Miami apartment rents have skyrocketed 57 percent amid an ongoing exodus from tax-, crime- and COVID-stricken blue states, a report said Thursday.
According to a Realtor.com report, the average February rent for studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms in the Miami area rose to $2,988 in February.
That staggering year-over-year increase was more than 20 percentage points higher than the area with the next highest increase — also in Florida.
“Florida has seen a surge of new residents over the past two years,” said Realtor.com researcher George Ratiu. “The moves were also bolstered by the state’s early actions to reopen its business and tourism sectors and ease pandemic restrictions.”
The report found that only three major metro areas saw median rent increases of more than 30 percent in the smaller apartment class — and all were in Florida.
Average rents in Orlando rose 35 percent year-over-year, while prices in Tampa skyrocketed 31 percent.
According to Realtor.com, the median rent for smaller apartments in the New York metro area rose 14 percent year over year to $2,750.
The median rent for studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms in the greater Miami area rose to $2,988 in February. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Rents in the San Francisco Bay Area for this category rose 11 percent to $2,982, according to the report.
Austin — which has also experienced an influx of COVID-19 refugees — had the fourth-highest median rent increase for the same class of housing at 26 percent.
The Sunshine State’s rent-and-sell frenzy coincided with increasing population losses in urban centers like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Austin, Texas, saw the fourth-highest rent increase in the country – behind the cities of Miami, Tampa and Orlando in Florida. Getty Images
While Florida gained 211,000 residents in 2021, New York lost 400,000 and California 262,000.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has attributed rising interest in Florida to deteriorating conditions in blue strongholds.
“They tax and regulate to stop people leaving their state,” he told Fox radio last month. “The base is shrinking so they have to do it again to try to square the circle. And you just can’t have it.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed that many people wanted to move to Florida from the blue states because of deteriorating conditions. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, file
Rising crime in cities like New York has also led to migration. In a recent survey, nearly half of Gotham workers surveyed said they had considered leaving the company.
Housing demand in Miami has also benefited from its development into a national tech hub since the pandemic began.
Florida added 2,715 tech companies last year, ahead of Texas and California, according to a report by trade group CompTIA.
Growth in the state’s tech sector has been centered in Miami, which added 2,072 jobs in the sector last year, according to the report.