Sally Starkey thought moving from Chicago to Florida would be easy. The 33-year-old journalist moved to Naples, Florida, when her husband got a job nearby. Familiar with the area from friends and family who were vacationing there, the couple is excited to move, she said.
“We thought we wouldn’t have a problem finding a place to live,” Starkey said.
She was wrong. The couple inquired about two dozen apartments before agreeing to rent a townhouse in northern Naples – an unseen sight. “It took us two weeks to get out of our Chicago apartment,” Starkey said.
Meanwhile, at $ 3,500, the rent for their two-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse is about 20 percent more than they paid in Chicago, although she is considered happy given the alternatives. “I’m telling you, we were lucky,” she said.
The couple’s experience encompasses several key housing trends that combine to make it harder – and more expensive – for Americans to put a roof over their heads. Most importantly, rents and housing prices have been growing at the fastest pace in years, increasing the financial burden on millions of working-class and middle-class households who are already struggling to afford a place to live. A shocking bout of inflation, following the economic spasm caused by the pandemic, is contributing to this pressure.
Rents, which are in double digits across the country, are rising positively in Florida, fueled by an increase in people moving to the state during the pandemic. Florida’s population is growing faster than any state except Texas: between 2020 and 2021, 300,000 people moved to Sunshine.
Least accessible in the nation
In February, Realtor.com named Miami the cheapest place to live in America. Average monthly rents in the subway area, at $ 2,930, are on par with San Francisco and Los Angeles – and double the level considered affordable for people in the region, given local incomes.
Typical Miami rentals account for an incredible 60% of a typical household income. This figure is 45% in Tampa and 37% in Orlando. (Housing experts say rents are affordable at no more than 30 percent of pre-tax income.) Miami, Orlando and Tampa also have the fastest-growing rents in the country in the past year.
“These Sun Belt markets, and Florida in particular, have topped our lists in the last few months,” said Daniel Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.
Rising rental costs in Florida are now attracting the attention of politicians in the state.
“Today, Miami, Orlando and Tampa have the fastest-growing rents in the country,” about 40 lawmakers said in a statement on April 28.
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