People seeking rentals in Miami-Dade County face a challenging time in the nation’s most difficult market | Real Estate

Are you thinking about renting an apartment in the Miami area?

Good luck with that – you’ll need it.

According to the findings in a recent report by RentCafe.com, a nationwide apartment search website with an analysis of the real estate market, Miami-Dade County has emerged as the most competitive rental hub at the start of the season (January-April, with the peak season generally May-August).

North Jersey, N.J., had held the title of the most-coveted market at the beginning of 2023.

There are five key reasons for Miami-Dade’s upswing, as indicated in the RentCafe report:

– On average, 24 prospective renters compete for the same vacant rental in Miami-Dade.

– In this tight rental market, 71.8% of apartment dwellers choose to stay put.

– The apartment occupancy rate is 97.1% (94% is the national benchmark).

– Vacant rentals get filled, on average, within 33 days (10 days faster than the national average).

– Despite a 0.9% increase in new apartments, Miami fails to meet rental demand.

The data comes on the heels of a similar study for the start of the 2022 rental season, when 97.9% of the apartments in Miami-Dade were occupied, vacant rentals got filled in just 26 days, and an average of 39 prospective buyers would compete for a rental.

Those statistics had Miami-Dade ranked No. 2 at the start of the year out of the 137 markets analyzed.

RentCafe analyzed Yardi Systems’ apartment data for 137 U.S. markets based on occupancy rates, the number of renters applying for an available unit, vacancy days, the percentage of renewed leases, and the share of new apartments. Based on those metrics, RentCafe established a Rental Competitivity Index (RCI) showing how competitive the rental market is.

Miami-Dade’s RCI is 120 out of 130 — double the national RCI score or twice as competitive as the national average.

Following top-ranked Miami-Dade County (the study included Florida City, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami, Miami Beach, North Miami, North Miami Beach, and Opa-Locka) are:

2. North Jersey, NJ – With many looking for an alternative to Manhattan, this area is popular, with 96.4% occupancy and just a 0.3% share of new apartments. An average of 14 prospective buyers compete for a rental.

3. Southwest Florida — The apartments in this area (which include Naples, Fort Myers and Port Charlotte) average just 34 days on the vacant list and a 96.1% occupancy.

4. Broward County — There is a 0.1% share of new apartments here and a 95.5% occupancy rate.

5. Omaha. Neb. — The average time an apartment is vacant here is just 34 days, with a 96.2% occupancy rate.

Other Florida markets in the Top 20 included Orlando (8th), Tampa Bay (19th), and Palm Beach County (20th).

To find out how the other markets compete this season, you can access the full report by clicking here.