Toronto vs Tallahassee: which should you move to?
Toronto or Tallahassee? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
Tallahassee
The two housing bills are in different currencies, and held against local pay Tallahassee's is the lighter, though by less than the prices suggest. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,635 CAD a month in Toronto, roughly 66% of the city's 2020 median household income, and about $2,733 USD on Florida Realtors' single-family median for the Tallahassee metro, roughly 58% of the City of Tallahassee's 2024 median, the lowest of the Florida cities this site compares, on homes about eleven and about 6.5 times those incomes. The tax sits in opposite places: a Toronto earner pays about $21,200 CAD of $100,000 in federal and provincial income tax and 0.57% of a home's value in property tax, while Florida levies no income tax and takes an effective 1.69%, about $6,183 a year on the homesteaded metro median. Homicide is where they part: 45 in the City of Toronto in 2025, about 1.6 per 100,000, against 20 in a Tallahassee of about 205,000, about 9.8. The other difference is scale: Toronto put 26.2% of city commuters on transit in 2021 and runs a subway, while Tallahassee's workers mostly drive, for 19 minutes on average. Tallahassee has the lower unemployment on its own measure, 5.1% against 6.7%, and the mild winter. Choose Toronto to live without a car, for coverage that comes with residency and for a big city's work. Choose Tallahassee to buy a house on a salary in a capital and college town with an 11.2 C January, if you can live with its crime figures and a long, hot summer.
Toronto prices are in CAD and Tallahassee prices are in USD. The tables leave them in their own currency and compare ratios and rates instead; a conversion would be stale by the time you read it.
| Measure | Toronto | Tallahassee | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,794,356 (2021) | 204,902 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 6,202,225 (2021) | 397,442 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 2.3% (2016-2021) | 4.4% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Toronto | Tallahassee | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $928,200 (July 2026) | $364,950 (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Detached house benchmark Tallahassee publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $1,455,200 | $364,950 | Not directly comparable |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $551,900 | $179,610 | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $2,045/mo (average, October 2025) | $1,309/mo (median, September 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,761/mo | $1,100/mo | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 29.2% of a year's income | 27.8% of a year's income | Tallahassee |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 25 years in Toronto against 30 in Tallahassee, each compounding the way its own country's lenders do. The rates are not a spread you can shop: they are what each market charges. | $4,044/mo at 4.34% | $1,998/mo at 7.28% | Not directly comparable |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 11.1× | 6.5× | Tallahassee |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $5,291/yr (0.57%, 2026) | $6,182/yr (1.694%, 2025) | Toronto |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | $30,078 (buyer pays) | $2,555 (seller pays) | Tallahassee |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | 2.1% guideline (2026) | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Toronto: About 0.57% of market value. Toronto levies 0.767311%, but against a Current Value Assessment frozen at 1 January 2016 values, because Ontario has deferred every reassessment since. MPAC's average Toronto assessment is $692,140 and the City's own worked example puts the bill on it at $5,311 for 2026, which on the $928,200 composite benchmark is 0.57%. That is the fourth-lowest rate on market value of the cities on this site, behind Vancouver, Kelowna and Victoria, and it produces almost exactly the same bill as Ottawa's 0.83%, because the home it is charged against costs 46% more. Tallahassee: About 1.69% of the price for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $364,950 single-family median for the four-county Tallahassee metro, which is lower than the 19.2060 mills a house in the City of Tallahassee is charged because of Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. Nine levies make it, one of them at zero: Leon County 8.3144; the County's Emergency Medical Services levy 0.7500; the Children's Services Council of Leon County 0.3477; the County's voted debt 0.0000; the School Board 5.3660 (3.1180 required by the state, 0.7480 discretionary and 1.5000 for capital outlay); the Northwest Florida Water Management District 0.0207; and the City 4.4072, for 2025. Outside the city the same stack without the City's line is 14.7988, and inside the Downtown Improvement Authority's district it is 20.2060. The School Board's lines are charged on the price less $25,000, $339,950, and the rest on the price less a second slice as well, $314,950 on the base amounts, so a homesteaded buyer's first bill is about $6,183. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $7,009. That second slice is indexed to inflation: the Department of Revenue published $25,722 for 2025, which brings the same bill to $6,173; this page uses the $25,000 base, like every Florida page on this site. For 2026 the County adopted 8.3144 and the EMS levy 0.7500 again, the City's 4.4072 and the School Board's 5.3430 were tentative when read, and the other two were not read, so no 2026 total is given. The exemption is not automatic: you file with the Leon County Property Appraiser by 1 March. There is no fire, stormwater or garbage line on a City tax bill: the City charges stormwater at $11.00 and garbage at $28.19 a month on the utility bill, $470 a year together, with a fire services fee beside them whose amount this site could not read. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Toronto | Tallahassee | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | 55.0 (2025) | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 Canada counts every violent Criminal Code incident; the FBI counts four offences. The Canadian figure is always the larger one for that reason alone. | 987 (2025) | 635 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 2,566 (2025) | 2,405 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 45 (2025) | 20 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
The Toronto CMA Crime Severity Index climbed from 45.91 in 2021 to 59.43 in 2024, driven largely by auto theft, then fell 7.5% to 54.99 in 2025 with violent CSI down 13.7%. Toronto Police recorded 12,610 auto thefts in 2023, 9,676 in 2024 and 7,402 in 2025, and 2025 homicides (45) were the fewest since the 1980s.
What the rates cover: Police-reported violent Criminal Code violations, Toronto CMA, 69,297 actual incidents, table 35-10-0177-01
Homicides: Toronto Police Service public safety data portal count for the city (85 in 2024, 73 in 2023). Statistics Canada counts 64 homicides for the wider Toronto CMA in 2025, a rate of 0.91 per 100,000, down from 133 (1.90) in 2024
Down from a 2023 peak, though the rate is still high. On the FBI CDE's figures violent offenses were 1,587 in 2022, 1,732 in 2023, 1,383 in 2024 and 1,302 in 2025, about 785, 852, 678 and 635 per 100,000 on each year's Vintage 2025 population, so 2025 was 25% below 2023. Property offenses peaked later, at 5,804 in 2024, and fell 15% to 4,927 in 2025. FDLE's incident-based file shows the same direction, 1,806 violent offenses in 2023, 1,441 in 2024 and 1,363 in 2025, and for 2026 so far: January to August brought 783 violent offenses against 893 in the same months of 2025, down 12%, and 2,985 property offenses against 3,450, down 13%. The CDE has January to July 2026, 737 violent offenses against 769, down 4%. Tallahassee Reports, tabulating the police department's daily incident data, found total incidents down 22.6% in 2025, property crime down 28.3% and violent crime down 8.9%, but assaults in September to December up 55.8% on the same months of 2024, 299 against 192. The CDE counts were read on 2 October 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 1,302 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Tallahassee Police Department (ORI FL0370300) in calendar 2025, divided by the 204,902 Vintage 2025 city population; on the CDE's own agency population of 206,918 the rate is 629. The rate is high, for Florida and for the country. It is the highest 2025 rate of the Florida cities this site compares, above Jacksonville's 514, St. Petersburg's 502, Tampa's 375.5 and Miami's 359 and about five times Port St. Lucie's 130; only Orlando's 835.8, which is for 2022, the last full year the FBI has for that city, is higher. The CDE's rate for all reporting Florida agencies in 2025 is 248 per 100,000 and for the nation 329, so Tallahassee's is about two and a half times the state's and nearly twice the national. On the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's incident-based (FIBRS) file, which counts somewhat more (its forcible sex offenses include fondling), the department recorded 1,363 violent offenses in 2025, 663 per 100,000 on FDLE's population, the second-highest of the 46 Florida agencies serving 100,000 or more people, behind the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (675) and ahead of Gainesville's (635), another college town; a few large agencies' 2025 rows in that file, Orlando's among them, are plainly incomplete. The Leon County Sheriff's Office, which polices the unincorporated county, recorded 500 per 100,000.
Homicides: 20 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, about 9.8 per 100,000 on the city population, against the CDE's 3.0 for Florida and 4.3 for the nation, and against St. Petersburg's 9 (3.4 per 100,000) and Tampa's 17 (4.1), in a city half Tampa's size; Jacksonville had 80. FDLE's file has 21. The CDE series is 15 in 2022, 21 in 2023, 16 in 2024 and 20 in 2025. Tallahassee Reports, tabulating the police department's daily incident data, counted 18 fatal shootings in 2025 against 26 in 2024. FDLE's file has 7 homicides in January to August 2026, against 17 in the same months of 2025.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Toronto | Tallahassee | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | -5.0 °C | 11.2 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 22.1 °C | 28.1 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 807 mm | 1,494 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 115 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,066 hours | Not published | Not directly comparable |
Environment and Climate Change Canada 1991-2020 normals at Toronto Pearson International Airport (climate ID 6158731): annual mean 8.6 C. The 1991-2020 normals do not publish sunshine; 2,066.3 hours is the 1981-2010 normal at the Toronto (City) station, climate ID 6158350.
Hazards: Humid summer heat warnings and winter cold snaps with lake-effect snow squalls; flash flooding from intense summer storms (July 2013 and July 2024 downpours flooded roads and the Don Valley); wildfire smoke advisories in some summers since 2023; occasional severe thunderstorms and hail, rare tornadoes.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Tallahassee Regional Airport (station USW00093805), the city's airport about 6 miles southwest of the city's center point, which is the National Weather Service's station for the city and has full temperature and precipitation normals: January mean 52.2F, July mean 82.5F, annual mean 68.4F, 58.81 in of precipitation. The airport station's normals carry no snowfall, so the 0.0 in of snow stored here is the normal at Tallahassee AP (USC00088756), the cooperative station at the same airport. July is the warmest month by a tenth of a degree, ahead of August's 82.4F, with a mean high of 92.1F; January's mean low is 40.5F. June (7.76 in), August (7.60 in) and July (7.14 in) are the wettest months, and June through September bring 27.41 in, 47% of the year, so the rain is spread more evenly than in peninsular Florida; November (3.10 in) is the driest. The normals count 102.6 days a year at 90F or above, 2.9 at 100F or above, 27.0 nights at or below freezing and 1.4 at or below 20F. Converted here to 11.2 C, 28.1 C, 1,494 mm and 0 cm. The cooperative station's own temperatures run a little cooler in winter: 51.0F in January, 82.9F in July, 59.82 in a year and 128.3 days at 90F. Tallahassee has the coldest winter of the Florida cities this site compares, a degree below Jacksonville's 12.3 C and five and a half below St. Petersburg's 16.8 C, and its summer is as hot as any: its 102.6 days at 90F are fewer than Cape Coral's 120.3, but it averages 2.9 days at 100F, where Jacksonville averages under one, Hialeah 0.2 and St. Petersburg, Port St. Lucie and Cape Coral none. Its rain is third, after Hialeah's 1,852 mm and Miami's 1,712 mm. Sunshine is not stored: Current Results' US city table, the source and 1961-1990 basis of the other US profiles' sunshine hours, lists no Tallahassee station, and the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Wind, falling trees and the power cuts that follow them, more than water. Tallahassee is inland, which is why its airport serves as a staging area for hurricane relief (Wikipedia), so storm surge is not its hazard, but it is a city of big trees, and every recent storm has been measured in power outages. Hurricane Hermine struck directly in September 2016 and left about 80% of the city without power, including Florida State University; Hurricane Michael passed about 50 miles to the west in October 2018 after coming ashore as a category 5 and left 95% of Leon County without power (Wikipedia). The airport's highest gust since 2010 is 70.9 mph, on 10 October 2018 during Michael, followed by 67.1 mph on 26 September 2024, the day the airport closed for Hurricane Helene, which came ashore that night near Perry, to the southeast, the strongest hurricane on record to strike the Big Bend (Wikipedia), and 66 mph on 10 May 2024, the day two EF2 tornadoes crossed the city, one of them through downtown at 1,400 yards wide (Wikipedia). Heat is the everyday hazard: 102.6 days a year at 90F or above on the normals and 2.9 at 100F (37.8 C), a temperature the St. Petersburg, Port St. Lucie and Cape Coral normals never reach. The airport reached 105F on 15 June 2011, its highest reading since 2010 and Wikipedia's record for the city, and 104F on 24 June 2022; it counted 108 days at 90F in 2025 and 114 in 2026 through 29 September, three of them at 100F or above. Unlike the peninsula's cities it freezes: 27 nights a year on the normals, 27 in 2025 and 21 so far in 2026, with a low of 14F on 11 January 2010 and 18F on 2 February 2026. Snow is rare but not unknown: the airport measured 1.5 inches on 21 January 2025 and 0.4 more the next day, the city's largest snowfall since 1958 on Wikipedia's list of its measurable snows. Low-lying streets near downtown, notably along Franklin Boulevard, flood in very heavy rain (Wikipedia).
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Toronto | Tallahassee | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $84,000 CAD (2020) | $56,511 USD (2024) | Not directly comparable |
| Unemployment rate Statistics Canada and the Bureau of Labor Statistics define unemployment slightly differently; the Canadian measure runs about a point higher on the same labour market. | 6.7% (July 2026) | 5.1% (July 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Sales tax | 13% | 7.5% | Tallahassee |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 53.53% | 37% | Tallahassee |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $21,200 CAD | $13,449 USD | Not directly comparable |
Toronto's unemployment rate ran above the national rate through 2025 as population growth outpaced hiring, and TD Economics (October 2025) found trade-war exposed sectors such as transportation and warehousing and manufacturing shedding jobs and youth unemployment near one in five. The rate eased to 6.7% by July 2026.
Main sectors: Financial services and banking, Technology and software, Health care and life sciences, Professional services and education, Film, media and the arts.
No municipal income tax. Toronto levies a Municipal Land Transfer Tax on top of the provincial land transfer tax, and a Vacant Home Tax.
BLS counted 200,500 nonfarm jobs in the Tallahassee MSA in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 2,500 or 1.3% on the year. Professional and business services (+1,600, or 5.4%, to 31,100) and leisure and hospitality (+1,100, or 5.7%, to 20,300) added the most, and private education and health services 400 (to 27,600), while government lost 400 (-0.7%, to 60,500): local government 300, to 14,600, and federal government 200, to 2,000, with state government up 100, to 43,900. Government is 30.2% of all jobs in the metro, and it sets the rhythm of the year: state government jobs dropped from 47,300 in April 2026 to 43,300 in July as the universities' terms ended, and it averaged 46,200 of 202,000 jobs in 2025 (22.9%). The City's 2025 financial report lists eleven principal employers for the city, led by the State (26,831), FSU (16,207), Tallahassee Memorial (5,696), the school board (4,300) and the City (4,000), which together employ 67,609; the report's earlier lists counted Leon County rather than the city, so they are not compared here. Most residents work in the city: 88.1% of the city's 103,272 workers worked inside it in 2024 and only 6.1% outside Leon County, against 54% outside the city for Cape Coral. 11.4% worked from home, and the mean commute for the rest was 19 minutes, six shorter than St. Petersburg's and 13 shorter than Cape Coral's, with 1.9% spending an hour or more (ACS 2024 1-year, B08007, B08008, B08013, B08301 and B08303).
Main sectors: State government: the State of Florida employs 26,831 people in the city, the largest employer by far (City of Tallahassee), and state government, which in BLS's count includes the state universities, held 43,900 of the metro's 200,500 nonfarm jobs in August 2026, 21.9%, and 47,300 (23.0%) in April with classes in session, Higher education: Florida State University (16,207 employees in 2025-26, 7,723 of them full- or part-time faculty and staff and the rest graduate assistants, student assistants and temporary workers), Florida A&M University (1,794) and Tallahassee State College (1,468), with 65,657 students between them in fall 2024, Health care: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, the region's nonprofit hospital system, is the third-largest employer (5,696), in a metro sector (private education and health services) of 27,600 jobs, Local government and schools: the Leon County School Board (4,300), the City of Tallahassee (4,000), which also runs the electric, gas and water utilities and the airport, and Leon County (1,957), in a local government sector of 14,600, Professional and business services, the law firms, lobbyists and associations that cluster around the Capitol (Wikipedia), with 31,100 metro jobs, up 1,600 or 5.4% on the year, the most of any sector; and retail and warehousing, with Amazon (2,256), Walmart (1,700) and Publix (1,400) among the city's eleven largest employers.
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Florida's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 0.78%, and a homestead exemption takes as much as $50,000 off a permanent residence's taxable value and qualifies it for the Save Our Homes limit on how fast its assessment can rise (Florida Department of Revenue). A house in the City of Tallahassee (Leon County tax authority code 1) pays 19.2060 mills for 2025, the rates the Leon County Property Appraiser certified to the Department of Revenue: Leon County 8.3144, the county's EMS levy 0.7500, the Children's Services Council of Leon 0.3477, the school board 5.3660 (3.1180 required local effort, 0.7480 discretionary and 1.5000 capital outlay), the Northwest Florida Water Management District 0.0207 and the City 4.4072. The City lowered its rate from the 4.4200 it levied for 2024 and proposed again, but 4.4072 is still 4.7% above the rolled-back rate of 4.2080, and with taxable values up the City's levy rose 9.0% to $81.8 million; the County has held 8.3144 since 2012 (Leon County Property Appraiser). The 2024 total was 19.2379. Downtown Improvement Authority parcels pay one mill more (20.2060), and unincorporated Leon County, which has no city levy, pays 14.7988. That puts the city near Miami's 19.9878, Tampa's 19.8428 and St. Petersburg's 19.9197, a little above Hialeah's 18.6468 and above Cape Coral's 15.3806, as those cities' housing layers carry them. The school board voted in May 2026 to ask the county to put an additional operating mill for 2027 to 2031 on the November ballot to raise teacher pay (WCTV); whether the commission did was not confirmed. Zillow's typical home value for the city was $294,444 in August 2026, up 1.4% on the year and one of only two rises among the nine Florida cities this site compares (Miami's is the other), and its observed rent index $1,470 a month, up 1.5%, the lowest of the nine; only Jacksonville's typical home value ($285,103) is lower. The bills, exemptions, insurance and fees that follow from these figures belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Toronto | Tallahassee | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Toronto Transit Commission (subway, streetcar, bus, Wheel-Trans); GO Transit and UP Express (Metrolinx) for regional rail and bus | StarMetro, the City of Tallahassee's bus system, founded as TalTran in 1973 when the City bought the private bus company, and renamed in 2005 (Wikipedia). It runs 14 weekday fixed routes, two call-ahead FLEX zones and a peak-hour express, with fewer routes on Saturdays and a separate four-route network on Sundays and weekday evenings, nearly all of them meeting downtown at C.K. Steele Plaza, and Dial-A-Ride for riders with disabilities. It also runs Florida State University's campus routes under a contract with the university, free to the public and operated with battery-electric buses, and K-12 students ride free (Wikipedia). There is no rail transit or bus rapid transit, and no intercity passenger rail since Amtrak's Sunset Limited stopped east of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; Greyhound, Megabus and RedCoach serve the city by coach, and Interstate 10 runs across its north side (Wikipedia). | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 26.2% (2021) | 3.2% (2024) | Toronto |
| Walk or cycle to work | 9.6% (2021) | 5.3% (2024) | Toronto |
| Airport | Toronto Pearson International Airport, YYZ, 47.3 million passengers in 2025 (up 1.1% from 46.8 million in 2024), per GTAA 2025 annual results. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) serves short-haul flights from the waterfront. | Tallahassee International Airport (TLH), owned and run by the City and named Bobby Bowden-Tallahassee International Airport in April 2026 after the longtime FSU football coach, about 5 miles southwest of downtown (Wikipedia). It handled 936,448 airline passengers in the City's fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), slightly below fiscal 2024's 944,835 and above 2019's 851,689 (City of Tallahassee), with American and Delta the main carriers to Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami and no scheduled international service (Wikipedia). Wikipedia counts it among the smaller commercial airports in Florida. | Not directly comparable |
TTC carried 420 million trips in 2024 (204 million bus, 181 million subway, 35 million streetcar). The TTC's year-end projection for 2025 was 414 million rides, about 78% of 2019 levels, with 426.4 million forecast for 2026; a final audited 2025 total was not found.
StarMetro carried 1,762,062 unlinked trips in 2025 on the National Transit Database's monthly ridership file (Federal Transit Administration), 1,657,717 of them on its buses and the rest on demand-response service. That is about a third of its peak of 4,933,682 in 2010 and below the 3,624,805 of 2019; ridership fell to 1.5 million in 2020 and 2021 with FSU's campus routes suspended, recovered to 2.6 million in 2023, and has fallen since, to 2.25 million in 2024 and 1.76 million in 2025, and January to August 2026 ran 8.7% below the same months of 2025. The file does not separate the campus routes, and why ridership has fallen since 2023 was not found. For comparison, St. Petersburg's PSTA carried 10.4 million trips in 2025, Lee County's LeeTran 1,969,906 and Port St. Lucie's Area Regional Transit 825,588 (their profiles, from the same file).
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is publicly funded through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), which covers physician and hospital services for residents with no premiums beyond the income-tested Ontario Health Premium collected through income tax; new residents wait up to three months for coverage, and prescription drugs, dental and vision are mostly private or employer insured. Toronto is home to the University Health Network (Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret), Sunnybrook, St. Michael's, Mount Sinai and SickKids, but family-doctor shortages and long emergency-department and specialist waits are common.
Education
The University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University and York University are in the city, with U of T consistently ranked in the global top 25. Publicly funded schools are run by four boards, the Toronto District School Board (the largest in Canada), the Toronto Catholic District School Board and two French-language boards, with specialized and alternative programs rather than US-style charters.
Living there
Toronto is a dense, fast-growing city of high-rise condos along the subway lines and low-rise neighbourhoods of brick semis in between, with more than half of residents born outside Canada. Housing costs are the central fact of life, and commutes by TTC, GO train or the 401 are long. Winters are grey and cold rather than extreme, summers humid, and the lakefront, ravines and Toronto Islands are where the city goes outside.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Florida is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF). Florida's uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024, against 8.2% nationally, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates; the City of Tallahassee's was 8.5% (17,205 of 201,731) and Leon County's 8.1%, well below the state's. The city has two acute care hospitals. Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, a private nonprofit founded in 1948 that serves a 22-county region of North Florida and South Georgia, has a 772-bed acute care hospital, a psychiatric hospital and the region's only Level III neonatal intensive care unit, and is the city's third-largest employer with 5,696 staff (Wikipedia; City of Tallahassee). HCA Florida Capital Hospital, owned by HCA Healthcare and known until recently as Capital Regional Medical Center, has 266 beds (Wikipedia). The City's own count of hospital beds at the two is 1,060. Florida State University's College of Medicine trains its first- and second-year students in Tallahassee and places its third- and fourth-year students at regional campuses around the state (Wikipedia). This file did not verify wait times for primary or specialist care.
Education
Tallahassee is a college town, and the share of its residents in college is four times the national share. On the ACS 2024 1-year estimates 54,353 of the city's 199,776 residents aged 3 and over were enrolled in college (43,399 undergraduates) or graduate school (10,954), 27.2%, against 6.6% nationally and 6.2% in Florida; undergraduates alone are 21.7% of the city. Three public institutions account for most of them. Florida State University enrolled a record 46,184 students in fall 2025, 33,068 of them undergraduates and 11,022 graduate and professional students, of whom 43,936 took at least one class on the main campus in Tallahassee (FSU Office of Institutional Research). Florida A&M University, founded in 1887, the only public historically black university in Florida and the third-largest in the country by enrollment (Wikipedia), had 9,313 students in fall 2024 (7,890 undergraduates), and welcomed more than 1,900 first-time students in August 2026, its largest incoming class in a decade (FAMU). Tallahassee State College, called Tallahassee Community College from 1970 until it was renamed on July 1, 2024 (Wikipedia), had 12,455 students in fall 2024, all undergraduates, and acts largely as a feeder to the two universities. Together the three enrolled 65,657 in fall 2024 on the federal College Navigator's counts, and the City's 2025 financial report puts college-level students at 68,667. FAMU's fall 2025 headcount was not found in a source fetched here. Public schools are run by Leon County Schools, the countywide district, with 31,638 students in pre-kindergarten to grade 12 in 2025, down from 34,085 in 2019, in 51 schools (City of Tallahassee). The district is asking voters in November 2026 to renew its half-cent sales surtax, which expires in 2027 and has raised about $400 million since 2012, and warns of a $620 million gap in facility needs without it (WTXL; WCTV).
Living there
Tallahassee is Florida's capital, a college town and almost nothing else, and it shows in every figure here. It became the territorial capital in 1824 as a halfway point between Pensacola and St. Augustine, near the Apalachee town of Anhaica where Hernando de Soto's expedition wintered in 1539 (Wikipedia), and it sits at the southern end of the Red Hills, hilly by Florida standards, along nine officially designated canopy roads, with a winter unlike the peninsula's: it freezes about 27 nights a year and saw 1.9 inches of snow in January 2025. The State of Florida and Florida State University are its two largest employers, government holds 30% of the metro's jobs, and more than a quarter of residents are in college, which makes the city the youngest of the Florida cities this site compares (median age 28.5) and the one with the lowest household income ($56,511), the fourth-lowest share of homeowners, after Miami, Orlando and Hialeah (44.5%), short commutes and, after Miami, the most people who take the bus, walk or cycle to work. It also has the highest violent crime rate of the Florida cities here in 2025, 635 per 100,000 on the FBI's counts, two and a half times the state's, though falling since 2023. Its history includes the Tallahassee bus boycott of 1956, begun by two FAMU students, and the Frenchtown neighborhood, the oldest historically black neighborhood in the state (Wikipedia). It is growing slowly, 4.4% from 2020 to 2025, and its home values and rents are among the lowest of the Florida cities here, with a typical home at $294,444 and a typical rent of $1,470 on Zillow's indexes, against a property tax rate of 19.2060 mills, nearly as high as Miami's, Tampa's and St. Petersburg's.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Toronto's figures are in Canadian dollars and Tallahassee's in US dollars. Toronto's composite benchmark for the City was $928,200 CAD in July 2026, 3.83% below a year earlier, a blend of houses and apartments. Tallahassee's price is Florida Realtors' single-family median for the Tallahassee metro, $364,950 USD in June 2026 on 364 closed sales, 5.8% above a year earlier, as Tallahassee Reports printed it; it is the four-county metro's, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon and Wakulla, because no one publishes a median for the City or for Leon County alone, though Leon is almost 90% of the metro's sales, and Zillow's index for the City of Tallahassee, which models every home, condominiums included, stood at $294,444 in August, 1.4% higher than a year earlier. The first is about eleven times the City of Toronto's 2020 median household income of $84,000 CAD, the second about 6.5 times Tallahassee's 2024 median of $56,511 USD. At 20% down, Toronto's mortgage at 4.34% is $4,044 CAD a month over 25 years, and the $291,960 loan on the metro median at Freddie Mac's 7.28% of 1 October 2026 about $1,998 USD over 30. Property tax runs the other way: $5,291 CAD a year in Toronto, 0.57% of the benchmark, against about $6,183 USD for a homesteaded owner in Tallahassee, where nine levies on a City address, from Leon County, its emergency medical services levy and its voted debt, at zero this year, the Children's Services Council, the School Board's three, the Northwest Florida Water Management District and the City, come to 19.2060 mills for 2025, an effective 1.69% after Florida's homestead exemption, and about $7,009 without one. With insurance at $150 CAD and $220 USD a month, the Tallahassee figure NerdWallet's city average, with its own hurricane deductible and no flood cover, the owners carry about $4,635 CAD and $2,733 USD, roughly 66% and 58% of local median income. A two-bedroom averaged $2,045 CAD in October 2025, about 29% of Toronto's median income. Tallahassee's rents are low for Florida and partly a student market: Apartment List's two-bedroom median for the City was $1,309 USD in September 2026, about 28%; the Census Bureau's 2024 two-bedroom median gross rent, utilities included, $1,401, about 30%; and Zillow's observed rent index $1,470 in August, about 31%, so renting takes about the same share of local pay in both. Ontario caps increases at 2.1% for 2026 in units first occupied before 15 November 2018; Florida forbids rent control outright.
Homicide is the one count that crosses the border intact, and on it the two cities are far apart. The City of Toronto's own count was 45 homicides in 2025, the fewest since the 1980s, after 85 in 2024, in a city of about 2.8 million at the 2021 census, about 1.6 per 100,000, and Statistics Canada counted 64 in the whole Toronto metro, 0.91 per 100,000. Tallahassee recorded 20 in the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, about 9.8 per 100,000, against 3.0 for Florida and 4.3 for the nation, after 15, 21 and 16 in 2022 to 2024. The other rates are different instruments. The Toronto metro's Crime Severity Index was 54.99 in 2025, below the national 75.0; American cities have no equivalent. Toronto's violent rate of 986.71 per 100,000 counts every violent Criminal Code violation, common assault included; Tallahassee's 635 is 1,302 FBI-definition offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault in 2025, divided by the Census estimate, about two and a half times Florida's 248 and the highest 2025 rate of the Florida cities this site compares. Property crime, 2,565.62 per 100,000 against 2,405, is defined differently too, and Tallahassee's is understated: the FBI's copy counts 23 vehicle thefts in 2025 against 396 in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's file, whose property total comes to about 2,577 per 100,000. Both have improved. Toronto's auto thefts fell to 7,402 in 2025 from 12,610 in 2023 and its violent severity index fell 13.7%. Tallahassee's violent offenses peaked at 1,732 in 2023 and were 25% lower in 2025, and the state's file has January to August 2026 at 783 against 893 a year earlier, down 12%. The Tallahassee counts were read on 2 October 2026 from a federal feed that can still be revised.
Tallahassee has the mild winter and Toronto the cooler summer. January averages -5.0 C at Pearson and 11.2 C at Tallahassee's airport, the coldest of the Florida cities this site compares, with 27.0 nights a year at or below freezing on the normals and 1.9 inches of snow in January 2025, the most since 1958. July averages 22.1 C in Toronto against 28.1 C in Tallahassee, with a mean high of 92.1F; Tallahassee's normals count 102.6 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F) and 2.9 at 37.8 C (100F) or more, and the airport recorded 114 days at 90F in 2026 through 29 September. Snow is 114.5 cm a year in Toronto and none on Tallahassee's normals, and precipitation is 806.8 mm against 1,494 mm, 47% of Tallahassee's from June to September. Toronto records 2,066.3 hours of sunshine on its 1981-2010 normals; this site stores no sunshine figure for Tallahassee. Toronto's July 2013 and July 2024 downpours flooded roads and the Don Valley, and its other hazards are lake-effect snow squalls, humid heat warnings and wildfire smoke in some summers since 2023. Tallahassee is inland, so storm surge is not its hazard; wind, falling trees and the power cuts that follow are. Hermine in September 2016 left about 65% of the City's electric customers without power on the National Hurricane Center's count, Michael in 2018 about 95% of Leon County, two EF2 tornadoes crossed the city on 10 May 2024 and broke more than 400 utility poles, and Helene that September left about 53,000 City utility customers without power at its peak.
The two economies are of very different sizes. The Toronto metro held 6,202,225 people at the 2021 census and the four-county Tallahassee metro 397,442 in July 2025. The Toronto metro's unemployment rate was 6.7% in July 2026, a three-month moving average, down from 9.0% a year earlier and above Canada's 6.4%, and TD Economics found in October 2025 that trade-exposed sectors were shedding jobs. The Tallahassee metro's was 5.1% the same month, not seasonally adjusted, against 4.6% for Florida and 4.4% for the US, a rate that moves with the academic year; the two are not directly comparable. Toronto runs on banking, technology, health care and life sciences. Tallahassee runs on the state and its universities: the State of Florida employs 26,831 people in the city and Florida State University 16,207, ahead of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare with 5,696, the Leon County School Board with 4,300 and the City with 4,000, and government holds 30.2% of the metro's 200,500 nonfarm jobs. BLS counted 2,500 more jobs, 1.3%, in August 2026 than a year earlier, most of them in professional and business services, the law firms, lobbyists and associations around the Capitol. Median household income was $84,000 CAD in the City of Toronto in 2020 and $56,511 USD in Tallahassee in 2024, in a city whose median age is 28.5 and where 27.2% of residents aged three and over are enrolled in college. Ontario levies a provincial income tax, so $100,000 pays about $21,200 CAD before the Ontario Health Premium, CPP and EI, with a top combined rate of 53.53% and 13% HST. Florida levies none, so the same salary pays $13,449 USD in federal tax for 2025; the top rate is the federal 37% and sales tax is 7.5% in Leon County, the state's 6% and 1.5% of county surtaxes. Property tax carries more of the load instead, an effective 1.69% on the Tallahassee metro median against 0.57% of Toronto's benchmark.
Transit is the widest gap in this pair. In the 2021 census, 26.2% of City of Toronto commuters took transit and 9.6% walked or cycled, counted while offices were largely empty and against about 37% on transit in 2016. In Tallahassee in 2024, 3.2% took transit, on an estimate whose margin of error runs from about 1.8% to 4.7%, the second-highest share of the Florida cities here after Miami's; 5.3% walked or cycled, 67.6% drove alone and 11.4% worked from home. The TTC carried 420 million trips in 2024, 204 million by bus, 181 million by subway and 35 million by streetcar, with GO Transit and UP Express covering the region. StarMetro, the City of Tallahassee's buses, runs 14 weekday routes, nearly all meeting downtown, and Florida State's campus routes, free to the public, and carried 1,762,062 trips in 2025, about a third of its 2010 peak. There is no rail, and no passenger train since Amtrak's Sunset Limited stopped east of New Orleans in 2005. What Tallahassee has instead is short distances: 88.1% of the city's workers work inside it, the mean commute is 19 minutes, and 1.9% spend an hour or more. Flying is Toronto's too: Pearson handled 47.3 million passengers in 2025, with Billy Bishop adding short-haul flights from the waterfront, and Tallahassee International, renamed for the Florida State coach Bobby Bowden in April 2026, 936,448 in the City's fiscal 2025, with American and Delta to Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami.
Health care is where the border shows most. In Toronto, OHIP pays for physician and hospital care with no premium beyond the income-tested Ontario Health Premium, new residents wait up to three months for coverage, and drugs, dental and vision are mostly private or employer insured. The hospitals include the University Health Network, Sunnybrook, St. Michael's, Mount Sinai and SickKids; family-doctor shortages and long emergency and specialist waits are the standing complaints. In Tallahassee care is bought through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, and Florida is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid. Florida's uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024, against 8.2% nationally; the City of Tallahassee's was 8.5% and Leon County's 8.1%. Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, a private nonprofit serving 22 counties of North Florida and South Georgia, runs a 772-bed acute care hospital with the region's only Level III neonatal intensive care unit, and HCA Florida Capital Hospital has 266 beds. This site verified no wait time figure for either city. Toronto's schools run through four publicly funded boards, including the largest in Canada, with specialized programs rather than charters. Tallahassee's public schools are Leon County Schools', a countywide district of 31,638 students in 2025, down from 34,085 in 2019, in 51 schools. Florida State enrolled a record 46,184 students in fall 2025, and Florida A&M, the only public historically black university in Florida, and Tallahassee State College 9,313 and 12,455 in fall 2024.
What people underestimate is the cost at the door and what the Tallahassee bill leaves out. A Toronto buyer owes $30,078 CAD in land transfer tax on the benchmark, part of it the City's own Municipal Land Transfer Tax. Florida taxes the loan instead, about $1,606 in documentary stamp and intangible tax on a $291,960 mortgage, and the seller pays 70 cents per $100 on the deed, about $2,555 at the median. Toronto's $5,291 rests on assessments frozen at 1 January 2016. Tallahassee's $6,183 is the 2025 millage, because 2026's was not all adopted when read, and assumes a homestead filed with the Leon County Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after the purchase; without one the same house owes about $7,009, and Save Our Homes resets a house's assessment to market value the January after a sale, so the seller's bill is no guide. A City house has no fire, stormwater or garbage line on its tax bill, because the City, which also owns the electric, water, sewer and gas systems, charges them on the monthly utility bill: stormwater at $11.00 and garbage at $28.19, about $470 a year, and a fire services fee, raised 9.98% from October 2025 and challenged in a lawsuit, whose amount this site could not read. The $220 a month of insurance buys no flood cover. And the price is a median for the whole four-county metro, for June; the metro's July and August figures were not found. Growth runs at different speeds: the City of Toronto grew 2.3% from 2016 to 2021, and the City of Tallahassee 4.4% from 2020 to 2025, slow for Florida, with Leon County losing more residents to the rest of the country than it gained in each of the last three years. The mortgages are opposite instruments: Toronto's 4.34% renews after a five-year term, while Tallahassee's 7.28% holds for thirty years; at 7.03%, Freddie Mac's rate a week earlier, the Tallahassee carry would be about $2,683.
Better here
- 26.2% of city commuters took transit in the 2021 census and the TTC carried 420 million trips in 2024, against 3.2% in Tallahassee and 1,762,062 StarMetro trips in 2025.
- OHIP covers physician and hospital care whoever employs you, where Florida has not expanded Medicaid and 8.5% of Tallahassee's residents had no health insurance in 2024.
- The City of Toronto recorded 45 homicides in 2025, the fewest since the 1980s, about 1.6 per 100,000, against 20 in Tallahassee, about 9.8.
- July averages 22.1 C on the 1991-2020 normals, against 28.1 C in Tallahassee, where the same normals count 102.6 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F).
- Property tax is about 0.57% of market value for 2026, $5,291 CAD a year on the benchmark, against an effective 1.69% on Tallahassee's homesteaded metro median.
- Pearson handled 47.3 million passengers in 2025, about fifty times Tallahassee International's 936,448.
Worse here
- The composite benchmark of $928,200 CAD in July 2026 is about eleven times the city's 2020 median household income, against about 6.5 times for the Tallahassee metro's single-family median.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,635 CAD a month on the benchmark, roughly 66% of the city's 2020 median, against about 58% in Tallahassee.
- A buyer owes $30,078 in provincial and municipal land transfer tax on the July 2026 benchmark, against about $1,606 of Florida tax on a Tallahassee buyer's loan.
- Metro unemployment was 6.7% in July 2026, above the national 6.4%, against 5.1% in the Tallahassee metro on an unadjusted basis.
- Income tax on $100,000 is about $21,200 CAD for 2025 before the Ontario Health Premium, against $13,449 USD of federal tax in Tallahassee, and HST is 13% against 7.5%.
- January averages -5.0 C on a 114.5 cm snow normal, against 11.2 C in Tallahassee.
Choose Toronto if
- you want to live without a car and will pay for a subway city to do it
- you want health coverage attached to residency rather than to an employer
- you want a big city's labor market and airport rather than a small capital's
- you are renting, or buying an apartment at $551,900 CAD rather than a detached house at $1,455,200
The Toronto guide · Neighbourhoods · Toronto rent vs buy · Toronto mortgage calculator
Better here
- Florida Realtors' single-family median for the Tallahassee metro, $364,950 USD in June 2026, is about 6.5 times the city's 2024 median household income, against about eleven times for Toronto's composite benchmark.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,733 USD a month, roughly 58% of local median income against about 66% in Toronto.
- Florida levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 USD in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $21,200 CAD in Toronto.
- January averages 11.2 C with no snow on the 1991-2020 normals, against -5.0 C and 114.5 cm in Toronto.
- Unemployment in the Tallahassee metro was 5.1% in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted, against 6.7% in the Toronto metro.
- Most residents work where they live: 88.1% of the city's workers work inside it, and the mean commute is 19 minutes.
Worse here
- Violent offenses ran 635 per 100,000 in 2025 on the FBI's definitions, the highest 2025 rate of the Florida cities this site compares, and there were 20 homicides, about 9.8 per 100,000.
- There is no rail, 67.6% of workers drove alone in 2024, and StarMetro carried about a third of its 2010 ridership in 2025.
- Florida is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid, its uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024 against 8.2% nationally, and the city's was 8.5%.
- Property tax on the median is about $6,183 a year with a homestead, an effective 1.69%, and about $7,009 without one, with fire, stormwater and garbage billed separately on the City's utility bill.
- Median household income was $56,511 USD in 2024, the lowest of the Florida cities this site compares, and Florida forbids rent control.
- The normals count 102.6 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F), and storms are measured in power cuts: Hermine in 2016 cut power to about 65% of the City's electric customers.
Choose Tallahassee if
- you want to own a house on a salary, at about six and a half times what households around you earn rather than about eleven
- you work for the state, a university or a hospital, or study at one
- you will drive to most things and would trade a -5.0 C January for a long, hot summer
- you want short distances, with most jobs inside the city and a 19-minute commute
The Tallahassee guide · Neighborhoods · Tallahassee rent vs buy · Tallahassee mortgage calculator
Toronto or Tallahassee, in short
Is Toronto or Tallahassee cheaper to live in?
Tallahassee, to own, once each bill is held against its own city's pay, because the currencies do not convert here, though the gap is narrower than the prices suggest. A Toronto owner pays about $4,635 CAD a month on mortgage, property tax and insurance, roughly 66% of the city's 2020 median household income of $84,000 CAD, on a composite benchmark about eleven times that income. A Tallahassee owner pays about $2,733 USD, roughly 58% of the city's 2024 median of $56,511 USD, on Florida Realtors' single-family median for the Tallahassee metro, $364,950, about 6.5 times the city's income, because the mortgage rate is 7.28% against 4.34% and the property tax about 1.69% of value against 0.57%; Zillow's index for the City of Tallahassee stood at $294,444. Renting is about level: a two-bedroom averaged $2,045 CAD in October 2025 in Toronto, about 29% of median income, against 28% for Apartment List's two-bedroom median for Tallahassee, $1,309 USD, 30% for the Census Bureau's two-bedroom figure and 31% for Zillow's observed rent index. Toronto's taxes are heavier on income, about $21,200 CAD on $100,000 against $13,449 USD, and on purchases, 13% HST against 7.5% sales tax, and its buyer funds $30,078 CAD in land transfer tax at closing. Tallahassee's figure leaves out flood insurance and the City's fire, stormwater and garbage charges on the utility bill.
Is Toronto or Tallahassee safer?
Toronto, by a wide margin on homicide, the one count that crosses the border. The City of Toronto's own count was 45 homicides in 2025, the fewest since the 1980s, in a city of about 2.8 million at the 2021 census, about 1.6 per 100,000; Tallahassee recorded 20 in the FBI's file, about 9.8 per 100,000, in a city of about 205,000. The other rates are different instruments. Toronto's violent rate of 986.71 per 100,000 counts every violent Criminal Code violation, including common assault, while Tallahassee's 635 is murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault from the FBI's counts, divided by the Census estimate, about two and a half times Florida's rate and the highest 2025 rate of the Florida cities this site compares. Property crime, 2,565.62 per 100,000 against 2,405, is defined differently as well, and Tallahassee's is understated by missing vehicle thefts. Both are falling: Toronto's violent crime and auto theft dropped in 2025, and Tallahassee's violent offenses were 25% below their 2023 peak in 2025 and 12% lower again in January to August 2026 on the state's count.
Which has the better climate, Toronto or Tallahassee?
Tallahassee has the easier winter and Toronto the easier summer. January averages 11.2 C in Tallahassee, with 27.0 nights a year at or below freezing and no snow on the normals, against -5.0 C and 114.5 cm in Toronto. July reverses it: 28.1 C and humid in Tallahassee, where the normals count 102.6 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F) and 2.9 at 37.8 C (100F) or more, against 22.1 C in Toronto. Tallahassee gets more precipitation, 1,494 mm a year against 806.8 mm. Toronto floods in sudden downpours, as in July 2013 and July 2024, and adds lake-effect snow squalls and wildfire smoke in some summers since 2023. Tallahassee's hazards are wind and falling trees from hurricanes and tornadoes, measured in power cuts, rather than storm surge, because it is inland.
What happens to my health care if I move from Toronto to Tallahassee?
Coverage stops coming with residency and starts coming with a job or a purchase. In Toronto, OHIP pays for physician and hospital care with no premium beyond the income-tested Ontario Health Premium, and an employer plan matters for drugs, dental and vision; the standing complaints are family-doctor shortages and long emergency and specialist waits. In Tallahassee you need an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, with the premium, deductible and copay that come with it. Florida is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid, and its uninsured rate was 10.9% in 2024 against 8.2% nationally; the City of Tallahassee's was 8.5% and Leon County's 8.1%. Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare runs a 772-bed acute care hospital with the region's only Level III neonatal intensive care unit, and HCA Florida Capital Hospital has 266 beds, where Toronto has the University Health Network, Sunnybrook, St. Michael's and SickKids. This site verified no wait time figure for either city.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Population and dwelling counts: Census metropolitan areas, census agglomerations and census subdivisions (table 98-10-0003-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population, Toronto, City (CSD), Ontario (98-401-X2021005 CSV) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Household income statistics by dwelling and household characteristics, census metropolitan areas (table 98-10-0061-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Median household income
- Population estimates, July 1, by census metropolitan area and census agglomeration, 2021 boundaries (table 17-10-0148-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, Canada, provinces, territories and Census Metropolitan Areas (table 35-10-0026-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Crime Severity Index, Crime trend
- Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, police services in Ontario (table 35-10-0177-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides
- The Daily: Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2025 · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Crime Severity Index, Crime trend
- Homicides Open Data (ArcGIS feature service, Public Safety Data Portal) · Toronto Police Service · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Auto Theft Open Data (ArcGIS feature service, Public Safety Data Portal) · Toronto Police Service · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Murders dropped sharply in several major Canadian cities last year, data show · The Globe and Mail · retrieved Supports: Homicides
- Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020, Toronto Pearson (Airport) · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010, Toronto (City) · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- The Daily: Labour Force Survey, July 2026 · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Hogtown Blues: Toronto's Lagging Jobs Market · TD Economics · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- 2025 and 2026 Combined Federal and Ontario Tax Rates Including Surtaxes · TaxTips.ca · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Ontario sales tax: 13% HST rates, registration, and compliance guide · Xero · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- 34 billion rides and counting: the TTC reaches new service milestone · Toronto Transit Commission · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- TTC ridership declined this past fall, despite stricter return-to-office policies for workers · CP24 · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- GTAA Reports 2025 Annual Results · Greater Toronto Airports Authority (via Newswire) · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Metro population, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character, Tallahassee city 196,182 (April 2020 base), 197,919 (2020), 200,283 (2021), 202,205 (2022), 203,267 (2023), 204,025 (2024) and 204,902 (2025); Leon County 299,048 (April 2020 base 292,205); national rank 122 and Florida rank 9; 37th of the 129 cities of 200,000 or more for growth since 2020
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth, Character, Tallahassee MSA (CBSA 45220) 384,303 (April 2020 base) and 397,442 (2025), 143rd of 387 metros and 14th of 22 in Florida; Gadsden 44,298, Jefferson 16,007, Leon 299,048, Wakulla 38,089; births, deaths and domestic and international migration by county and year
- 2025 Gazetteer Files: Places, Florida · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: point, City population, Climate normals, Tallahassee city (1270600): 102.578 sq mi of land, 2.913 sq mi of water, internal point 30.453529, -84.252272
- Tallahassee, Florida (history, geography, climate, neighborhoods, transportation) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: City population, Climate hazards, Main sectors, Transit system, Character, Capital since 1824; only incorporated municipality in Leon County; Hermine (about 80% of the city without power), Michael (95% of Leon County without power), EF2 tornadoes on 10 May 2024; record 105F on 15 June 2011; measurable snows including 2.8 in on 13 February 1958 and 1.9 in on 21-22 January 2025; nine canopy roads; Frenchtown; the 1956 bus boycott; Greyhound, Megabus and RedCoach; Amtrak's Sunset Limited suspended east of New Orleans in 2005
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Tallahassee Police Department (FL0370300): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025, with Florida and national rates · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Character, 2022: 1,587 violent, 4,430 property; 2023: 1,732 and 5,212; 2024: 1,383 and 5,804; 2025: 1,302 violent (20 + 149 + 214 + 919) and 4,927 property (745 + 4,148 + 23 + 11); homicides 15, 21, 16 and 20; agency population 206,918 for 2025; January to July 2026 737 violent against 769 in 2025; 2025 rates for reporting Florida agencies 248.3 violent, 1,076.6 property and 3.0 homicide, and for the US 329.3, 1,552.1 and 4.3
- FIBRS offense data by agency and month, 2021 to August 2026 · Florida Department of Law Enforcement · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Tallahassee Police Department: 1,681, 1,806, 1,441 and 1,363 violent and 5,444, 5,591, 6,371 and 5,280 property offenses in 2022 to 2025; motor vehicle thefts 628, 624, 559 and 396; homicides 16, 21, 16 and 21; January to August 2026 783 violent, 2,985 property and 7 homicides against 893, 3,450 and 17; FDLE population 205,623; the 46 agencies serving 100,000 or more in 2025, led by Fort Lauderdale PD (675 per 100,000), Tallahassee PD (663) and Gainesville PD (635); Leon County Sheriff's Office 500
- Total Crime Incidents Down in 2025, Violent Crime Spikes During Last Four Months · Tallahassee Reports · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend, From the Tallahassee Police Department's daily incident data: total incidents down 22.6% in 2025, property down 28.3%, violent down 8.9%; assaults in September to December 299 against 192; 18 fatal shootings in 2025 against 26 in 2024
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00093805 Tallahassee Regional Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 52.2F, July 82.5F and August 82.4F and the monthly highs, lows and rain from the monthly series, which carries no snowfall normal for this station, and annual mean 68.4F, precipitation 58.81 in, 102.6 days at 90F, 2.9 at 100F, 27.0 nights at or below 32F and 1.4 at or below 20F from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USC00088756 Tallahassee AP (cooperative station) (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Annual snowfall, Climate normals, 0.0 in of snow (monthly and annual); January 51.0F, July 82.9F, 59.82 in, 128.3 days at 90F
- NCEI data search, normals-monthly-1991-2020 stations within 30.7N to 30.2N and 84.6W to 84.0W, and stations with a snowfall normal within 31.3N to 29.7N and 85.3W to 83.4W · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals, USW00093805 at 30.3975N, 84.3289W and USC00088756 at 30.3961N, 84.3556W, both at the airport; the other stations near the city are CoCoRaHS precipitation gauges
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Tallahassee Regional Airport (USW00093805), 2010-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 105F on 15 June 2011 and 104F on 24 June 2022; 108 days at or above 90F in 2025 and 114 in 2026 through 29 September, 3 of them at 100F or above; 27 nights at or below 32F in 2025 and 21 in 2026; 14F on 11 January 2010 and 18F on 2 February 2026; snowfall 1.5 in on 21 January 2025 and 0.4 in on 22 January; gusts of 70.9 mph on 10 October 2018, 67.1 mph on 26 September 2024 and 66.0 mph on 10 May 2024
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals, Jacksonville and Miami listed; no Tallahassee station
- Hurricane Hermine (2016) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 57% of homes in Leon County without power, including about 80% of the city proper and Florida State University
- Hurricane Helene · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Tallahassee International Airport closed on 26 September 2024
- FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Statistical Section (Demographic Statistics, Principal Employers and Miscellaneous Statistical Data) · City of Tallahassee (filed with the Florida Auditor General) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Airport passengers, Health care, Education, Principal employers 2025: State of Florida 26,831, Florida State University 16,207, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital 5,696, Leon County School Board 4,300, City of Tallahassee 4,000, Amazon 2,256, Leon County 1,957, Florida A&M University 1,794, Walmart 1,700, Tallahassee State College 1,468, Publix 1,400, and the 2016 list; airline passengers 936,448 (fiscal 2025), 944,835 (2024) and 851,689 (2019); Leon County School enrollment 31,638 (2025) and 34,085 (2019); 51 public schools; 68,667 college-level students; 1,060 hospital beds at Tallahassee Memorial and Capital Regional
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B19013, B25003 and B01002 for Tallahassee city, Leon County, the Tallahassee MSA, Florida, the US and the other Florida cities this site compares · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08007 (place of work by county), B08008 (place of work by place), B08013 (aggregate travel time) and B08303 (travel time to work) for Tallahassee city and Leon County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Labour market, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 (means of transportation to work) for Tallahassee city, Leon County, the Tallahassee MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Labour market, Character
- ACS 2020-2024 5-year table B08301 (means of transportation to work) for Tallahassee city and Leon County · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B14001 and B14007 (school enrollment by level) for Tallahassee city, Leon County, the Tallahassee MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: City population, Education, Character, Tallahassee city: 199,776 aged 3 and over, 43,399 enrolled in college undergraduate years and 10,954 in graduate or professional school; US 17,005,362 and 4,797,493 of 329,362,620; Florida 1,094,685 and 311,297 of 22,719,284
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for Tallahassee city, Leon County, the Tallahassee MSA, Florida and the US · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Tallahassee, FL MSA (LAUMT124522000000003), Leon County (LAUCN120730000000003) and Tallahassee city (LAUCT127060000000003), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Tallahassee, FL MSA: total nonfarm (SMU12452200000000001), supersectors (SMU1245220xx00000001), retail trade and federal, state and local government (SMU12452209091000001, SMU12452209092000001, SMU12452209093000001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Character
- Florida State University 2025-2026 Pocket Fact Book · Florida State University Office of Institutional Research · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Education, Fall 2025 enrollment 46,184 (33,068 undergraduate, 11,022 graduate and professional, 2,094 unclassified), the highest in the enrollment history table; 43,603 at the Tallahassee location and 43,936 taking at least one class on the main campus; 16,207 employees in 2025-26, 7,605 full-time, 118 part-time and 8,484 OPS
- College Navigator: Florida State University, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and Tallahassee State College (fall 2024 enrollment) · US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Education, Fall 2024 total enrollment: FAMU 9,313 (7,890 undergraduate, 1,423 graduate; id 133650), FSU 43,889 (32,720 undergraduate; id 134097), Tallahassee State College 12,455, all undergraduate (id 137759)
- FAMU Welcomes Largest Incoming Class in a Decade at New Student Pinning Ceremony · Florida A&M University · retrieved Supports: Education, More than 1,900 first-time-in-college students in fall 2026, the largest incoming class in a decade, plus 400 online, 700 transfer and 1,200 graduate students
- Florida A&M University · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Florida State University · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, Education
- Tallahassee State College · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education, Known as Tallahassee Community College from 1970 to 2024; renamed Tallahassee State College on July 1, 2024
- Leon County Schools approve increase in property tax rates, voters could decide in November · WCTV · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Tax notes, Education, A one-mill operating levy for July 2027 to June 2031 sent to the county commission for the November ballot; the commission's 12 May motion to put the half-cent sales tax renewal on the November ballot; $400 million raised from 2012 to 2026
- Leon County school leaders push to renew half-cent sales tax before 2027 expiration · WTXL · retrieved Supports: Education, A $620 million gap in facility needs without renewal; more than $500 million over 15 years if renewed
- Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026 (DR-15DSS) · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Leon 1.5%: 1% from December 1, 1989 to December 31, 2039 and 0.5% from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2027
- Tax Information Publication 14A01-17: Leon County Discretionary Sales Surtax Continues at 1.5% Rate · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Combined rate 7.5%: 1% infrastructure surtax, 0.5% school capital outlay surtax and 6% state tax; the infrastructure surtax extended through December 31, 2039
- Florida Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Property Tax Exemptions: Homestead Exemption, Save Our Homes Assessment Limitation, and Portability Transfer · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Leon County 2025 taxing authority millage rates by tax authority code (with 2010 to 2024), as certified by the Leon County Property Appraiser · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight (Leon County Property Appraiser's filing) · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character, 2025 code 1, City of Tallahassee: County 8.3144, EMS MSTU 0.7500, CSC of Leon 0.3477, School Board RLE 3.1180, discretionary 0.7480 and capital outlay 1.5000, NW Florida Water Management District 0.0207, City 4.4072, total 19.2060 ('City lowered from proposed rate of 4.4200'); code 3, Downtown Improvement, 20.2060; code 2, unincorporated, 14.7988; 2024 code 1 total 19.2379; County 8.3144 every year since 2012
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, County and Municipal Governments, Fiscal Years 2024-25 and 2025-26 (Leon County) · Leon County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, City of Tallahassee 4.4200 in 2024-25, rolled-back rate 4.2080 and 4.4072 adopted for 2025-26, levy $81,772,259, up 9.0% and 4.7% above rolled-back; Leon County BCC 8.3144 and EMS 0.7500
- Zillow Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index, city files, August 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character, Tallahassee (region 47945) all-homes value (City_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv) $294,444 in August 2026 against $290,281 a year earlier, up 1.4%, and observed rent (City_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv) $1,470 against $1,448, up 1.5%; the same month for Jacksonville $285,103 and $1,601, Orlando $371,120 and $1,896, Miami $580,866 and $3,008, Tampa $377,566 and $1,957, St. Petersburg $354,074 and $2,058, Port St. Lucie $384,593 and $2,396, Cape Coral $335,825 and $1,949, Hialeah $442,859 and $2,357
- Monthly Module Adjusted Data Release, complete monthly ridership with adjustments and estimates (City of Tallahassee, NTD 40036) · Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database (via data.transportation.gov) · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- StarMetro (bus service) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Tallahassee International Airport (ownership, location, carriers, naming) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care, Main sectors
- HCA Florida Capital Hospital · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Market Watch, July 2026 · Toronto Regional Real Estate Board · retrieved Supports: A City of Toronto MLS® HPI composite benchmark of $928,200 in July 2026, down 3.83% year over year, City of Toronto benchmarks of $1,455,200 single-family detached (down 4.40%), $1,146,300 single-family attached (down 4.00%), $725,300 townhouse (down 5.75%) and $551,900 apartment (down 7.09%), An All TRREB Areas composite benchmark of $934,600, down 4.63%, covering the region rather than the City, A GTA average selling price of $1,003,956 in July 2026, down 4.5% year over year, 5,995 sales, 14,484 new listings (down 17.8%) and 26,098 active listings (down 12.1%) in July 2026, District benchmarks for Toronto C02 ($1,302,900 composite, detached down 2.15%, apartment down 14.65%), C14 ($888,100), E07 ($735,600) and W06 ($814,300)
- Rental Market Survey: Toronto, average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Toronto CMA average purpose-built rents of $1,491 bachelor, $1,761 one-bedroom, $2,045 two-bedroom and $2,294 three-bedroom-plus, An overall purpose-built average of $1,917, A Toronto CMA purpose-built vacancy rate of 3.0%, the highest since 2021
- Property tax rates and fees, 2026 · City of Toronto · retrieved Supports: A 2026 total residential rate of 0.767311%: 0.605295% city, 0.153% education and 0.009016% City Building Fund, The City's own worked example of $692,140 of assessment at 0.767311%, which is $5,311, Education rates set by the province and city rates set by council
- City of Toronto's 2026 Budget now final · City of Toronto · retrieved Supports: A combined 2026 residential property tax and City Building Fund increase of 2.2%, MPAC's average Toronto current value assessment of $692,140, An increase of $91.53 a year, or $7.63 a month, on that average assessment
- Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees · City of Toronto · retrieved Supports: A municipal land transfer tax charged on top of the provincial one, on Toronto purchases only, Brackets of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% and 4.4%, with further bands above $3,000,000, A first-time buyer rebate of up to $4,475 of the municipal tax
- Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
- Regulations amending the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2025-55) · Canada Gazette, Part II · retrieved Supports: The $1.5 million insured price cap, 30-year amortization for first-time buyers and new builds
- Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · retrieved Supports: The qualifying rate of the contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%
- Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks · Bank of Canada · retrieved Supports: The default mortgage rate of 4.34%, uninsured five-year-plus fixed, funds advanced May 2026
- Calculating Land Transfer Tax · Ontario Ministry of Finance · retrieved Supports: Provincial transfer tax brackets, The conditional 2.5% band
- Residential rent increases · Government of Ontario · retrieved Supports: 2026 rent increase guideline of 2.1%, The 2018 occupancy exemption
- Retail Sales Tax · Government of Ontario · retrieved Supports: 8% retail sales tax on insurance premiums
- Tallahassee home prices outpace state as sales slow in June · Tallahassee Reports · retrieved Supports: A median sale price for an existing single-family home in the Tallahassee MSA of $364,950 in June 2026, up 5.8% from June 2025, A year-to-date median of $340,000, up 1.5%, and 364 closed sales in June, down 6.2% from a year earlier, Florida Realtors' statistics compiled from local multiple listing services, June 2026 data released on 17 July 2026; the Tallahassee MSA is Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon and Wakulla counties, A statewide single-family median of $432,000 in June 2026
- Tallahassee MSA median single-family sales price up 4.4% in May · Tallahassee Reports · retrieved Supports: A Tallahassee MSA single-family median of $355,000 in May 2026 against $340,000 in May 2025, up 4.4%
- Tallahassee MSA residential sales prices trending down · Tallahassee Reports · retrieved Supports: Leon County accounting for almost 90% of the MSA's real estate transactions
- Florida market reports · Florida Realtors · retrieved Supports: Metropolitan Statistical Area reports, Tallahassee among them, published to members only
- FY26 budget, 1.4 millage rate · City of Tallahassee · retrieved Supports: A millage rate of 4.4072, a decrease of 0.0128 mills against the prior year; the budget proposed at 4.4200 and adopted at 4.4072
- Tallahassee's $1.2B budget advances, with final vote set for September · WTXL · retrieved Supports: The City Commission setting the millage rate at 4.4072 mills, with public hearings on 9 and 23 September 2026 before the final vote, The City projecting that a property tax amendment, if voters pass it in November, would cost it $11.2 million in fiscal 2028 and $17.8 million in fiscal 2029
- Leon Commission OKs $420M budget with property tax increase, raises · Tallahassee Democrat (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: The County Commission voting 6-1 for a property tax rate of 8.3144 per $1,000 of assessed value, unchanged for the 15th consecutive year, and the EMS rate alongside it, at its final hearing on 22 September 2026, The unincorporated area's solid waste assessment going from $40 to $80 in the fiscal year starting 1 October
- Leon County School Board approves tentative 2026-27 budget in a 4-1 vote · WTXL · retrieved Supports: A tentative 5.343-mill tax rate, with the final public hearing on the millage and budget on 8 September 2026
- Additional homestead exemption adjustment, revised January 2025 · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A CPI change of 2.9% and a maximum additional exemption of $25,722 for 2025, against the $25,000 base year of 2024
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $294,444 for the City of Tallahassee (region 47945, Leon County) in August 2026, against $290,281 in August 2025, up 1.4%, A typical single-family value of $305,442 against $300,921, up 1.5%, and a typical condominium value of $179,610 against $181,439, down 1.0%, from the single-family and condominium files
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, by city and single-family by metro · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,470 for the City of Tallahassee in August 2026, against $1,448 a year earlier, up 1.5%, A single-family observed rent index of $1,650 for the Tallahassee metro area in August 2026, against $1,619 a year earlier, from the metro single-family file
- Rent estimates summary, September 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: For the City of Tallahassee (FIPS 1270600), September 2026: $1,296 overall, $1,100 for one bedroom and $1,309 for two, with rents down 0.31% on the month and 0.43% on the year, For Leon County: $1,290 overall, $1,106 for one bedroom and $1,288 for two
- Median household income, median home value, median gross rent and tenure, tables B19013, B25077, B25064 and B25003, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median household income of $56,511 in Tallahassee city, against $63,548 in Leon County and $77,735 for Florida, A median owner-occupied home value of $294,500 in Tallahassee city, 39,706 of Tallahassee's 89,217 occupied homes owner-occupied, and a median gross rent of $1,369 against $1,812 for Florida
- Median gross rent by bedrooms, table B25031, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Tallahassee city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median gross rent of $1,239 for one bedroom, $1,401 for two and $1,592 for three
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Tallahassee city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: 17,174 of 39,706 owner-occupied units paying a required homeowners' association or condominium fee, 6,936 of them less than $25 a month, A median monthly fee of $44 among them, and 1,906 paying $300 or more a month
- Utility rate pricing plans · City of Tallahassee Utilities · retrieved Supports: A stormwater charge of $11.00 per month; residential garbage at $28.19 per month for regular homes, $64.64 for premium service and $18.92 for an additional container, Residential electric: a customer charge of $10.29 single phase and an effective billing rate of $0.13583 per kWh (energy $0.09518 and fuel $0.04065), Residential gas: a customer charge of $12.93 per month and an effective billing rate of $1.42287 per CCF, Water: a minimum charge of $17.75 per month and a 50% surcharge outside the City; sewer: a customer charge of $26.09 per month and $0.83458 per cgal
- About your utility bill · City of Tallahassee Utilities · retrieved Supports: Stormwater and Fire Service lines on the City's utility bill
- Department: Electric and Gas Utility · City of Tallahassee (OpenGov) · retrieved Supports: The Electric Utility serving over 128,000 customers in a 221-square-mile service territory, Natural gas through 965 miles of underground mains serving over 34,000 customers in Leon, Gadsden and Wakulla counties
- Tallahassee sued over fire services fee charged through utility bills · Fire Law Blog · retrieved Supports: A Fire Services Fee imposed since 1999 as a flat monthly charge on City utility bills, at two monthly rates by geographic zone, the inner zone paying more, The City Commission's September 2025 decision to readopt the fee and approve a 9.98% increase, effective 1 October 2025
- Complaint, Inman-Johnson et al. v. City of Tallahassee, Second Judicial Circuit · Fire Law Blog (court filing) · retrieved Supports: Filed electronically on 17 November 2025, Resolution 25-R-45, adopted in September 2025, implementing a 9.98% increase in the Fire Services Fee charged monthly to each residential utility customer
- City commissioners move forward with revised fire service fee · WTXL · retrieved Supports: The increase costing approximately $2 extra per month for most residents
- Leon County residents now pay fire fee on property tax bill · WCTV · retrieved Supports: Residents outside the city limits paying the fire services fee on the property tax bill, about $230 depending on the zone, The City Commission raising the fee by 10% only on its own residents
- Property taxes: discounts for early payment · Leon County Tax Collector · retrieved Supports: A 4% discount if paid in November, 3% in December, 2% in January and 1% in February
- Property Insurance Stability Report, July 1, 2026 · Florida Office of Insurance Regulation · retrieved Supports: Average premiums for Leon County from data reported as of 31 March 2026: homeowners $2,538 with wind and $1,710 without; condominium unit owners $846 and $441, Actual charged premium varying by company, insured value, deductibles and policy terms
- Florida homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Tallahassee premium of $2,640 a year, $220 a month, against $8,345 in Miami, updated 20 February 2026
- Renters insurance in Florida · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Tallahassee renters premium of $138 a year, $12 a month
- Flood prevention and preparedness information · City of Tallahassee, Stormwater Management · retrieved Supports: A substantially improved or damaged home, where the repairs or renovations equal or exceed 50% of the structure's market value, brought up to the NFIP and City flood ordinance requirements, elevated to at least 2 feet above the base flood elevation, Tallahassee citizens and businesses receiving up to a 25 percent discount on flood insurance
- CRS eligible communities, April 2025 · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: The City of Tallahassee (community 120144) in Class 5 from 1 October 2022, a 25% discount in the special flood hazard area; Leon County also Class 5
- National Flood Hazard Layer, FIRM panels · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved Supports: Leon County's countywide FIRM, DFIRM 12073C, with panels effective 18 August 2009
- Tropical cyclone report: Hurricane Hermine (AL092016) · National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Landfall along the Florida Big Bend coast just east of St. Marks at 0530 UTC on 2 September 2016, About 65% of electric customers (75,000 in all) without power in the City of Tallahassee, the most significant damage to its system since Hurricane Kate in 1985
- Hurricane Hermine (2016) · National Weather Service Tallahassee · retrieved Supports: Approximately 80% of customers in Tallahassee losing power during the hurricane
- NWS Tallahassee newsletter, June 2024 · National Weather Service Tallahassee · retrieved Supports: Three tornadoes through Leon County on 10 May 2024, two of them EF-2 with maximum winds of 115 mph converging on Tallahassee, More than 400 broken utility poles, more than Hermine, Irma and Michael combined on the City's count, and two storm-related deaths
- Post tropical cyclone report, Hurricane Helene: impact narratives · National Weather Service Tallahassee · retrieved Supports: In Leon County at the peak, roughly 53,000 City of Tallahassee utility customers and 35,000 Talquin Electric customers without power, A mandatory evacuation of mobile and manufactured homes, and 3 homes destroyed and 27 with major damage
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 1 October 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.28%, up from 7.03% the week before and 6.34% a year earlier
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: 70 cents on each $100 of consideration on a deed in every county except Miami-Dade, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note, capped at $2,450
- Rule 69O-186.003, Florida Administrative Code: title insurance rates · Florida Department of State, Florida Administrative Code · retrieved Supports: An owner's title insurance premium of $5.75 per $1,000 of liability to $100,000 and $5.00 per $1,000 from $100,000 to $1 million
- Section 627.701, Florida Statutes: liability of insureds; hurricane deductibles · The Florida Legislature · retrieved Supports: An insurer offering hurricane deductibles of $500, 2%, 5% and 10% of the policy dwelling limits
- Flood: Citizens' flood insurance requirements · Citizens Property Insurance Corporation · retrieved Supports: Under section 627.715, Florida Statutes, most new and renewing Citizens personal residential policies with wind coverage required to carry flood insurance by 1 January 2027
- FloodSmart · Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Flood Insurance Program · retrieved Supports: Most homeowners insurance not covering flood damage
- SB 4-D (2022): Building Safety, chapter 2022-269, Laws of Florida · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: Milestone inspections required of condominium and cooperative associations, and a prohibition on waiving or reducing reserves for certain items after a specified date
- Florida Hometown Heroes Housing Program · Florida Housing Finance Corporation · retrieved Supports: Down payment and closing cost assistance for first-time, income-qualified buyers in eligible occupations employed full time by a Florida-based employer, Up to 5% of the first mortgage, a maximum of $35,000 and a minimum of $10,000, as a 0%, non-amortizing, 30-year deferred second mortgage that is not forgivable