If you’ve been in Florida long enough, you’ve seen the increase in both rentals and home sales. Ask any local and they’ll tell you the rates have drastically increased, especially in the past few years. However, you may be surprised to know that while rents have increased 4.1% year-over-year nationally, Florida has actually seen increases below that rate.

Major metro cities such as Miami and Tampa have experienced only a 3% increase, while Jacksonville and Orlando are closer to 2.5%.  Cape Coral is the only metro in Florida with yearly increases higher than the national average at 7.7%.

Of course this doesn’t mean that rent is considered affordable in these areas; it simply means they aren’t expanding as fast as they were before. Some factors that keep rents elevated in Florida include a sustained influx of people moving to the state, remote occupations that allow people to work from home, and an insufficient number of rentals coming to the market to meet the demand.

What does that mean to you? As a renter, you may want to look into your options for buying a home. If rental prices are relative to a mortgage payment, why not be investing into your own equity? As a property owner, the demand for rentals is still there and most landlords are not having any difficulty filling their homes.

If you have questions about transitioning from renting to owning, or own a rental property, let’s connect and talk about your best options!