Americans still want out of expensive metros, but Florida no longer looks like the escape

A new Slower Sundays analysis shows record relocation interest remains high, but Florida’s biggest cities are now so expensive that they no longer offer the affordability advantage many movers were chasing. The data points to Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville and Huntsville as the new magnets for domestic migration.

Why it matters: - Americans are still trying to leave expensive metros, but the old escape hatch has changed. - Florida’s largest cities now take a bigger share of renter income than New York, San Francisco or Chicago in several cases. - That shift matters because housing costs are shaping where domestic migration is flowing now.

What happened: - Slower Sundays analyzed Census data released Oct. 29, 2026 and compared median two-bedroom rent with median household income across 118 U.S. metro areas. - The analysis also matched those rent-share figures with the latest Census migration estimates and Redfin relocation-intent data. - Florida’s Miami, Tampa and Orlando metros lost residents to the rest of the country in 2024-25. - Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville and Huntsville gained residents as movers chased lower housing costs.

The details: - 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%, also a second-quarter record. - Redfin said actual moves are likely lower than in 2021-22. - Florida’s net gain from domestic migration fell from +310,892 in 2021-22 to +22,517 in 2024-25, according to Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates. - The Miami metro lost 113,724 residents to domestic moves in 2024-25. - Tampa lost 1,539 residents to domestic migration, and Orlando lost 1,785. - 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, the same measure is 23.5%; in San Francisco, 24.4%; in Boston, 23.9%; and in Chicago, 21.0%. - The U.S. figure is 22.1%. - Miami is the only metro in the study above 30%, the HUD housing cost-burden threshold. - Miami leads second-place Los Angeles, where a median two-bedroom takes 27.9% of income. - Seven other Florida metros also sit near the top of the list: Tampa, Sarasota, Melbourne, Lakeland, Orlando, Fort Myers and Daytona Beach. - Those seven Florida metros fall between 26.0% and 27.0% of median income. - 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, S.C. (+11,375). - Rent in those metros takes 17.9% of median income in Huntsville and 23.8% in Jacksonville. - Chicago’s median two-bedroom rent rose 11.0% in one year, from $1,485 to $1,648. - U.S. median two-bedroom rent rose 4.9% over the same period. - New York’s median two-bedroom rent rose 5.8%. - Slower Sundays said 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. - The report’s rent-share calculation uses 12 months of median gross rent for a two-bedroom unit divided by median household income from the Census American Community Survey 2025 1-year estimates. - Gross rent includes utilities the renter pays. - Median household income includes both owners and renters. - Migration figures come from Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates of net domestic migration for July 2024 to July 2025. - Relocation-intent data comes from Redfin’s Q1 and Q2 2026 migration reports.

Between the lines: - The report suggests affordability is now pulling movers away from a broader set of cities, not just the most expensive coastal markets. - Florida’s brand as a cost-saving destination appears to have weakened because local rents have climbed enough to erase the advantage. - The strongest migration winners are increasingly in the Carolinas and the mid-South, where housing still costs less relative to pay. - Sol Lakein, founder of Slower Sundays, said families still want out of expensive cities, but the question is where the math works. - Lakein said Miami used to be the escape from New York rent, but now a two-bedroom in Miami takes a bigger share of a local paycheck than one in New York.

What’s next: - Slower Sundays says rent and income data for all 118 metros is available at the rent database. - The company continues to publish cost of living, rent and commute data, plus state migration trends and affordability calculators, on its site. - Future migration patterns will likely keep tracking where housing costs remain low enough to offset the pull of big-job markets.

The bottom line: - Americans still want to leave expensive metros, but Florida’s biggest cities are no longer the easy answer they once were.