Skip to main content
Rent v Buy

Rent vs Buy in Florida

Florida pairs no state income tax with one of the country's most challenging homeowners-insurance markets. The state median listing price is $426,000, close to the national mean of $443,255, and the headline property tax rate of 0.74% looks moderate. The complication is the insurance line.

Average homeowners insurance in Florida runs about $4,200 per year, materially above the U.S. average, and hurricane or windstorm coverage is often written as a separate policy. The Citizens Property Insurance Corporation operates as an insurer of last resort. The calculator below lets you set insurance and other cost lines to your actual quote rather than a state average.

What the numbers say

Florida's property tax rate of 0.74% sits a touch below the national average. On the median $426,000 home, that translates to roughly $263 per month, or $3,152 per year. The Save Our Homes constitutional amendment caps annual assessed-value increases at 3% per year on a homesteaded primary residence, which protects long-term owners from the kind of tax-bill jumps that follow market-value surges. New buyers reset to current market value at purchase, so the cap matters most when you hold the home for several years.

Average rent statewide is $2,000 per month. Florida's strong recent in-migration from higher-tax states has pushed both rent and listing prices upward across most metros. On the buy side, the insurance line is the biggest swing factor: a coastal or low-elevation property can carry premiums two or three times the state average once windstorm and flood coverage are layered on. The FEMA flood-map designation directly affects flood-insurance pricing, so the same headline home price can produce very different monthly costs based on the parcel's flood zone.

No state estate or inheritance tax and no state income tax simplify the longer-term household finance picture for Florida residents. On the rent-vs-buy comparison itself, those features matter less than insurance, but they shape how invested-side returns compound for the renter alternative. The calculator's investment-return assumption is post-federal-tax only by default; in Florida there is no further state-level haircut.

Insurance is the wild card in Florida

For most U.S. states, homeowners insurance is a roughly predictable line in the buy-side budget. Florida is the exception. The combination of hurricane exposure on the coasts, severe convective storms statewide, and a retreating private insurer market has driven premiums well above what national averages suggest.

For a Florida property in a low flood-risk inland area, insurance may run close to the state's $4,200/year average. For a coastal property in a designated flood zone, premiums can easily exceed $10,000/year once windstorm and flood policies are added. The Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is the state-run insurer of last resort and has expanded its book of business as private carriers have pulled back.

For the rent-vs-buy decision, this means the state-level insurance default is a starting point, not a planning figure. Get actual quotes for the property you are considering before relying on the calculator's break-even result. A $5,000 difference in annual premium between two similar homes is the kind of swing that can flip a buy decision the wrong way.

Want a calculator pre-filled with Florida defaults? Click below; the state defaults load automatically.
Open with Florida defaults

Home Purchase

Enter details about the home you're considering buying

Quick fill:
$
%
%
yrs
%
$

Renting

Enter details about your rental alternative

$
%

Time Horizon & Market

yrs
%
%

Detailed mode adds 17 more inputs including advanced assumptions.

Buying is cheaper over 7 years

by $31,485

Buying comes out ahead, though the margin is meaningful only if you stay the full term and your assumptions hold roughly true.

High Confidence

The result is robust across small changes to your inputs.

Total cost of buying

$387,138

Average $4,609 per month over 7 years

Total cost of renting

$207,949

Average $2,476 per month over 7 years

Equity Built

$245,691

What you've paid down on the loan principal over 7 years.

Net Sale Proceeds

$211,339

What you'd walk away with after selling, minus closing costs.

Investment Growth

$65,204

What the down payment could grow to if invested instead of used to buy.

This chart shows total dollars spent on each path, month by month. With your inputs and time horizon, renting stays ahead the entire time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Florida's median listing price is $426,000. That is roughly in line with the unweighted state-level national mean of $443,255. The gap matters more when paired with local rent levels and how long you plan to stay.

Florida's effective property tax rate is 0.74%. On a $426,000 home (the state median), that works out to about $263 per month, or $3,152 per year. Property tax is one of the largest fixed costs of owning that a renter does not pay directly.

Buying typically does not pay off within 3 years in any U.S. market once you account for 3 to 5% closing costs on the way in and 5 to 7% selling costs on the way out. In Florida, with a median listing price of $426,000, those two transaction costs alone come to roughly $17,040 on the buy side and $25,560 on the sell side. Appreciation would need to be unusually strong to recover that within 36 months, so renting is almost always the financially better choice for stays this short.

Most lenders use a 28 to 31% housing-cost ratio. For Florida's median listing price of $426,000 with 20% down at a 7.0% mortgage rate over 30 years, the monthly numbers run roughly: principal and interest $2,267, property tax $263, insurance $350, total $2,880. At a 28% housing-cost ratio, that implies gross annual household income of about $123,431. No HOA dues and no PMI in this estimate (20% down clears the PMI threshold). Use our affordability calculator to model your specific scenario.

Typical break-even points run 5 to 8 years across most U.S. markets. In Florida, with a median listing price of $426,000 and average rent of $2,000 per month, the break-even depends most on your down payment, the mortgage rate you lock, and rent growth between now and your eventual move. Use our rent-vs-buy calculator to compute it for your specific scenario.

By Barron Hansen, Founder · Last reviewed