Shimberg Center Releases New Study of Florida Rental Market

The Shimberg Center at the University of Florida released its 2013 Rental Market Study, finding that over 737,000 low income Florida renters, with incomes of no more than 60% of Area Median Income (AMI), pay more than 40% of their income towards rent, up from 553,000 in 2005. The authors also found that an increasing number of Florida households are renting, despite the fact that rents have continued to rise.

Florida had a high homeownership rate in the early 2000s (71%); however, this has changed. The number of renter households grew by 10% between 2005 and 2011. Conversely, the number of homeowners fell by 3% over the same time period. Renting is becoming increasingly commonplace, especially among younger households and families with children. Among households headed by someone aged 34 or under, the homeownership rate fell from 42% in 2005 to just 35% in 2011.

Of the renter households growth in Florida over the past decade, the total number of extremely low income (ELI) renter households (those with incomes at or below 30% of AMI) grew most rapidly, by more than 100,000 between 2000 and 2011. For ELI households, the incidence of cost burden rose from 65% to 72% between 2000 and 2011. These households paid at least 40% of their income for gross rent and utilities.

The increase in the number of cost burdened renters in Florida is attributed to both rising rents and falling incomes. Between 2000 and 2011, median rents in Florida rose from $816 to $950, while state median renter income fell from $34,000 to $30,343.

View the Shimberg Center’s 2013 Rental Market Study: Affordable Housing Needs report at: www.shimberg.ufl.edu/publications/Full_RMS_Needs.pdf