Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Rental market hot in S. Florida
Survey: Fort Lauderdale, Miramar most expensive
Plagued by a continued tight supply of apartment units, the cities of Fort Lauderdale and Miramar lead Florida in the price of monthly rents, according to a national survey released Monday.
The average Fort Lauderdale rent $1,933; in Miramar, it was $1,846, said RentCafe in its April report. It also found that rents in the greater Miami area are generally above the national average of $1,436. The company typically analyzes rent data in more than 250 U.S. cities.
“It is just an overall shortage of supply,” said Ken Johnson, real estate economist at Florida Atlantic University. “We never made up the gulf between the last housing cycle’s peak where nothing was built for eight, nine or 10 years.”
“That’s why you’re hearing more about affordable housing in the last year,” he added. “There is a shortage of units. It take a while to build it out. If you lose that momentum,
you’re just going to fall behind.”
Citing U.S. Census data, he said the South Florida region could be placed under increased pressure as more people arrive from other states and countries over the next decade. “We will grow 15 to 16 percent in population in the next 10 years in Southeast Florida. That’s almost a million new people.”
Bradley Arendt, director of Colliers International’s urban core division, said figures compiled by the company show rents up by 20 percent over five years.
Jack McCabe, a real estate consultant based in Deerfield Beach, said homeowners who lost their houses during the Great Recession ended up in a
rental pool where “rates never dropped that much.”
Developers who have been building new apartments have focused on higher priced, upper end projects so they can make a profit amid rising labor and construction material costs.
“To try to do a more affordable complex is almost next to impossible,” McCabe said.