The Rise of the ‘Halfbacks’: Retirees Who Moved to Florida Are Now Fleeing It

The classic retirement pipeline has been established for years: Grow up in the Northeast, make your money in a place like New York, and then retire to Florida for the low cost of living and easy beach access. 

But a new migration pattern is emerging. A confluence of factors have soured things a bit for those who moved to Florida, and now thousands of them are becoming “halfbacks”: They’ve moved halfway back north and settled in a state like South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, or Tennessee. 

For anyone weighing their own retirement plans, this trend offers a useful lesson; the calculus of where to retire is changing fast, and Florida may no longer be the automatic answer—or at least, it’s not the final one. 

Florida’s retirees are now looking elsewhere

According to data from HireAHelper, over 2.1 million people aged 65 and older moved in 2025. Florida was still the king of this cohort, with over 40,000 retirees moving to the state. But, surprisingly, nearly as many people 65 and up also left Florida all together. The state’s net gain was just 815 people. 

The state with the biggest net gain in retirees? South Carolina—a state that has promoted itself as a retirement destination but certainly doesn’t have the same reputation as Florida or Arizona. It was followed by Texas, then North Carolina and Tennessee.

And where were South Carolina's newest retiree residents coming from? Mostly higher-cost states feeling the squeeze: Nearby North Carolina led the way, but Florida was right behind, followed by New York. The pattern is hard to miss: People are leaving expensive, over-burdened markets and landing somewhere that still feels like a deal.

What’s wrong with Florida?

Florida may still be the gold standard for retirees, but in many ways, reality has failed to live up to its reputation—and its people are catching on. 

“I would say about 40% of the retirees I work with are from Florida,” says Lauren Reinhardt, a residential broker at Howard Hanna Real Estate Services in Asheville, NC. “Florida wasn't what they were promised. The heat has become unbearable, the larger cities feel overdeveloped with infrastructure that hasn't kept up, and the cost of living—particularly insurance and HOA fees—have started to take a hit on their retirement budgets.” 

In a recent Florida Atlantic University survey, half of respondents said they would consider leaving the state due to the rising cost of living. And high home prices and stubborn interest rates, which plague much of the nation anyway, are only part of that equation. 

“I do think that Florida's housing market is very scary for lots of people,” says Julia Donovan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial in Charleston, SC. “When someone owns a house, they're going to start looking at its continued cost, and your mortgage is just part of it. Your property tax and your insurance and HOA are another huge factor. You always have to pay those—the number changes, but the fact that you have to pay doesn't change.”

According to 1-800-Insurance, after years of double-digit increases in rates, Florida homeowners may pay nearly five times the national average of $2,110 for insurance. A combination of consistent hurricanes, a massive amount of fraud and litigation, and a loss of insurance carriers led to Florida’s insurance crisis. The state has tried to stem the rising tide of these costs, but it may have been too little, too late for some residents.

“A bad storm means insurance increases. And even after the increase, you're still in the path of the storms. It's just a vicious cycle, and I think a lot of people moving out of Florida have just had it,” says Donovan. 

Where the halfbacks go

South Carolina appears to be benefitting the most from the halfback movement. Though the greatest number of retiree arrivals are coming from the Northeast directly, experts have begun to notice the influx of former Floridians.  

“It's a growing cohort. The bulk of the retirees that are moving into South Carolina are still coming from the Northeast, but we do have a more broad-based group moving into South Carolina, and we are seeing more people move from Florida,” says Joey Von Nessen, a research economist at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. “This idea of halfbacks—they are, in a sense, still coming from places like New England, they just stopped off in Florida first, and then moved to South Carolina."

South Carolina has much of what is appealing to those who live in or were considering Florida: plenty of coastal access, warm weather, and a low cost of living. And what it doesn’t have is the same level of insurance cost crisis that is plaguing Florida homeowners. 

"We're seeing increased insurance costs in Florida that have gone up a lot in the last five to ten years, and people respond to that, particularly when they're retired and they're on a fixed income,” says Von Nessen. “If you're looking at South Carolina, which has fewer extreme weather events, and as a result insurance costs and other housing-related costs aren't as high, then that's naturally going to change the location decisions of many people."

Other Southern states, halfway back to the North, offer additional benefits to those considering their options. 

“North Carolina offers four seasons and this is one of the factors I hear most often,” says Reinhardt. “For people who gave up fall foliage and cool falls when they moved South, getting that back is a determining factor when choosing where to relocate.” 

The possibility of a dream home is more viable in these areas as well, Reinhardt says: “Another major draw of Western North Carolina is the opportunity to build. Many Florida buyers are able to sell their existing home and reinvest those proceeds into a custom home here. There are homesites with wooded privacy and mountain views which are impossible to find or prohibitively expensive in many parts of Florida.”

Is this the future of retirement?

The halfback trend may be new, but the forces driving it aren't going anywhere. Demographic shifts, remote work, and the rising cost of coastal living have been building for years, and they're pointing many people in the same direction: southeast—and not necessarily toward Florida.

"If we look at projections over the next several decades, the Southeastern United States is going to see more population growth than any other region of the country over the next 20 to 30 years," says Von Nessen. "South Carolina has long marketed itself as a retirement destination, and the nature of our economy also lends itself to having a higher percentage of retirees in South Carolina compared to other Southeastern states, and certainly compared to the U.S. as a whole."

The question will be, as more retirees on fixed incomes fix their sights on the Carolinas and other parts of the Southeast, can these states meet the new demand and keep costs low?

“Making sure we can ensure an adequate housing supply is going to be a key factor for economic growth going forward, because the demand is not going away,” says Von Nessen. “Affordability is a relative term—that's an important point, always. And from a national perspective, South Carolina is still very affordable.”

Halfbacks are proof that our search for affordability doesn't end when retirement begins. In fact, retirement may only accelerate it.