MIAMI (CBSMiami) — What goes up, keeps going up. Rents continue to rise across the country and in South Florida and it’s forcing tenants to make difficult choices.
According to Realtor.com, rent prices nationwide were up 19.8% from January 2021 to January 2022.
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The Miami area saw the biggest jump. Rates increased 52.4% from January 2021 to January 2022.
“We’ve never seen anything quite like this in the rental market before,” says Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale. She says a big reason why is because demand is outpacing supply.
“We see that there’s low vacancy and so that means it’s renters that are competing for units and not landlords competing to have renters fill their units,” Hale said.
The increases are expected to continue. A Realtor.com survey shows 61% of landlords are planning rent hikes on at least one of their properties this year.
Experts believe prices will start to stabilize in the coming months.
“We do expect these pace of growth to slow down, but that means rents will still be at a pretty high level and growing, just at a closer to normal pace of growth,” Hale said.
“To me, it just really feels like I’m being forced out of my home,” said Krystal Guerra, a renter who is packing up and moving from her Miami apartment after the landlord raised her rent $400.
“They told me, I think, a couple days before the lease was due to be renewed, ‘We want you to pay $1,950 a month,’” she explained.
Krystal couldn’t find an affordable place to live, so she’s moving in with her boyfriend. It’s something the couple wasn’t planning to do this soon.
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“We’re excited to kind of test that and see how it’s going, but also it’s one of those things where we recognize that it wasn’t the way we wanted to do it,” Guerra said.
Many other renters are also facing difficult choices as the cost of living continues to increase.
If you need rental assistance, here are some helpful links:
Our Florida: Helping Floridians Get Back on Their Feet.
Homelessness – Florida Department of Children and Families
Broward County: Emergency rental assistance program
Local tenant rights, laws, and protections
Landlord/Tenant Law in Florida
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