Miami, Florida, is thought of a trendy place, but now it is experiencing a trend that city leaders might not be advertising.
Once lauded as the next Silicon Valley during the pandemic, venture capitalists and startups fled California for South Florida.
Years later, however, the city is following another trend previously seen in the Bay Area: more people are moving out than coming in, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
According to the Chronicle, the Miami metro area saw the nation’s highest share of population loss because of domestic out-migration — about 1.8% of its total population — between July 2024 and July 2025, the Chronicle reported, citing new census data.
“Domestic out-migration has moderated in New York and San Francisco since the pandemic, whereas Miami is the new San Francisco — at least in the sense that housing affordability is pushing people out,” former Biden economic official Jed Kolko said.
Miami’s Slight Population Drop
Overall, Miami-Dade County experienced a slight population drop with a net loss of about 10,000 people between July 2024 and July 2025. That’s still a big contrast from the previoous 12 months, however, when the county added over 64,000 residents, a 2.3% increase that was the second-highest rate among U.S. counties.
The Chronicle reported that researchers have cited a situation familiar to Californians.
Miami has one of the nation’s worst housing markets when it comes to affordability. The University of Florida found almost half of Miami-Dade County households are cost-burdened, or paying more than 30% of their incomes on rent, the Chronicle said.
For those households making less than $75,000 per year, three quarters are cost-burdened.
Both Miami and San Francisco have a significant housing shortfall, particularly for affordable housing, the Chronicle said. Unlike the Bay Area, Miami does not have an abundance of high-paying tech jobs.
The Chronicle said that researchers expect most of fastest-growing local jobs by 2030 to have hourly wages of $19 or less, including cooks and wait staff, housekeepers, and warehouse workers.
Significant Population Loss
The San Francisco area hasn’t recovered yet from its significant population loss during the pandemic, and domestic out-migration remained negative between July 2024 and July 2025, the Chronicle said. Its out-migration population loss of about 0.6% was lower than Miami or New York and the San Francisco metro area grew slightly by 0.1%.
The Chronicle noted that the Bay Area’s tech sector is far larger than Miami’s, although South Florida continues to attract companies and, more recently, California tech moguls who may be seeking to avoid a potential billionaire’s tax.
For example, Palantir, a data software giant co-founded by Peter Thiel, said recently it was relocating its headquarters to the Miami area from Denver, Colorado, after previously relocating from Palo Alto in 2020.
Also of note, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also bought property in South Florida.
