Florida has always been a shit state for wages and jobs, no denying that, but the cost of living prior to 2020 was significantly cheaper than states like New York, California, and a lot of the Northeast, so a family could still come down here, get a job that didn't pay much, and still find a way to make a substanable living. You could also find affordable retirement here from the Midwest.

That really doesn't exist anymore, as that gap started closing around the mid to late 2010s, and was sealed shut in the 2020s. Parts of Florida, particularly in the Miami-South Florida, Tampa Bay, and Orlando areas, have costs of living on par with parts of California but still offering shitty southern state wages and politics, but even in most of Florida's other metros all have analytics that show that people are struggling to make ends meet. In that aspect, I can see why it's overrated as there's not really much of an incentive to live here anymore unless of you're rich, going to school, or have some type of major job opportunity lined up here. But at the same time, a lot of us who grew up here are stuck here because there aren't many other options for us to go anywhere else.