The first question almost every client asks us is the simplest one: how much is this going to cost? It is also the question that resists a one-sentence answer, because the price of a move depends on roughly a dozen variables — distance, weight, season, building access, day of the week, special handling, and several others. What we can do, after three decades in this market, is give you the honest ranges we are seeing in 2026 across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Use these numbers as a sanity check on the quotes you are receiving.
Before we get into the numbers, one note. Anyone who gives you a binding quote sight unseen, over the phone, after a 90-second conversation, is either guessing or planning to surprise you on moving day with additional charges. The honest way to price a move is an in-home estimate or a video walkthrough, where the company can see what you actually own and where it lives. Companies that skip this step are companies that build the surprise into the contract.
Local Moves: Within South Florida
A local move in our market is anything within Miami-Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach counties — typically under 50 miles. Local moves are priced hourly, with a minimum charge that usually covers 2 or 3 hours plus a travel fee that reflects time from the company's warehouse to your pickup and from your delivery back to the warehouse.
For 2026, the going rates from established licensed movers are roughly:
- Studio or 1-bedroom apartment: $500 to $900 total, typically completed in 3 to 5 hours with 2 movers and a 20-foot truck.
- 2-bedroom apartment or small home: $900 to $1,600, 4 to 6 hours with 3 movers and a 26-foot truck.
- 3-bedroom home: $1,600 to $2,800, 6 to 9 hours with 3 to 4 movers.
- 4-bedroom home or larger: $2,800 to $5,500, often requiring two trucks or two days of work.
Hourly rates per crew member sit around $50 to $75 in 2026, depending on the company and the date. The biggest variables that push a move toward the high end of those ranges are stairs, long carries from truck to door (anything over 75 feet), professional packing services, and condo buildings with restrictive elevator policies. A 2-bedroom move from a single-family home in Pembroke Pines to a single-family home in Davie will often come in at the lower end; the same household moving from a 25th-floor unit in Brickell to a 30th-floor unit in Sunny Isles will land at the upper end.
Long-Distance Moves: Out of State
Long-distance moves are priced by weight and distance, not by hour. The federal rate filed with FMCSA determines the baseline, and reputable carriers add their tariff on top. In 2026, you should expect roughly:
- South Florida to Atlanta or Charlotte: $3,500 to $7,000 for a 2-3 bedroom home.
- South Florida to the Northeast (NY/NJ/Boston): $5,500 to $11,000 for a 2-3 bedroom home.
- South Florida to Texas: $4,500 to $9,000 for a 2-3 bedroom home.
- South Florida to California: $7,500 to $15,000 for a 2-3 bedroom home.
These numbers assume professional packing and full-service handling. If you pack yourself, expect to save 15 to 25 percent. If you choose container-based moving (PODS, U-Pack), the costs are typically lower but you handle the loading and unloading yourself, which means you also handle the responsibility for damage. For families with full households and limited time, full-service is almost always the better value once you account for opportunity cost.
What Drives Your Price Up
Beyond the obvious variables of size and distance, several factors quietly drive moves toward the high end of the range. Understanding these helps you budget realistically and negotiate intelligently.
Building access: Condos in Brickell, Sunny Isles, Aventura, and downtown Fort Lauderdale typically require Certificates of Insurance, advance scheduling, designated elevator times, and elevator pads. Some buildings limit moves to weekday business hours only. All of this adds time, which on an hourly local move adds dollars. A condo move that takes 6 hours from a single-family home might take 9 hours from a 30th-floor unit in a strict building with a single freight elevator shared among three move-outs the same day.
Long carry: If the truck cannot park within 75 feet of your door, movers charge a long-carry fee, typically $50 to $150 per stop. Common in dense Miami Beach neighborhoods like South of Fifth or the Art Deco district where street parking is the only option and the closest spot may be a block away.
Stairs: After the first flight, most movers charge per additional flight, around $50 to $100 per flight per truck load. Walk-up apartments in older Hollywood, Coral Gables, or Wilton Manors buildings frequently incur this fee. Confirm in writing how stairs are charged before signing the contract.
Heavy items: Pianos, safes, large gym equipment, pool tables, and aquariums often carry flat fees of $200 to $800 each because they require specialized handling, additional crew, and sometimes special equipment like piano dollies or hoisting straps.
Packing services: Full professional packing for a 3-bedroom home adds roughly $800 to $1,800 to a local move and $1,500 to $3,500 to a long-distance one. Partial packing (just kitchen and fragile items) typically runs $300 to $700.
Specialty crating: For art, antiques, or fragile collectibles requiring custom crates, plan on $150 to $500 per crate depending on size and complexity.
What Drives Your Price Down
The good news: several decisions can meaningfully reduce your total cost without compromising the quality of the move.
Off-peak timing: Moves between October and April typically run 10 to 20 percent cheaper than summer moves. Mid-month, mid-week moves (Tuesday through Thursday, 8th through 20th of the month) avoid the surcharges built into weekend and end-of-month rates. A move scheduled for the 14th of November rather than the 1st of August can save the same household several hundred dollars on identical work.
Decluttering: Every pound you do not move is a pound you do not pay to move. On a long-distance move, getting rid of 1,000 pounds of stuff can save $700 to $1,200 outright. Spend a weekend in week three doing this, and the savings often exceed your hourly rate.
Pack yourself: If you have the time and energy, self-packing can save $800 to $1,800. The trade-off is risk on fragile items and the slower pace of unpacking later. A hybrid approach (you pack everything except the kitchen and fragile items) gets you most of the savings with most of the safety.
Flexible dates: Telling your mover 'I can move any day in the second week of October' instead of 'I must move October 15th' often unlocks a 5 to 15 percent discount because they can slot you into open capacity rather than fighting for premium dates.
Compare three quotes: This is the simplest savings tool available and somehow the one most people skip. Three quotes from licensed movers, all based on the same inventory, will reveal the market range and give you negotiating room.
Hidden Fees to Watch For
In 2026, the main hidden fees we still see in quotes from less reputable companies are:
- Fuel surcharges: typically 3 to 8 percent of the total. Reputable quotes include this in the headline number.
- Weight bumps on long-distance: a non-binding estimate that comes in 30 percent higher on moving day because the actual weight 'turned out to be more.' Always insist on a binding or binding-not-to-exceed estimate.
- Stair and long-carry fees not disclosed upfront: these become moving-day surprises if your quote does not address them in writing.
- Storage charges: if your move requires temporary storage, prices range from $150 to $400 per month for a vault. Get this in writing.
- Material fees: some companies bill packing materials separately at retail markup, even when packing is included in the labor line.
What a Realistic Quote Looks Like in 2026
A trustworthy quote in this market should include: the total binding price, the inventory the price is based on, the truck size and crew count, the date and time window, the insurance level included (basic released-value protection is typically $0.60 per pound; full-value protection adds 1 to 2 percent of declared value), and an itemized list of any anticipated extra fees. If a quote does not include all of those elements, you do not have a quote. You have a starting point for an argument on moving day.
Use these numbers as a sanity check on what you are being offered. If you receive a quote that is dramatically below this range, ask why. The cheapest mover is rarely the cheapest move once the day is done. Thirty years of watching the same patterns has taught us that the companies that compete on price by cutting corners are the companies that show up to your move with three people instead of four, an undersized truck, and a contract that buys them an extra two hours of billable time on the back end. The price that matters is the final price, not the headline.