Cost of Living in Miami: A Guide for Homebuyers
If you’re considering a move to Miami, understanding the cost of living in the Magic City can help you make plans more confidently.
In this guide, we break down the cost of living in Miami, from housing expenses to food and healthcare costs. We’ll provide data from local cost of living index and comparison tools, and look at how Miami ranks for livability compared to other U.S. cities.
We’ll also share a handy set of additional online resources to measure and compare cost of living and expenses in other Florida cities.
What makes up the ‘cost of living’ in Miami?
When you’re planning to live in a new city, the cost of living there will be a combination of expenses required to maintain your desired lifestyle. Cambridge Dictionary defines cost of living as “the amount of money that people need to spend in order to buy basic goods or services such as food, clothes, and a place to live.”
This overall cost can vary significantly based on location, even within Florida. But the living expenses you’ll pay for typically include the following categories:
Housing (mortgage/rent)
Energy (utility costs)
Food (groceries)
Transportation (vehicle or transit systems)
Healthcare (doctors, hospitals, dentists, etc.)
However, the costs often extend beyond these basics to cover other expenses, such as:
Clothing
Education
Childcare
Entertainment
These elements, when combined, establish the core costs associated with a particular way of living. However, the standard of living you achieve is largely influenced by your income and debts and how the dollar amounts compare to the costs of basic needs in your location or, in this case, the Miami community where you might want to live.
Let’s take a quick look at some ways you can compare your current living cost with what you might experience if you move to Miami.
What’s a Miami cost of living index (CLI)?
A cost of living index (CLI) monitors how much these basic expenses go up or down over time in different states, cities, or regions. They provide a way to compare the price of maintaining a particular standard of living.
The CLI for a city like Miami is calculated by assessing the price of essential goods and services, such as housing, food, transportation, and healthcare, in different areas.
A local index is typically standardized, with a base city assigned a baseline index value (usually set at 100). Other cities are then compared against this benchmark. For example, a Florida community with a CLI of 125 would signify that living there is 25% more expensive than the base location, while an index of 75 indicates it’s 25% less expensive.
A cost of living index will typically break down and score each basic expense by category. Here are separate scores for Miami from the AXIOS Miami Cost of Living Index:
Overall CLI score: 115.3
Housing: 145.3
Healthcare: 96.6
Transportation: 102.6
Misc. goods and services: 104.8
Grocery items: 103.8
Utilities: 102.9
Data source used: C2ER Council for Economic and Social Research
According to AXIOS, Miami has a higher cost of living than the national average.
Cost perspective
While Miami’s overall cost of living is 15.3 points higher than the baseline established for the 269 cities included in the index, it’s well below the costs to live in Seattle, which — with a CLI score of 145.7) is 45.7 points higher than the base of other scored communities.
