Is Florida Crisis Raising Michigan Home Prices?

With over 2 million empty homes, Florida's real estate crisis could be creating higher home prices here in Michigan.

These numbers seem too crazy to be true.  A whopping one-fifth of all homes in the state of Florida are empty.  Florida kicked off 2025 by breaking records that no state wants to break, according to a recent report from Redfin,

Get our free mobile app

Why does Florida have so many available homes, and what does it have to do with Michigan?

Many costs associated with home ownership have become unmanageable in the Sunshine State.  Homeowners insurance, interest rates, and crazy high HOA fees have soured the market.

This has resulted in a mass exodus from Florida, causing home prices to drop 2.5% on average from last year, according to Zillow.

Meanwhile, Michigan's vacancy rate was only 1.1% in the 4th quarter of 2024 as home prices continue to rise.  The average Michigan home increased 4.3% in value from last year, according to Zillow.

During the pandemic, most people who left the state of Michigan found a new home in Florida.  The cost of living in Florida was likely too much for many of those people as they came back to their roots to live in a more affordable peninsula.

The higher demand for homes in Michigan is likely responsible for the rising costs, which is the exact opposite of the Florida crisis.  However, the two problems do seem to be connected.

You will likely have to deal with bidding wars and watch homes come off the market within 48 hours of being listed when trying to buy a house in Michigan.  However, homeowners' insurance in Michigan is 20% lower than the national average and 43% lower than the Florida average.  The average home price is 27% lower in Michigan compared to Florida.

You can't ignore those numbers.

READ MORE: Michigan City Has America’s Most Unaffordable Rent