Rick Scott says Florida ‘very unaffordable’ in speech to national conservative group

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott continues to spotlight the cost-of-living crisis in the state he governed for eight years.

Speaking Saturday at CPAC USA 2026, the Naples Republican said “we’ve been losing jobs” and that “the cost of living has gone up, because the housing’s up, the cost of insurance is up, so it’s very unaffordable.”

President Donald Trump’s “working his butt off” to fix these issues, Scott said, likening him to the “Energizer bunny” as he works to repair issues created by former President Joe Biden.

Scott has talked about affordability issues before, with a particular interest in the cost of insurance, which he said last year that the next Governor of the state would have to fix.

In 2024, he said rates had “skyrocketed” since he left the Governor’s Mansion at the end of 2018.

Before that, he said high rates were “bankrupting” the state, described the state’s insurance marketplace as a “disaster,” and said the departure of Farmers Insurance was a “wake-up call” to the state.

Scott also previously suggested the cost of housing is tied to onerous costs for permitting, which he estimated at 15% to 30% of the total project costs.

State officials claim that insurance costs are on a “negative glide path,” crediting reforms with bringing new companies into the market to remove policies from the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.

Housing prices are actually down statewide year over year by almost 5%. As of the end of last year, six of the ten most depressed markets in the state are in Florida.

However, high interest rates compared to when many mortgages were assumed years ago have made sellers less willing to unload properties and assume inflated transaction costs compared to when many bought their homes.

The unemployment figure for Florida is 4.3%, just below the national rate of 4.4%. The state figure accounts for 486,000 job-seeking Floridians who are out of work. That’s out of a labor force of 11.22 million in the state.