Miamiculture & etiquette

Florida gives you 30 days from establishing residency, and a new resident exchanging a valid out-of-state or foreign licence needs only a vision and hearing test — no written exam and no road test. Compare that to California, which makes every foreign driver take both. If you are choosing between US states and dread the DMV, Florida is the softest landing.

Florida levies no personal income tax at all, which is the main financial reason people move here. The counterweight is property insurance, which has been the most expensive in the country. The genuinely new development is that it is falling: Citizens Property Insurance is cutting rates by an average of 8.7% statewide at renewals from 1 June 2026 — its first personal-lines reduction since 2015 — after litigation reform and lower reinsurance costs. Miami-Dade does better than the average, at about 14%. Almost everything written before 2026 describes a market that has since turned.

After the Surfside collapse, Florida required milestone structural inspections and fully funded structural integrity reserves for condo buildings. Associations that had underfunded reserves for years responded with special assessments running into tens of thousands per unit. Before signing anything in a condo — including a lease, since costs flow through — ask for the milestone inspection report and the reserve study.

Around seven in ten Miami-Dade residents are Hispanic and a majority speak Spanish at home. In much of Hialeah, Little Havana and Doral, Spanish is the default language of business and daily life. You can live here comfortably in English, but you will be a visitor in your own neighbourhood if you do not pick some up — and it is genuinely easy to learn in an environment this immersive.

Adult Medicaid eligibility in Florida is very restrictive, creating a gap for people earning too much for Medicaid and too little for subsidies. At the same time Florida has by far the largest ACA marketplace enrolment of any state, through the federal HealthCare.gov. If your job doesn't include insurance, the marketplace is a real and heavily used option — but check your subsidy eligibility before assuming affordability.

The season runs 1 June to 30 November, with the peak in September. Renters' insurance, a documented inventory of your belongings, a supply of water and non-perishables, and knowing your evacuation zone are all things to do in May. Flood damage is not covered by standard property insurance — it needs a separate policy, and that distinction ruins people every few years.