Wildwood, FL
Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Wildwood ranks 40th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 126th for income. A household earns $78,807 a year while median rent runs $1,155/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 15% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is cost of living (7th of 300), while commute is the soft spot (262nd). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 118th and home prices 225th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Wildwood, your take-home is worth about $71,775 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 126th of 300$78,807
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 7th of 30085 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $92,254
- Per-capita income
- $51,300
- Full-time pay
- $33,196
Housing
- Median rent
- 118th of 300$1,155/mo
- Home value
- 225th of 300$412,800
- Property tax
- $3,039/yr · 0.7%
- Sales tax
- 6.95%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 99th of 3003.9%
- Bachelor's+
- 124th of 30035.7%
- Avg commute
- 262nd of 30028.5 min
People
- Population
- 154,693
- Median age
- 68.0 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 6.6%
- Broadband
- 92.4%
Environment & risk
- Natural-hazard loss
- 217th of 300$16/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 39th of 30015.9%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 12.5%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Affordability
- + Cost of living
- + Job market
- + Health
Watch-outs
- – Home prices
- – Commute
- – Hazard safety
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — leesburg muni ap.
What jobs pay in Wildwood
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $223,580
- IT managers
- $161,820
- Financial managers
- $149,880
- Pharmacists
- $128,640
- Software developers
- $128,560
- Lawyers
- $124,700
- General & operations managers
- $97,360
- Civil engineers
- $96,860
- Accountants & auditors
- $77,300
- Registered nurses
- $77,110
- Police officers
- $72,980
- Elementary school teachers
- $59,360
- Electricians
- $52,960
- Plumbers
- $50,140
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $47,180
- Carpenters
- $47,130
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $45,310
- Construction laborers
- $41,170
- Customer service reps
- $40,340
- Waiters & waitresses
- $36,340
- Retail salespersons
- $34,290
- Janitors
- $33,740
- Cashiers
- $30,450
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Wildwood metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Florida are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Massachusetts601
- New York491
- Michigan483
- Colorado350
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Wildwood
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Wildwood metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Wildwood metro?
- Median gross rent across the Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area is $1,155 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Wildwood.
- What is the median household income in the Wildwood metro?
- A typical household in the Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area earns $78,807 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Wildwood expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area runs about 15% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Wildwood metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $92,254 (versus its face value of $78,807). CityLedger rates the Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Wildwood metro?
- The median home value across the Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area is $412,800 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Wildwood metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Wildwood-The Villages, FL Metro Area is 3.9% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).