Moving from California to Florida

Why this route is so well travelled

California is the third largest source of new Florida residents, behind only New York and Texas. It is also the move where the arithmetic is the least obvious, because California and Florida are not high tax and low tax in the simple way people assume.

Income tax is where the difference is large and unambiguous. California has the highest top rate in the country, its standard deduction is a fraction of the federal one, and unlike Social Security, your 401k, IRA and pension withdrawals are fully taxed. Florida taxes none of it.

Property tax is the opposite, and it is worth being straight about it. Proposition 13 keeps California effective rates around 0.70 percent, which is actually below most Florida counties. The reason Florida still tends to cost less is that the house costs less, and a rate applies to a price. There is more on that below the tables.

Two things worth understanding before you compare

Property tax, and why the rate is the wrong number to compare. Proposition 13 caps how fast California assessed values can grow, which pulls the statewide effective rate down to around 0.70 percent. Most Florida counties sit between 0.72 and 0.96 percent, so on rate alone Florida looks higher. The dollar bill usually runs the other way, because a rate applies to a price and Florida homes cost less. The median California bill is around $5,128, while median bills in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Orange and Hillsborough fall between about $2,474 and $3,890.

If you have owned your California home for a long time, your own bill is lower than that median, sometimes far lower, because Proposition 13 froze your assessed value near what you paid. Compare your actual bill in dollars against a Florida estimate in dollars, and get the Florida figure from the county property appraiser rather than from the seller, since Florida reassesses at market value on January 1 of the year after a sale. Every county appraiser has a tax estimator that does this in a minute.

Insurance, which is closer than most people expect. Florida has a reputation and California increasingly has a reality. Standard California coverage still averages roughly $1,300 to $2,400, but brush adjacent homes in the Sierra foothills, Malibu, Topanga, Altadena and the Sonoma and Napa hills now routinely quote $5,000 to $25,000, and roughly five percent of California single family homes have moved onto the FAIR Plan, where the statewide average is around $3,000 and high wildfire ZIP codes commonly run $5,000 to $12,000.

Florida works the same way, just around a different peril. Inland counties such as Sumter, Marion, Alachua and Lake average roughly $1,600 to $3,600 a year, while Miami-Dade sits near $6,000 and Monroe, which is the Keys, near $7,800. In both states the address matters far more than the state does. If you are leaving a high wildfire ZIP code, an inland Florida quote may come in below what you pay now, which is not the comparison most people expect to find.

Roof age is now the largest single rating factor in Florida, so newer construction or documented wind mitigation features cut the premium considerably. 2026 also brought the first meaningful rate reductions in four years, with Citizens cutting an average of 8.7 percent statewide and Broward down roughly 17 percent. If you are looking at a condo, the association master policy covers the building, so your own policy runs closer to $1,000 to $1,800 and the building coverage sits inside your monthly association fee instead. Flood coverage is priced separately in both states.

Common questions about moving from California

These answers use the sources named in each one. Rates and figures change, so please check each source yourself before you rely on a number.