Cost of Living in Biloxi, Mississippi: Rent, Home Prices, Insurance, and Monthly Bills

Online calculators make the cost of living in Biloxi look cheaper than it is, and not just for buyers. Renters get lowballed too, because the averages reflect current tenants, not what a new lease asks.

The bigger gap is regional: a Gulf Coast home can carry three separate insurance policies, homeowners, wind, and flood, and calculators don’t account for costs like those. In this article we work through the real cost of living in Biloxi, one bill at a time.

The Short Version of Biloxi’s Costs

Renting a month in Biloxi costs about $660 to $1,070 less than owning, and insurance is what sets a Biloxi homeowner’s budget apart. Here is the whole month for two adults, before taxes.

A homeowner has to pay several bills that a renter never sees: property tax of about $236 a month on the median home, homeowners insurance of about $240 a month, a separate wind policy (where the homeowners policy leaves wind out) that could run up to about $308 a month if they rely on the state wind pool, a flood policy of about $100 where the house needs them, and even repairs, which this budget does not count.

How Biloxi Compares, and Whether Pay Keeps Up

Living in Biloxi costs more than the Mississippi median and well under the national figure, for both renters and owners. Rent runs about 14% above the state median and about 23% below the national one.

Lacey hears one comparison more than any other.

Lacey's Take · on why people move here

Cost of living is just cheaper here than up north. A lot of people are moving here just for that, a better quality of life.

To compare Biloxi with other major U.S. cities, we built a free Mississippi Gulf Coast cost of living comparison. It weighs groceries, gas, housing, healthcare, and everyday services for the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula metro to determine if your finances would improve if you relocated to Biloxi. The quick version below gives you a shorter summary.

A harder question is: “Would local wages keep up with increasing costs in Biloxi?” Here is how pay, rent, and prices moved over the five years between 2019 and 2024:

• Prices overall rose 22.8% (opens in a new tab).
• Biloxi’s median household income climbed from $48,137 to $57,204 a year, an 18.8% rise (opens in a new tab) before inflation. That works out to a loss of about 3.2% after inflation.
• Biloxi sits in Harrison County, and the county’s average wage moved from $3,259 to $4,013 a month, up 23.1%, about even with the 22.8% rise in prices.
• Median gross rent went from $864 to $1,089 a month, up 26.0%, about 2.7% after inflation.

So while pay rose, rent rose faster. After inflation, Biloxi rent takes a bigger bite of your paycheck than it did five years ago.

What It Actually Costs to Rent in Biloxi

The median gross rent in Biloxi is $1,089 a month (opens in a new tab). Here’s a more digestible version, broken down by bedroom count:

And rents are still climbing: asking rents were up 2.3% in the year through August 2026.

What a new lease asks for now

The Census figure is what current tenants pay, utilities included, averaged over five years of surveys, so a new lease asks more. Rentals posted in the MLS offer a glimpse into current pricing, mostly houses and condos, and the chart below shows the 44 houses, condos, and duplexes among the 48 rentals listed in Biloxi on August 31, 2026.

The middle half, the range from the cheapest quarter of listings to the priciest quarter, is wide for every type because each one mixes sizes, from one bedroom to five among the houses.

The wider market reaches well beyond the MLS, which under-represents apartments (which are typically much cheaper), so the two broader figures below fill in the rest of the picture.

Across all 48 MLS listings, the median asking rent is $1,775. That is what a rental listed by an agent asks (primarily for houses and condos).

That $1,348 is the typical asking rent across listings of every kind, apartments included. The renter’s month in this guide uses $1,348 and adds the utilities a new tenant pays.

The Monthly Cost of Owning a Typical Biloxi Home

The table below represents the housing-specific bills you can expect to pay in Biloxi: mortgage, taxes, and insurance. It leaves out HOA dues and maintenance.

Further down in the full-month section, we’ll add utilities, food, healthcare, and everything else to give a clearer picture of true expenses.

Private insurers write wind coverage for most Gulf Coast houses, either bundled into the homeowners policy or as a stand-alone wind-only policy that typically undercuts the pool. The state wind pool carries only about 1 house in 13 on the Mississippi coast. It exists for the houses private insurers decline, and it is the costliest route.

The pool’s rate filing works out to an average home policy near $3,696 a year, about $308 a month, at the rates that took effect in October 2025. The insurance section below has more on each policy.

To run your own price at any sale price, we built a Gulf Coast house payment calculator, which adds taxes and insurance, for any price, at today’s rate. The inline version below gives you a quick answer.

Two tax bills for the same house

A buyer at the median price pays about $2,830 a year to own inside Biloxi city limits in Harrison County. That is 111.77 mills (opens in a new tab) at the 10% owner-occupied assessment, minus the homestead credit.

Sellers of those same homes paid a median of only $1,498 a year. Their bills were lower because the county had not yet raised the homes’ assessed values to match what homes sell for now (and also because some sellers hold exemptions that do not pass to a buyer, such as the one for owners 65 and over).

Lacey Perniciaro‘s question for any buyer budgeting off a listing: “Are you sure you’re looking at the correct tax bill?”

Insurance is where a Gulf Coast budget pulls away

The $240 homeowners bill in the housing bill above is what large private insurers charged on average in the Biloxi ZIP codes in 2022. It leaves out the state wind pool, so a house on the Mississippi coast that needs a separate wind policy pays more on top (and the 2024 and 2025 wind pool rate increases came after it).

The wind pool’s rate filing works out to an average home policy of about $308 a month. So a house insured through both pays about $550 a month combined, whereas a private wind-only policy usually costs less than the pool. A house buying wind privately typically lands between the $4,460 and $4,770 months.

Comparison sites such as Insurify put the Gulfport-Biloxi average near $600 a month, which is close to what a homeowners policy and a wind policy add up to. The only way to determine where your house lands is a real quote, so shop around.

Flood insurance is a separate policy

A lender requires flood insurance only where the house sits in a high-risk zone, which is why it is its own line. Just 16.8% of Biloxi sales required it over the past year.

Across every Biloxi flood policy in FEMA’s program, inside and outside the high-risk zones, the median is $1,203 a year. Outside the high-risk zones it is optional, not unnecessary. About 12,508 coast households carry it there anyway, at a median of $1,083 a year.

Lacey's Take · on flood zones

If a buyer wants to know whether a house is in a flood zone, we pull the FEMA flood map. Is it an AE, an X500, a high-velocity zone? The zone drives how much the insurance costs. That’s where I start.

For a closer number on a specific property, try our flood insurance calculator.

What Homes Cost Now, and Which Way Prices Are Moving

The median Biloxi home sold for $280,000 over the past year of MLS United closed sales, and price per square foot is still climbing. It has gained 16.4% since 2022 and has risen every single year.

The $280,000 is the median over the past 12 months, while the table below compares January through August of each year. 2026 only has sales through August, so every year in the table is cut to the same eight months, the only way the years compare fairly.

The median sale price dipped in 2025 before rebounding strongly, while the price per square foot rose every year.

Building age is one factor that strongly affects price, and we can measure it.

Sellers are giving more ground than the price shows

Over the past year, 38% of sold homes had dropped their asking price at least once before they landed a buyer. And 65% closed with a seller credit toward buyer costs, at a median of $5,000. Some homes did both, so the two groups overlap.

Although sellers kept 94.9% of their first asking price, the gap between the first list price and closing shows real negotiating room.

What the Typical Monthly Bills Run in Biloxi

These are the four bills nearly every Biloxi household pays each month.

Electricity is the big one, and it’s the humidity

A Mississippian’s electric bill runs above the national average, $154.83 against $142.26. The reason is usage, not price (per kilowatt-hour). Mississippi’s rate per kilowatt-hour actually sits below the national average.

Households here burn 1,156 kWh a month compared to 863 nationally. Did we mention it’s HUMID down here?

City bills and internet are the smaller lines

The city bill breaks down as water $6.75, sewer $13.02, and garbage $24.25. A Harrison County Utility Authority pass-through adds $13.20. Those pieces sum to $57.22, per Ordinance 2553 (opens in a new tab) and Ordinance 2562, at the rates that took effect October 1, 2026.

Internet pricing reflects published plan prices, not a market average, and it shifts with address and promotion. AT&T Fiber starts at $40, and C Spire gigabit runs $40 in the Gulfport area, so major providers’ plans land in a $40 to $70 band.

Car insurance is finally easing after years of climbing

Car insurance is the bill most budgets forget. That $208 a month is full coverage, about $2,499 a year as of a September 2026 count. Minimum coverage runs about $49 a month.

Rates climbed for several years, with one tracked Mississippi premium up about 10% from 2024 to the end of 2025. This one is moving in a positive direction, though. Rate decreases approved by Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney now cover roughly 80% of Mississippi’s 1.3 million auto policies!

What You Pay Here, and What You Skip

A coast budget includes a few line items an inland budget never carries and drops a few inland budgets always pay.

The Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association, the state wind pool, insures about 1 coast house in 13, and private insurers write wind for the rest.

Wind coverage has a deductible and a deadline

The Mississippi Insurance Department’s hurricane checklist (opens in a new tab) confirms several large Gulf Coast insurers now use wind deductibles as high as 2% of dwelling coverage. On a house insured for $300,000, a 2% wind deductible is $6,000 out of pocket before coverage pays anything.

The same checklist carries a timing trap. Once a named storm enters the Gulf of Mexico, most carriers freeze new applications. Lock coverage in well before closing, not just quote it.

The costs that show up after you close

A lower sale price does not always mean lower monthly bills. This is the caveat Lacey adds to “cheaper than up north”.

Lacey's Take · on what a cheaper house really costs

Living on the coast is cheaper, but not necessarily cheap. A comparable house costs less to buy here than up north, but the monthly payment may look similar by the time you’re done. A $240,000 house can feel like a $275,000 house once you add insurance, taxes, and everything else.

Termite protection is a hidden cost that, while not required, is highly advised. A termite bond is a yearly contract with a pest control company that inspects the house, may install bait stations, and treats it if termites turn up. Most bonds here cover the re-treatment only, not repairs, so read the contract carefully.

Lacey’s reason for termite protection is blunt. “I’ve seen otherwise desirable homes lose an insane amount of value because they didn’t purchase termite protection. It’s a must if you want to protect your investment.”

What a Month in Biloxi Actually Costs

For two adults, a full month in Biloxi runs about $4,460 to $4,870 to own at the median price, depending on which insurance policies the house needs, and about $3,800 to rent on a new lease, before taxes.

The two tables below use the owner’s month with a homeowners policy that includes wind, about $4,460.

The food, healthcare, and getting-around lines are a bare-bones budget: every meal cooked at home, a worker’s share of an employer health plan, and one shared, used car with its gas, insurance, and upkeep. The total leaves out taxes, a phone plan, child care, eating out, home repairs, and savings.

Here is the same month against four theoretical household incomes, before taxes. For orientation, Biloxi’s median household income is $57,204.

Owning a Second Home in Biloxi

A second home never qualifies for homestead, and it is assessed at 15% of value instead of the 10% owner-occupied ratio. At the $280,000 median, that means $42,000 of assessed value instead of $28,000.

At 111.77 mills, the $42,000 assessment makes a second home’s tax about $4,694 a year, against about $2,830 for the same house as a primary home. That is about $1,864 more a year, or about $155 a month.

Only $300 of that $1,864 gap is the homestead credit. The other $1,564 comes from the higher assessment ratio.

Neither the 10% ratio nor the homestead credit of up to $300 applies to a second home, per Mississippi Code 27-35-4 (opens in a new tab). Homestead requires owning and occupying the home as your primary residence on January 1.

A second home is another household

Lacey asks second-home buyers a different question from what the house costs: “What are you comfortable spending every year on a house you’re only using part of the year?” Her list of what that answer should ideally cover:

• AC through the summer
• Pest control
• Lawn care
• A house-watch service
• Internet
• Repairs
• Storm prep
• Cleaning

In her words, “It’s truly a second household. Even if it’s a small one.”

One of her clients raised the thermostat in an empty condo to trim the power bill, and the person who checked on it later found it smelling musty. That’s because down here the AC controls moisture, not just temperature.

Condo buyers should read the master policy first

A condo master policy is not the same thing as the owner’s own policy, a gap that nearly killed one of Lacey’s deals. Understand the master policy before you commit, because what it covers determines what your own policy must.

For condo buyers, the median HOA fee on Biloxi condo sales ran $590 a month over the past year. Dues usually cover grounds, pool service, and insurance on the building’s exterior.

FAQ

If these numbers work for your budget, browse Biloxi homes for sale, then run a specific address through the payment and flood calculators.