019 to over $412,000 by early 2025.
As affordability declined, demand started to shrink.
In February 2025, home sales across Florida were down 10.2% from a year earlier, according to Redfin.
And while new residents are still arriving, they’re often wealthy transplants who can pay cash or afford high mortgage rates, pushing middle-income Floridians out of the market.
A State ‘On the Brink’
In a recent report, housing data firm Cotality warned that Florida is “on the brink,” with the combination of inflated home prices, high property taxes, and surging insurance premiums putting the squeeze on everyday residents.
Selma Hepp, Cotality’s chief economist, said openly: “The pressure on the quality of life has become so great that it is beginning to tip the balance. Many households are finding it increasingly difficult to stay in the state.”
Even though Citizens, Florida’s state-backed insurer of last resort, has managed to transfer many policies to private carriers, the average cost of homeowners insurance remains the highest in the country at $2,625 per year—24% above the national average.
Premiums are expected to rise another 9% by year-end.
Locals Head for the Exits
More residents are looking for a way out.
According to Cotality, nearly half of the mortgage applications from Floridians relocating out of state are headed to Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, places with cheaper homes and better affordability.
“Florida’s rapid price appreciation combined with soaring home insurance prices and the threat of hurricanes has led people to start looking at other nearby states,” Hepp said.
Experts say unless major reforms are made to address affordability and infrastructure, the state’s housing market could continue its downward trend.
As real estate investor Marco Santarelli wrote recently, “Florida’s story isn’t over yet. But the state is at a critical juncture… Time is running out.”
For many South Floridians, the dream of homeownership has slipped further out of reach.
With costs rising and options shrinking, more and more are realizing they can’t even qualify for a mortgage anymore.
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