Florida took the crown in a nationwide multifamily market study –– but for the wrong reason.
The Sunshine State ranked as the worst state to rent an apartment due to factors including a lack of affordability and zero protections for tenants, according to a study by ConsumerAffairs, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based consumer insights group. All this, despite the state also having a healthy supply of apartments, reporting some of the highest vacancy nationwide.
The median monthly rent statewide is $1,669, the eighth-highest in the U.S. and about 18 percent more than the national median. According to the study, this leaves the typical household spending 37.4 percent of its income on rent –– meaning Floridians are the most cost-burdened renters nationwide.
Florida, known for its hands-off approach to business regulations, has no benefits for tenants, such as limits on lease application fees, and the state doesn’t regulate how landlords handle rent increases. Florida also lacks safeguards more common in blue states, such as just-cause eviction and rent-stabilized apartments.
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The affordability crisis isn’t due to tight supply. The state has a 7.6 percent vacancy rate, the sixth highest in the U.S., ConsumerAffairs found.
South Florida, home to the state’s largest metropolises and a magnet for wealthy out-of-staters, may be feeling the rent crunch most acutely. The tri-county region’s multifamily market experienced dramatic changes over the past half-decade.
After a pandemic-era rush to South Florida, fueled by its early lifting of the lockdown and year-round sunshine, apartment demand reached unprecedented levels, prompting record rent growth that priced out many long-time residents.
Although the rent increases have petered out, and Realtor.com shows the median regional asking rent hit $2,235 in February, a 3.3 percent decrease year-over-year and the 33rd straight month of rent decline, many remain priced out and competing for rentals. Some are seeking housing cost relief elsewhere in the U.S.
From July 2024 to July of last year, Miami-Dade County lost about 10,115 residents, the Miami Herald reported, citing Census Bureau data. Although hype has resurfaced again this year over billionaires and millionaires fleeing blue states and scooping up mansions here, the exodus of the workforce has stirred concerns over who would support Miami-Dade’s economy and pillar industries such as hospitality.
South Florida’s multifamily market also has turned for developers. After they seized on the pandemic-fueled boom with a building frenzy, the market ended up oversupplied. A record 18,600 units were delivered in 2024, with 20 percent of those not leased that year, CoStar Group data shows. As a result, landlords have had a harder time leasing up buildings, leading to a drop in rents and a rise in concessions.
Construction starts have calmed, leaving landlords hoping that demand will soon catch up to the supply and they can again start increasing rents. Despite the pent up demand for apartments at workforce or affordable rents, 92 percent of the 12,718 units delivered last year were high-end properties, according to CoStar.
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Some developers are finding workarounds to the supply overhang. In Miami’s Little Havana, Henry Torres’ Astor Companies pivoted his eight-story, 179-unit project from rentals to condos for sale.
It marked the latest in a string of projects since 2024 switching to condos after they were originally planned as apartments.
Although developers have seized on the Live Local Act, a state law incentivizing construction of workforce and affordable apartments, few projects have been completed so far. As of October, 3,200 units were finished under the legislation first passed in 2023, across the state, according to Florida TaxWatch.
Florida’s top ranking in ConsumerAffairs’ analysis this year bumps up the state from last year, when it ranked as the third-worst place for renters. This year’s runners-up as the worst renter states are Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii and Massachusetts.
North Dakota is the best state for tenants, with a median rate of just $954 leaving the typical household to spend 23.7 percent of its income on rent –– the lowest nationwide. It’s followed by Colorado, Minnesota, Wyoming and Utah.
ConsumerAffairs also factored in quality of life in its analysis, including apartment buildings’ proximity to parks and restaurants, and area crime rates.
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