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22 renters vie for each unit in America’s toughest rental market

Credit: Antonio Cuellar / Unsplash

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Miami-Dade County was named the most competitive rental market for the second year in a row, according to a report released this week.

On average, each available apartment in Miami had 22 prospective renters vying to live in it, according to the report from RentCafe, compared to the national average of nine.

Renters continued funneling into the South Florida region, attracted by Miami’s growing tech scene, general pro-business climate and lack of income tax, while 71.2 percent of existing renters opted to renew their leases and stay put, leading to less available rental inventory. Apartments that did come on the market were snatched up very quickly, often within one month, according to the report.

Additionally, many wealthy domestic buyers purchased condos for themselves as investments or additions to their portfolios and did not rent them out, according to the report.

A multifamily building spree by developers resulted in rental inventory growing by 3.7 percent throughout 2023, but the influx of newly built units was still not enough to keep up with the demand for rentals, according to RentCafe.

While the addition of new revenue didn’t reduce competition for rentals, it may have helped slow the growth of rental prices. A September report from Zumper found that rent prices in Miami are softening faster than other major cities. The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Miami decreased by 2.3 percent between September 2022 and September 2023, compared to New York City, where one-bedroom rents increased by 13.5 percent during the same time period.

Rent prices in Miami remain high compared to other cities, with the median one-bedroom in Miami asking $2,600 per month and two bedrooms typically asking $3,500 per month — the fifth highest rental prices in the country, according to Zumper’s data.

“Rental rates remain strong, buoyed by higher interest rates and a lack of for-sale housing inventory making homeownership less tenable,” Lee & Associates South Florida principal Todd Cohen said in a multifamily market report by the brokerage.

This is the second straight year Miami-Dade has ranked as the “most competitive” rental market. In 2022, an average of 32 renters competed for one apartment, compared to the national average of 14.

The second most competitive market in 2023 was North New Jersey, according to RentCafe, where an average of 14 tenants competed for each available apartment and inventory increased by 2 percent over the past year.

Email Ben Verde