• Rent growth in Florida has stabilized, with most metropolitan areas experiencing year-over-year increases at or below the national average, indicating a return to a more normal rental market.
• Despite rent stabilization, rental prices in Florida remain high compared to wages, leading to questions about affordability, especially in cities like Miami.
• Florida’s housing market has seen a rise in median sales prices for single-family homes and condo-townhouses year-over-year, although overall sales have slowed.

Rent growth in Florida has largely stabilized, with most metropolitan areas reporting year-over-year increases at or below the national average, while the state’s home prices have risen year-over-year for both single-family homes and condo-townhouses, despite a slowdown in overall sales.

According to the most recent Waller, Weeks, and Johnson Rental Index data for August, rent growth in Florida has largely normalized, with most of the state’s metropolitan areas reporting rent increases that are either at or below the national average of 3.25 percent year over year. With 1.10 percent and 1.31 percent, respectively, Orlando and Jacksonville have the lowest rates of increase.

“This is indicative of the rental market returning back to normal as rent usually increases by three to five percent in a typical year. Even our premiums are normalizing,” said Ken H. Johnson, a real estate economist with Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. “However, we are entering a new normal where overall rents are high, and renters are left with a prolonged affordability crisis.”

While rent growth appears to be stabilizing, the actual rental prices remain prohibitively high, far outpacing wage growth. In Miami, for example, the average household requires an annual income of $111,914 to prevent spending more than 30 percent of their earnings on rent. The report further suggests that renters in Florida are unlikely to see relief until enough housing is built to meet the current levels of demand.

“Until we build enough roofs to rent and own to address the severe supply shortage, there will be chaos in the rental and housing markets, which could take years to address,” continued Johnson.

As for home ownership, Florida’s market saw a rise in median sales prices year-over-year for single-family existing homes and condo-townhouses, though overall sales slowed.

The state’s median sales price for single-family homes climbed to $415,000 last month, up 2 percent compared to the year prior, while the median price for condo-townhouse units was $324,000, up 6.2 percent over the past twelve months.

“These elevated levels of home prices continue to offset the impact of lower levels of sales when it comes to dollar volume, which is calculated as the total combined sale value of all home transactions closing each month,” said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. Brad O’Connor. “August’s dollar volume of closed existing single-family home sales in Florida was about $13.2 billion. That’s down 4.4% compared to last August; however, dollar volume has been much closer to 2021 and 2022 levels so far this year, compared to before the pandemic in 2019.

Last month, closed sales of existing single-family homes statewide totaled 22,917, down 7.9 percent from August 2022, while existing condo-townhouse sales totaled 9,279, down 7.2 percent from the same time a year ago.

Year to date through August, single-family dollar volume in Florida was recorded at $104 billion, compared to about $69 billion during the same eight-month period in 2019. In the townhouse and condo category, dollar volume was actually up year-over-year in August, rising by 2.8 percent to $4.1 billion.