Nikki Haley, former South Carolina Governor, tried to highlight some of the weaknesses in Florida’s economic performance during a presidential debate against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis often lists the ways Florida is the top state in the country, from GDP to education and entrepreneurship. (We checked his list.)
But if he’s going to talk about his economy, I think what we should say is: Why does Florida have the highest property insurance in the country? ” . “Why has Florida been called an American hot spot for inflation? Why is his state now known to have the highest increases in the cost of living?”
Property insurance claims rates are right, although recent legislation aims to lower rates. But we wanted to look at other economic statistics that cast Florida in a less sunny light.
The federal government does not collect official data on inflation rates by state. But it collects inflation statistics for a range of metropolitan areas, and inflation rates in the two central Florida areas tracked this way are well above the national average.
tampa st. The St. Petersburg metro area had an inflation rate of 7.7% over the past year, and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area had an inflation rate of 7.1%.
Rates in both cities are double the national inflation rate of 3.1% during the same period.
Experts say housing costs are driving this.
“A lot of people still come to Florida because the economy is really strong, and many of them like the fact that we don’t have an income tax like we do in New York,” Amanda Fallen, an economist at the University of Florida, told CNN. Last July. “In places like Miami, we’re seeing a lot of demand for real estate from non-Floridians or non-U.S. investors — generally wealthy people who want a nice home here.”
Floridians also suffer from high insurance costs in a state with high hurricane risks. In 2022, Floridians paid the highest average home insurance premiums of $6,000 per year, 42% higher than the 2022 national average premiums.
In our previous analyzes of Florida’s economy, we found that Florida performed better on some important economic statistics, such as employment and GDP, but less well on wages, income, and poverty.