Miami rent prices are rising. Will the city become more unaffordable than the Bay Area?
Rent prices in Miami are quickly approaching those of the Bay Area, but median income is not catching up as quickly — making the Florida city more unaffordable than the Bay Area, a Realtor.com report found.
The report, which looks at median rent prices for available units listed on Realtor.com, found that the median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Miami in March was $2,614 — a more than 50% increase from the same month last year. That’s compared to $2,750 for a one-bedroom in the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area, and $2,840 in the San Jose area.
Realtor.com noted that rent prices in Miami, which are rising far more quickly year over year than the Bay Area, are outpacing median income levels in Miami, making the area effectively less affordable than the Bay Area — though both markets are still very expensive.
Based on household income, Realtor.com estimated that the maximum affordable rent — which would be about 30% of monthly household income — is $1,476 for Miami, while it is $2,921 for San Francisco and around the same for San Jose.
There are limits to what median rent of available units can tell us — for example, Realtor.com noted that “the high rent share in Miami, FL is partially due to an increasing proportion of luxury rental properties listed in Feb 2022.” But its findings are still in line with other housing data.
Apartment List estimates the rent that people living in each city are actually paying, rather than just what’s available on the market. These numbers place Miami’s one-bedroom rental cost at $1,634 — still out of budget compared to the median household income. San Francisco’s actual one-bedroom rental cost is $1,900, while San Jose’s is $2,142.
One key difference between the Miami area and the Bay Area is that Florida outlaws rent control, which means that landlords can increase rent for current tenants whenever they want. In California, by contrast, certain types of property have limits on rent increases, and most residential rental units in San Francisco are covered by rent control protections.
The rapidly rising rents prompted Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to declare a housing affordability crisis in the area.
“The affordability crisis in Miami-Dade County is real,” she tweeted. “Rents have skyrocketed over 30% in the last year, placing a real strain on families, workers, and local businesses.”
Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @DanielleEchev
