The cost of renting is falling across Florida after reaching skyrocketing heights in the past few years due to a build-up in demand and an influx of new residents attracted by the state's good weather and quality of life.
The average rent in the Sunshine State was $2,400 in February 2024, down $33, or 1.37 percent, compared to January, according to real estate market website Redfin. The average rent price of houses in the state was $2,476, while that of apartments was considerably lower, at $1,912.
Compared to February 2023, overall rents were only down by 0.66 percent—a number that shows us how the cost of renting remains high in Florida despite modest falls.
While rents are currently sliding in Florida, the high cost of building material has kept them relatively high compared to the national average. At the national level, rent prices climbed by 0.87 percent month-over-month and 2.5 percent year-over-year in February, according to Rent.com. At $1,981, the national average price was still lower than that of Florida.
Rent prices have dropped month-over-month in February in most of Central Florida's biggest cities, including Tampa (-0.37 percent), Orlando (-0.45 percent), Jacksonville (-0.20 percent), Boca Raton (-4.05 percent), Naples (-18.64 percent), West Palm Beach (-5.95 percent) and Delray Beach (-9.02 percent).
According to Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), this drop in rent prices is due to the increase of newly built homes in Florida.
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"The Central Florida market has created plenty of additional jobs and, by extension, new renters," Yun told Newsweek. "However, more apartment construction exists than can be absorbed. So, in the near term of one or two years, rents are likely to fall," he continued, adding that rent control in the state, in his opinion, "is unnecessary and continues to boost supply to bring down rent."
The Sunshine State has recently ramped up construction of new homes to counteract the historic lack of supply which has contributed to driving, and keeping, prices up.
"In absolute terms, Texas and Florida have started construction on the most units in 2023," Matthew Walsh, Moody's Analytics housing economist, previously told Newsweek. "In per capita terms, Idaho, North Carolina and Florida led the U.S. in new home construction over last year," he added.
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While new construction projects can help alleviate the supply shortage in Florida, high demand is likely to stop prices from falling too much.
In some of the state's most expensive cities, rent prices continued climbing last month, according to Redfin data. In Miami, rent prices went up by 2.04 percent in February compared to the month before; in Fort Lauderdale, they climbed by 1.94 percent; in Sarasota, they jumped by 3.11 percent; in Cape Coral by 0.88 percent; and in Miami Beach by 1.59 percent.
