The city from the water
City of Miami · Florida · United States · Figures as of June 2026

In Miami the insurance decides, not the millage

Miami is a city of 36 square miles inside a county of thirty-four municipalities, and most of what is written about it describes something else: the county, the metro, or a separate city called Miami Beach. This is the City itself, one neighborhood at a time, 13 of them so far, with the arithmetic of buying here worked out alongside. The two facts that decide more than any other are elevation and the year a building was put up: this is the flattest large city in America and the one with the most condominium stock now facing funded structural reserves.

13
Neighborhood guides
36 sq mi
City of Miami land area
6 ft
Mean elevation above sea level
$582,621
Typical home value, June 2026
$3,004
Two-bedroom rent
1.86%
Tax rate a buyer pays, 2025
Photograph: The city from the water · P. Hughes · CC BY 4.0 · source
What everyday life costs

Living in Miami

What the household next door earns, what the government takes, how people get to work and what the two ends of the year feel like. Every figure below is the one the comparison pages run on, with the year it describes where the source publishes one, and anything the source does not publish is left out rather than guessed.

$66,337
Median household income, 2024
$13,449
Income tax on $100,000
7%
Sales tax
7.7%
Commute by transit, 2024
20.3 °C
January mean
28.9 °C
July mean

Property tax is the cost that varies most from one address to the next, and the rate in the tiles above is this municipality's alone. Miami-Dade puts what every town around Miami actually charges on a single table, alongside the exemptions and caps that change what an owner pays.

01: Work out the money

The cost of living in Miami, and what a home costs

Two calculators on Florida's own rules: monthly compounding and the month private mortgage insurance stops, and the closing costs this state actually charges.

The question worth answering first

Rent or buy in Miami

Whether buying beats renting in a city where the typical home fell in value last year, insurance is the second-largest line after the mortgage, and flood cover is a separate policy the figure on this page does not include. Every input is editable, because the assumptions are where this decision actually lives.

$582,621
Typical home
$3,004
Two-bed rent
6.67%
30-year fixed
Work out your break-even
American math, on Florida's rules

Mortgage calculator

Monthly compounding, the 30-year fixed loan, the private mortgage insurance a low down payment triggers and the month federal law makes your lender stop charging it, plus the documentary stamp and intangible taxes Florida charges a buyer on the loan itself.

$2,998
Payment, 20% down
$466,097
Mortgage
$613,310
Interest over 30 years
Work out your payment
02: Work out where

Then find where in it to live

The neighborhood index groups Miami into four areas either side of the Miami River. An editorial grouping, since the City's own boundary set is eleven NET service areas and it publishes nothing above them. Every guide keeps sourced facts apart from editorial observation, credits its photographs, and dates what it claims.

The full index

13 neighborhood guides

A start on a city the size of Miami, each guide with sourced facts, schools, parks, amenities, drive times, its elevation and flood zone, and an honest account of the trade-offs.

Browse every neighborhood
How the city divides

The river, the bay and the four areas

Miami's own address grid puts Brickell, Little Havana and Coconut Grove in the same quadrant, which tells you nothing. What people actually navigate by is the Miami River and the bay, and the four areas either side of them read very differently on price, elevation and what you can walk to.

Compare the four areas
Outside the city limits

The 24 municipalities of Miami-Dade

Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah, Key Biscayne and twenty more on one comparable footing. The millage each actually charges, the rate a homesteaded buyer really pays, and which five run their own fire departments. Miami is one row on that table; this hub is the same city read a neighborhood at a time.

Compare the county

Photographs: Wynwood Walls by Dan Lundberg, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · The Miami River from the South Miami Avenue bridge by TheWxResearcher, CC0, Wikimedia Commons.

By areaDowntown, Brickell and the river mouthLittle Havana and west MiamiCoconut Grove, Coral Way and the southWynwood and north of the river
Before the arithmetic

What buying in Miami actually involves

Insurance is the number that decides affordability here, not the millage. Wind, flood and, for a condominium, the association's own master policy have all repriced sharply, and the difference between two similar houses can be thousands of dollars a year depending on the roof, the openings and the elevation. Get an actual quote on the specific property before agreeing a price, because an estimate based on another house will be wrong.

For anything in a condominium, Florida's structural inspection and reserve requirements are the center of the purchase. Milestone inspections, structural integrity reserve studies and the assessments that follow them have moved faster than prices in this county, and a low asking price on an older oceanfront building is frequently a priced-in assessment waiting to be voted.

The homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes cap mean the seller's tax bill tells you almost nothing about yours. A long-tenured owner may be paying a fraction of what a new buyer will pay, because the assessment resets to market value the January after a sale. If you already hold a Florida homestead, part of the accrued benefit can be ported to the next one.

Flood zone, base flood elevation and the property's claims history are not a formality in a city built a few feet above sea level. King-tide flooding on some streets is now routine, the city's stormwater work is ongoing and specific, and the elevation certificate is the document that answers most of the questions a listing raises.

Moving to Miami: check these before you commit

  • An actual insurance quote, wind and flood separately, on the specific property
  • The milestone inspection, reserve study and any pending assessment for a condominium
  • The elevation certificate, flood zone and claims history rather than the seller's reassurance
  • Your own tax bill after the assessment resets, not the seller's under Save Our Homes
  • Whether the block floods on king tides, which is street-level knowledge rather than city-level
Weigh it against another city

Miami compared

Home prices, rents, crime, climate, taxes and transit next to each of the other cities on the site, with what each does better and who should choose which. Nearest first.

03, Where the numbers come from

Sourced, dated, and separated from the guesswork

Every Miami figure below is cited, stamped with the period it describes, and editable, because a number for the whole city rarely describes your purchase. Appreciation and investment returns are assumptions rather than facts, and they are labelled that way. Read the methodology for how the line is drawn.

Housing data
Version 1
Figures as of June 2026
  • Prices, rents and tax rates: published statistics and the official schedules.
  • Nothing here is a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice.

Where the Miami figures come from

  1. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando and Palm Beach pages use, so all four American layers can be read against each other, Year-over-year change to June 2026
  2. Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), all homes, smoothed: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: Asking rents across the whole rental stock for the twenty-two municipalities Zillow indexes
  3. Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved
    Supports: The adopted 2025-26 millage rate for Miami-Dade County and every municipality in it, The county's own components: countywide 4.5740, Fire/Rescue 2.3965, Library 0.2812 and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area at 1.9090, Municipal rates from Sunny Isles Beach's 1.7000 to Biscayne Park's 9.3000
  4. 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved
    Supports: A published combined rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade of 16.9317 mills, Its components: school district 6.4990, countywide 5.7361, regional water districts 0.3911, Fire Rescue 2.3965 and UMSA 1.9090, which this layer's stack reproduces exactly, Millage code 0100, the City of Miami, at 19.9878 mills for 2025: 7.1080 of city operating levy and 0.2536 of city debt service on the countywide 12.6262, Opa-locka's municipal operating levy of 8.9797, and a 2025 total of 24.0024 for millage code 0800, A city debt service column, which nine of the twenty-four municipalities here carry: Miami 0.2536, Miami Beach 0.2779, North Bay Village 1.1666, Golden Beach 0.6000, Miami Shores 0.1331, North Miami Beach 0.2000, Miami Gardens 0.4331, Doral 0.4810 and Homestead 0.2446, A blank library district column for Hialeah, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour and Surfside, which are outside the county library district, A blank Fire Rescue column for Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne, which is the five this layer flags
  5. Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: A Miami-Dade deed rate of 60 cents per $100 rather than the 70 cents charged in every other county, A Miami-Dade surtax of 45 cents per $100, not due on a document transferring only a single-family dwelling, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note, statewide
  6. Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved
    Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money