New York to Florida: what the move actually costs

The short version

Three numbers change when you move from the New York metro to Central Florida. Your income tax goes to zero. Your property tax almost certainly falls in dollar terms. And your homeowners insurance rises sharply, by roughly four times on a like-for-like state average, which is the figure nobody leads with.

That third number is the one nobody puts in the brochure, and it is the reason some families arrive, run their first full year, and feel misled. The move is still worth it for most people we work with. It is worth it for different reasons than they expected, and by a smaller monthly margin than the headline suggests.

Why your Florida tax bill will not match the listing

New York assesses property on a fractional or full-value basis that varies by municipality, and reassessment practice differs across the state. Florida does something more specific. Under the Save Our Homes provision, a homesteaded property's assessed value can rise no more than 3 percent per year regardless of what the market does. When that property sells, the cap resets and the property is reassessed at just value, which on a recent arm's length sale is closely tied to what the buyer paid.

The practical effect: a seller who bought in Winter Garden in 2004 may be paying tax on an assessed value far below what you are about to pay for the same house. Their tax line on the listing sheet is real, and it is irrelevant to you.

Here is what a first-year bill actually looks like across the seven Central Florida counties this site carries tax data for, calculated on the base unincorporated millage against a 400,000 dollar purchase, with and without the homestead exemption.

First-year tax on a 400,000 dollar purchase with homestead filed. Base unincorporated district only. City limits and community development districts add to these figures. Calculated at 100 percent of purchase price, which is the conservative case: Florida assesses at just value, which in the first year is often set somewhat below the sale price. Verify your parcel with the county Property Appraiser.

Read that spread again. The same house at the same price costs about 1,890 dollars more every year in Hillsborough than in Polk. Over a ten-year hold that is roughly 19,000 dollars, and it is decided entirely by which side of a county line you buy on. Very few buyers relocating from out of state know this before they start touring.

What homestead is worth

The Florida homestead exemption removes the first 25,000 dollars of assessed value from every levy, and a second 25,000 dollars above the 50,000 dollar threshold from every levy except school taxes. In Orange County that is worth about 643 dollars a year.

Because it is a fixed dollar reduction rather than a percentage, the saving is identical whether you buy at 300,000 or 600,000 dollars. It is therefore worth proportionally far more on a modest home. Below an assessed value of 75,000 dollars the second exemption only applies to the portion above 50,000 dollars, so the saving is smaller there. File by 1 March of the year you are claiming it. Filing also starts your own Save Our Homes cap, which is what protects you from the same reset in the future.

We go deeper on this in the Florida property taxes and homestead exemption guide.

Closing costs: an attorney state versus a title state

This is the part of the move that works in your favor, and it is structural rather than incidental.

New York is an attorney state. A lawyer runs the closing on both sides, and that representation is a line item on every deal. Florida is a title state. A licensed title company or title agent handles settlement, and Florida law does not make attorney representation a condition of closing the way New York practice does.

Many Florida buyers still retain counsel, particularly on new construction, estate sales, title defects, or any contract they do not fully understand. Whether you need an attorney is a question for an attorney, not for a Realtor.

The transfer taxes differ more sharply still.

Totalled out, a 400,000 dollar Central Florida purchase with a 320,000 dollar loan runs roughly 8,020 dollars in buyer closing costs before prepaid taxes and insurance escrow. That is about 2.01 percent of the purchase price. The New York equivalent climbs quickly once the mortgage recording tax and attorney representation are added: on the Westchester rate alone, a 600,000 dollar loan carries roughly 7,800 dollars in recording tax before any other line item.

One caution worth stating plainly: because Florida rates for title insurance are promulgated by the state, the premium for a given amount is the same at every title company. Shopping title companies on price is not a lever here. Shopping your lender still is. The full line-item walkthrough is in our Florida closing costs guide.

Closing cost figures above are Florida statutory rates and typical third-party fees, not a quote, and the New York figures are published county rates rather than an estimate of your transaction. Your Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure govern. We are Realtors, not attorneys or lenders.

Insurance: the number that goes the wrong way

Here is the honest part.

On a matched basis of 300,000 dollars of dwelling coverage, 300,000 dollars of personal liability, and a 1,000 dollar deductible, Insure.com's 2026 state table puts the average annual homeowners premium at 7,136 dollars in Florida and 1,683 dollars in New York. The national average on the same basis is 2,543 dollars.

Insure.com state averages, updated for 2026, on 300,000 dollars dwelling coverage, 300,000 dollars personal liability, and a 1,000 dollar deductible. Averages, not quotes. Your figure depends on location, roof age, construction, and claims history.

Set that against the property tax win. A New York metro family moving from a Westchester, Nassau, or Rockland home into a 400,000 dollar house in Orange County saves real money on property tax, since those three counties carry median property tax bills above 10,000 dollars, among the highest in the nation. But roughly 5,450 dollars of that annual saving is consumed by the insurance line before anything else happens.

The move still wins for most of the families we work with. It wins on the income tax line, which is certain, and on purchase price, which you can verify directly by comparing what you can sell for against what you would pay here. It does not win the way people assume, which is on carrying cost.

For planning purposes we use a tighter Florida band than the national table: roughly 4,400 to 5,800 dollars a year, midpoint about 5,100, drawn from directly comparable 300,000 dollar dwelling benchmarks. The full cross-source spread runs from about 2,030 to 10,384 dollars depending on methodology and region, which is precisely why an average is a planning figure and not a quote. Get a real quote during your inspection period. Our Florida home insurance guide covers what carriers actually ask for.

The income tax line

Florida levies no state individual income tax. New York does, at graduated state rates, and New York City residents pay an additional city income tax on top of that.

For most households this is the largest single financial reason the move works, and unlike the insurance figure it is not an estimate or an average. It is whatever your current New York state and city liability is, going to zero. Pull last year's return and read the state and local tax lines. That number, plus the property tax delta, minus the insurance delta, is your honest annual answer.

Two conditions matter. Florida residency is established by domicile and not by a closing date, so the homestead filing, driver licence, vehicle registration, and voter registration all form part of the record. And if you keep income-producing property in New York, New York will still tax the income sourced there. Confirm your specific position with a tax professional before you plan around it. We are Realtors, not tax advisors, and this page is not tax advice.

What New York buyers usually ask for, and where it exists

The buyers we work with from the New York metro tend to arrive with a similar list of priorities. Almost none of them ask for a house on a golf course with a forty minute drive to anything, which is what most relocation content assumes.

What they consistently ask for is a walkable centre, because that is the part of Northeast life they miss first. The six below are on this list because they satisfy that stated preference and because their tax districts differ in ways worth knowing, not for any other reason.

All twenty-one guides, grouped by county with each county's rate, are on the communities index.

The order to do this in

The sequence matters more than most people expect, and getting it wrong costs money rather than time.

1. Pull your current numbers first. Last year's New York state and city income tax, your current property tax bill, and your current homeowners premium. Without these you are comparing a Florida quote against a feeling.
2. Choose the county before the house. The rate spread across those seven counties is worth up to about 1,890 dollars a year on an identical purchase. That is a bigger lever than almost anything you will negotiate on price.
3. Get an insurance quote during the inspection period, not after. Roof age can move the number by thousands, and it is a legitimate basis to renegotiate or walk.
4. Budget closing costs at roughly 2 percent of price for a financed purchase, before prepaid taxes and escrow.
5. File homestead by 1 March. It is worth about 643 dollars a year in Orange County and it starts your Save Our Homes cap, which is the protection against the same reset happening to the next buyer's benefit and your cost.

Common questions

Talk it through before you tour

The most useful hour in this whole process is the one where somebody runs your actual numbers, from your actual return and your actual current bills, against two or three specific counties. It is a short conversation and it routinely changes which towns people tour.

Sources

• Florida county millage, homestead structure, and closing cost constants: Evolve Estates Florida buyer dataset, 2025 final millage from each county Property Appraiser, with statutory rates under Fla. Stat. 201.02, 201.08, 199.133, and 28.24, and Florida Office of Insurance Regulation promulgated title rates.
• New York State real estate transfer tax and the additional tax on residences at 1 million dollars and above: New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and Publication 577.
• New York mortgage recording tax rates, including the 1.05 percent Nassau and Suffolk rate, the 1.30 percent Westchester rate, the 2.05 and 2.175 percent New York City bands for one-to-three family homes and condominiums, and the 0.25 percentage point share paid by the lender on residential property: New York State Form MT-15 mortgage recording tax schedule and the Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester county clerk schedules. Rates change; confirm the current figure with the county clerk before relying on it.
• Homeowners insurance state averages: Insure.com home insurance rates by state, updated for 2026.
• Median property taxes paid by county: Tax Foundation, Property Taxes by State and County, drawn from US Census American Community Survey data.

Disclosure. This page is a real estate resource published by Evolve Estates Group, brokered by eXp Realty. It is not tax, legal, or insurance advice, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency in New York or Florida. Millage figures are 2025 final rates for base unincorporated districts and exclude municipal, community development district, and non-ad-valorem assessments; verify your parcel with the relevant county Property Appraiser. Insurance figures are published state averages, not quotes. Confirm your own position with a licensed tax professional, attorney, and insurance agent before relying on any figure here. All information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Equal Housing Opportunity.