Miami and Fort Lauderdale both landed on a list of America’s most expensive cities to rent in a recent national rent report, placing 5th and 10th, respectively, and listed as costlier than metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Dallas, and Nashville.

Miami, the most expensive real estate market in Florida, holds a medium rent price of $2,340 for a one-bedroom apartment, while Ft. Lauderdale has a one-bedroom median listing at $1,940.

Rent prices reached an all-time national high to kick off the new year, rising to $1,374 in January, reflecting a 12 percent year-over-year increase. The median two-bedroom rose to $1,698, a 14.1 percent year-over-year rise.

Median rent for one-bedrooms rose relative to December by 0.6 percent, snapping what had been a four-month streak of steadily declining rent growth, the report states.

When looking at American cities where rent prices have increased the most since 2020, Florida is home to 5 of the top 10 — St. Petersburg (24.4 percent year-over-year growth), Jacksonville (27.1 percent year-over-year growth), Orlando (32.8 percent year-over-year growth), Tampa Bay (38.1 percent year-over-year growth), and Miami (38.29 percent year-over-year growth).

East Coast urban areas experienced rapid growth following COVID-19 vaccine rollouts as residents returned to the cities like New York and Boston — the number one and two most expensive cities in the country — and drove rent back up, according to the national rent report. Suburban areas, many of which saw a rise in migration from people who permanently left large metro areas, experienced a home-buying surge that priced out a lot of renters who would prefer to buy.

Foreign real estate acted as a secondary influence on Florida rent prices, particularly in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area. Foreign real estate investors brought upwards of $12 billion to the Florida economy in 2021, totaling 22,500 existing homes purchased at a medium cost of $347,300.

Within Florida, low mortgage rates and sustained job growth have boosted home sales and home prices. Demand has outpaced supply, leading to stronger price appreciation and buyer competition among international buyers.

The Miami metropolitan area, including West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale, accounted for over 50 percent of properties purchased, followed by the Orlando region (10%), Tampa (8%), Cape Coral-Ft. Myers (5%), and Sarasota (4%).

Forty-three percent of Florida’s foreign buyers purchased in a central city or urban area, an increase from 34 percent in the prior 12-month period. The increase can be explained by the higher share of buyers from Latin America, who tend to purchase properties in the Miami metro area. Nationally, 28 percent of all U.S. foreign buyers purchased properties in a central city/urban area.

Florida holds the largest portion of foreign real estate clients in the country at 22 percent, followed by California and New York.

Nearly three-quarters of buyers evaluated in the study claimed that their newly purchased residence would be used solely for vacationing purposes, with almost 70 percent of this group buying in cash.