Florida is the single largest out-of-state source of new households in Wake County. IRS migration data for filing years 2022–2023 recorded 2,408 tax-filing households — 4,102 individuals — moving from Florida into Wake County, carrying $210.0 million in adjusted gross income, or about $87,207 per return. Because the IRS builds this series two and a half to three years after the moves happen, it describes 2022–2023, not the present.
How many people are moving from Florida to Wake County?
2,408 households and 4,102 individuals, per the most recent IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) county-to-county migration release. That makes Florida the largest single state of origin for households arriving in Wake County — larger than any other state, though smaller than the combined flow from neighboring North Carolina counties such as Durham and Johnston. These are federal tax returns that changed county of residence between the 2022 and 2023 filing years, not home sales, listings, or closings. A return is roughly a household, not necessarily one person.
The average return carried $87,207 in adjusted gross income at the destination year. That figure describes the group as a whole; it says nothing about any individual household’s income, occupation, or reason for moving, because the IRS data does not record reasons.
Which Florida counties send the most people to Wake County?
Four counties account for a large share of the Florida-to-Wake flow: Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach. Together they represent about 40 percent of all Florida returns arriving in Wake County in this release.
| Rank | Florida county | Returns to Wake | Share of FL-to-Wake total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miami-Dade | 282 | 11.7% |
| 2 | Broward | 258 | 10.7% |
| 3 | Hillsborough | 219 | 9.1% |
| 4 | Palm Beach | 213 | 8.8% |
The remaining Florida returns are spread across smaller counties, each below the reporting threshold for an individual ranked line in this release. Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach sit along the southeast coast; Hillsborough is the Tampa Bay area on the Gulf side — the flow is not limited to one Florida region.
Why does North Carolina have a state income tax when Florida doesn’t?
Florida is one of a small number of states with no personal state income tax. North Carolina taxes wage income, retirement withdrawals, and most other income at the state level. That single difference is the biggest recurring financial change on this move, and it is a mechanical one, not a matter of opinion: a paycheck, pension distribution, or investment sale that arrived untaxed at the state level in Florida becomes subject to North Carolina state tax once you are a North Carolina resident.
The mechanics that change alongside it include state withholding on a new North Carolina paycheck, quarterly estimated payments for self-employment or retirement income, and the treatment of any income earned partway through the year of the move, which can require a part-year resident return. None of that is a reason to avoid the move — it is a reason to plan for it before the first paycheck or distribution arrives. This is exactly the kind of question to bring to a CPA before relocating, not after; a CPA licensed in both states can model the specific change to your specific income, which this page cannot do in general terms.
How do property taxes work differently in Wake County than in Florida?
Wake County’s current property tax rate is $0.5371 per $100 of assessed value, and Cary layers its own municipal rate of $0.3400 per $100 on top of the county rate for property inside town limits — both figures as reported in the Town of Holly Springs’ FY2026–27 budget message dated May 12, 2026, at which point Cary itself had not yet set its FY27 rate. A Wake County property owner therefore pays a combined county-plus-municipal rate, reassessed on the county’s periodic revaluation schedule rather than an annual sale-based reassessment.
Florida’s property tax structure works differently at the mechanics level — assessment caps and homestead treatment do not carry over from one state to the other, and any specific Florida rate or cap belongs in a conversation with a Florida CPA or the prior county’s property appraiser, not on this page. The practical point for a Wake County buyer is that the combined rate here applies uniformly by location — county rate everywhere in Wake, plus each municipality’s own rate inside its limits — and a real estate attorney or lender handling the North Carolina closing can walk through the actual bill for a specific property before closing.
What changes about hurricane and insurance exposure?
Wake County sits well inland in the central Piedmont of North Carolina, away from the coastline and outside the storm surge and direct-landfall zones that shape South Florida’s insurance market. That is a geographic fact, not a financial one — this page does not carry premium figures for either state, and any specific insurance quote depends on the individual property, its construction, and its insurer. What can be said generally is that wind and flood exposure in Wake County is a different risk profile than coastal South Florida, and that difference is worth raising directly with an insurance agent licensed in North Carolina before setting a moving budget, rather than assuming a Florida premium as a baseline.
What does the same money buy in Cary versus South Florida?
In Cary, the resale market runs a median price of $611,000, or about $276 per square foot, with a median 13 days on market. Those figures describe Cary specifically, not Wake County as a whole and not any Florida market — this page does not carry a comparable per-square-foot figure for Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, or Palm Beach, and none should be assumed. A household moving from a high-cost South Florida coastal market and pricing a Cary purchase against $276 per square foot should treat that as a Cary-specific number to compare against their own local listings, not a national or regional average.
What do Florida movers find hardest about this move?
Losing the absence of a state income tax is the change people most often report being unprepared for, even when the home price itself is comparable — it shows up gradually, in the first few paychecks or the first estimated-tax deadline, not at closing. A less financial adjustment is the closing process itself: North Carolina requires a licensed attorney to conduct a residential real estate closing, which is a different process than Florida’s title-company-centered closings, and it changes who a buyer is dealing with in the final weeks of a purchase. Seasonal adjustment — four distinct seasons, including a real if short winter, in place of South Florida’s year-round warmth — is a common but non-financial adjustment worth naming plainly rather than dressing up.
What can’t this migration data tell you?
This is IRS Statistics of Income county-to-county migration data for filing years 2022–2023. It records a change in the county of the mailing address on a federal tax return between two consecutive filings — nothing more. It does not record why anyone moved, so any explanation involving hurricanes, insurance costs, retirement, or remote work is a reasonable hypothesis, not a finding in this data. It has no ZIP code or neighborhood detail below the county level, so it cannot say which part of Wake County Florida arrivals settled in. County pairs with fewer than 20 returns are suppressed from published rankings, and it only captures taxpayers who filed federal returns in both years, missing non-filers entirely. Treat every figure above as what it is — a return-level count for 2022–2023 — and nothing more.
For the county-by-county migration picture behind this page, see where Wake County movers come from. For broader guidance on relocating into the Triangle, see Triangle relocation guidance. For Cary specifically, see the Cary overview. For how Wake County and Cary property tax bills are actually assembled, see property taxes in Cary, Morrisville, and Wake County. For how North Carolina’s attorney-run closing process works, see real estate attorneys in North Carolina.
Moving here from somewhere else
- Moving from New York to North Carolina: What the Data Shows
- Moving from California to North Carolina: What the IRS Migration Data Shows
- Moving from Northern Virginia to North Carolina: What the IRS Migration Data Shows
- Cary, NC Commute Distances and Routes to RTP, Raleigh, and RDU
- Things to Do in Cary, NC
About the author
Cameron Smith writes Move Up NC’s real estate guidance for Cary, Morrisville and the North Carolina Triangle.
Editorial note: This article summarises published migration data and general relocation considerations. It does not rank places or provide legal, tax or Fair Housing advice.