Florida is near top of WalletHub's 2023 list of best states to live. This state ranks first

Lianna Norman, Palm Beach Post
·3 min read

WalletHub has released its 2023 list of the best states to live in and Florida ranks in the top 10.

The personal finance company compared all 50 states based on 51 indicators of livability, ranging from housing costs and income growth, to the education rate and quality of hospitals.

Florida scores poorly in categories like healthcare quality, home insurance crisis, high housing costs and average weekly work hours and is the state with the highest rate of inflation. But the state ranks high in restaurants per capita and low unemployment rates, pushing it to the top of WalletHub’s list.

Here’s a breakdown of where Florida ranks on this list of best states to live in and why.

Which state is the best state to live in?

According to WalletHub’s 2023 list of the top states to live in, Massachusetts ranks first with one of the lowest average weekly hours worked and the highest percentage of insured residents.

New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York and Wyoming take the second through fifth spots on the list, with Florida holding the sixth ranking.

Here’s Wallethub’s full list, ranking all 50 states from best to worst states to live in:

  1. Massachusetts

  2. New Jersey

  3. New Hampshire

  4. New York

  5. Wyoming

  6. Florida

  7. Virginia

  8. Idaho

  9. Wisconsin

  10. Minnesota

  11. Iowa

  12. Maine

  13. Illinois

  14. Pennsylvania

  15. Utah

  16. North Dakota

  17. Vermont

  18. Colorado

  19. Montana

  20. Kansas

  21. South Dakota

  22. Indiana

  23. Nebraska

  24. California

  25. Michigan

  26. Connecticut

  27. Maryland

  28. Washington

  29. Rhode Island

  30. Georgia

  31. North Carolina

  32. Delaware

  33. Ohio

  34. Missouri

  35. Hawaii

  36. Tennessee

  37. Texas

  38. Oregon

  39. Arizona

  40. Nevada

  41. West Virginia

  42. Kentucky

  43. Alabama

  44. South Carolina

  45. Arkansas

  46. Oklahoma

  47. Mississippi

  48. Louisiana

  49. Alaska

  50. New Mexico

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Which state has the highest housing costs?

The state with the highest housing costs, according to this list, is California. According to Zillow, the average California home value is $741,789.

Florida ranks as the state with the fifth highest housing costs, behind Hawaii, Nevada and Oregon. The average Florida home value is $390,052, up 0.7% over the past year, according to Zillow data from July 2022 to July 2023.

Here are the states with the top five highest housing costs, according to WalletHub:

  1. California

  2. Hawaii

  3. Nevada

  4. Oregon

  5. Florida

What are the most important financial factors to consider when deciding where to live in Florida?

According to Jesse Saginor, Chair and Professor of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida Atlantic University, says that Florida is different from other states when it comes to housing costs, due to the high price of insurance and HOAs in Florida.

“The total cost of housing and the total amount of debt that person may have or may need to accumulate to live where that person wants to live In Florida, the total cost of housing differs from other states because rent and mortgage payments are not the only costs of housing,” Saginor told WalletHub. “The total cost goes beyond utilities and basic upkeep to also include the high cost of insurance and costs related to homeowners' associations.”

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Where did Florida rank in five of WalletHub’s living conditions categories?

Here’s how Florida ranked in five of WalletHub’s living conditions categories:

  • Unemployment rate: Florida has the lowest unemployment rate according to this list. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent data on unemployment rates by state ranks Florida as the state with the 17th lowest unemployment rate.

  • Restaurants per capita: First place

  • Income growth: Ninth place

  • Percentage of adults in fair or poor health: 17th place

  • Average hours worked weekly: 27th

Lianna Norman covers trending news in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at lnorman@pbpost.com. You can follow her reporting on social media @LiannaNorman on X.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Wallethub best states to live in list ranks 5 ahead of Florida