Miami, FL
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Miami ranks 247th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 116th for income. A household earns $80,625 a year while median rent runs $2,083/mo, making it expensive relative to what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 14% above the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is education (89th of 300), while cost of living is the soft spot (299th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 289th and home prices 263rd among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Miami, your take-home is worth about $53,711 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it less than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 116th of 300↑34.1%$80,625
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 299th of 300114 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $70,628
- Per-capita income
- $44,678
- Full-time pay
- $42,132
Housing
- Median rent
- 289th of 300↑44.9%$2,083/mo
- Home value
- 263rd of 300↑61.9%$510,600
- Property tax
- $4,260/yr · 0.8%
- Sales tax
- 6.95%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 151st of 3004.5%
- Bachelor's+
- 89th of 30038.7%
- Avg commute
- 277th of 30030.2 min
People
- Population
- 6,457,988
- Population change
- +4.7%
- Median age
- 41.8 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 43.6%
- Broadband
- 94.6%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 234th of 30051
- Natural-hazard loss
- 225th of 300$17/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 200th of 30020.1%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 20.7%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Education
Watch-outs
- – Affordability
- – Cost of living
- – Rent
- – Home prices
- – Commute
- – Air quality
- – Hazard safety
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — hollywood n perry ap.
What jobs pay in Miami
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $227,700
- IT managers
- $169,600
- Financial managers
- $164,230
- Lawyers
- $160,320
- Pharmacists
- $135,210
- Software developers
- $132,650
- General & operations managers
- $105,640
- Registered nurses
- $91,380
- Civil engineers
- $83,750
- Accountants & auditors
- $80,920
- Police officers
- $79,840
- Secondary school teachers
- $60,410
- Electricians
- $58,630
- Elementary school teachers
- $58,300
- Plumbers
- $57,760
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $51,580
- Carpenters
- $51,570
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $46,290
- Construction laborers
- $45,520
- Customer service reps
- $39,560
- Waiters & waitresses
- $36,070
- Retail salespersons
- $34,330
- Janitors
- $34,180
- Cashiers
- $30,250
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Miami metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Florida are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- New York21,701
- New Jersey8,407
- California8,345
- Georgia5,688
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Miami
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Miami metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Miami metro?
- Median gross rent across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area is $2,083 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Miami.
- What is the median household income in the Miami metro?
- A typical household in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area earns $80,625 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Miami expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area runs about 14% above the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are higher than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Miami metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $70,628 (versus its face value of $80,625). CityLedger rates the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area expensive for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Miami metro?
- The median home value across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area is $510,600 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Miami metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metro Area is 4.5% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).