“Miami is the city with less affordable rent, where leasing a house is 1.3 times higher than the estimated maximum affordable in the country,” said the Realtor.com firm’s report, which in addition to promoting the sale and rental of real estate takes note and calculates the movement of the housing sector.
The study manifests “a downward trend” in the majority of the 50 main cities of the nation, except the Metropolitan Area of the Great Miami, in which the analytical firm includes the rest of the Miami-Dade County, Broward with Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach with West Palm Beach.
“Miami is the least affordable of the 50 main metropolitan areas,” said the report.
“The average rental for a two -bedroom apartment is $ 2,345, which means that a typical home would have to spend approximately 38% of its monthly salary on housing.”
The analytical firm specifies that the rent is considered “affordable” if the monthly payment does not exceed 30% of household income.
However, Miami denotes about $ 500 above the maximum limit to be considered affordable.
It is not that the rentals in Miami are higher than in the rest of the nation, the report hints, but that the Miameans, taking into account the low wages they perceive, have to pay a higher percentage of money to pay the rent.
And if we add to this the expense of the food basket, the price of gasoline and other services, the panorama looks worse.
Income
Indeed, the data on per capita income, according to reports from the Census Office and other institutions, differ from $ 37,858 to $ 41,503, while the purchasing power per family is around $ 68,694, but it must be recognized that these figures do not reflect the reality of many homes.
Keep in mind that “the per capita income, or income per person, is the total sum of entries in the region divided by the population,” said the economist Sergio Rodríguez, advisor to the Max Gen group.
In other words, a small part of the population can receive a million dollars a year, another 200,000 or 100,000, while a significant part is barely $ 27,000, which is equivalent to the minimum salary of $ 13 an hour in the state of Florida.
And to the 27,000 figure we deduce the federal government tax, which ranges around 12.3% for low wages.
“That is, a significant part of the population only receives $ 23,678 in cash, although in many cases they receive public supplementary aid for food and other issues,” added the financial.
To alleviate the situation, many choose to rent small studies or EFFICIENCIESwhose prices are around $ 800 per month, or lease a bedroom at a friend or unknown house, where they must share kitchen and bathroom.
José barely earns 2,000 dollars in cash per month and pays $ 800 for a small space. That is, he uses 40% of his income for rent.
“I live in a small study, where I have a sofa bed, a closet, a small bathroom and a tiny kitchen,” he described.
At night, after a long and hard task in the construction of a skyscraper in the center of Miami, he goes to classes in a public school in Miami-Dade to be mechanical of car.
“We will see if I achieve a better job, in which they pay me more,” he said.
Background
Multiple times, before the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, that the affordable housing crisis was just around the corner, given the boom of the population, the increase in luxury housing and inflation that took away then, without the necessary increase in economic tickets.
“This upward trend began 50 years ago and was exacerbated in the last decade, especially after the pandemic, when the country and half the world were paralyzed. It is not the fault of one government or another, it is a reflection of the economic system that we have to find how to control the prices,” said economist Rodriguez.
In fact, each of the public officials interviewed by Diario Las Américas in recent years responded “working hard” to stimulate builders, with tax incentives and facilities of public land at low cost, to build or reserve a part of the apartments to people with lower economic income. But none of that was not enough.
“It is necessary to do more. Release more public lands, for example,” said political consultant Andrés Sánchez, from Sánchez & Associates.
“There is no reason to delay construction permits, months, even more than a year. You have to do more,” he said.
We also know that part of society, based on consumption, does not prioritize expenses according to needs and many end up counting the cents to reach the end of the month.
“That is true, but there are also many who do manage their few entries very well and the accounts do not give them,” said Sánchez.
On facilitating constructions, the political consultant stressed: “We are a free market society and we cannot force builders to build what we want or need, but we can give them more stimuli. Even suspend the payment of taxes if necessary,” he said.
Further
A couple of years ago, Craig Perry, urbanizer and founder of Centerline Capital Partners, said that the increase in housing rentals “is part of a national problem of supply and demand”, which worsened during the pandemic.
He also mentioned that a number of local, state and federal regulations that, in their opinion, “create problems for builders”, from the lack of a schedule in zoning applications to land development regulations that, in fact, reduce the practical level of construction allowed only by zoning.
All this contributed to the rise in the rental price and also the value of the house to buy.
In Miami-Dade, where rented housing reported an increase in price greater than 30% after the pandemic, the Government declared “affordable housing crisis” to release certain bureaucratic restrictions that could expedite the construction process.
In fact, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the implementation of the Building Blocks program, which would eventually seek solutions, in conjunction with the private construction sector, to provide affordable homes. But it was not enough either.
On the other hand, six years ago, the city of Miami announced a millionaire construction project to replace the 50,000 affordable homes that Mayor Francis Suárez mentioned the municipality needed, at the blow of subsidies, incentives for urbanizers and subsidies when possible.
Today little is known about the aforementioned construction project.
Other cities
Each of the big cities of the nation faces a similar situation of affordable housing and executes, somewhat greater or lesser, similar programs to facilitate the roof under which to live.
According to Realtor.com’s analysis, the average monthly rent in New York is $ 2,936, that is, $ 591 more than in Miami, but New York accrue major wages and need to disburse a subtly lower percentage of their income, 37.1%.
Los Angeles occupies the third place with 35.6%, Boston the fourth with 32.6%and San Diego the fifth with 31.1%.
The five locations that express more affordability are Oklahoma City with 16.7%, Austin with 17.2%, Columbus with 18.0%, Raleigh with 18.2%and Minneapolis with 18.5%.
In Florida, Jacksonville denotes lower percentage in the state, with 22.2%, while Tampa reports 28.6%.
Hope?
The report ensures that April marked the twenty -first consecutive month of year -on -year decrease in the rental of properties of 0 to 2 bedrooms, since the trend data began to be monitored in 2020.
According to the report, the rental price decreased $ 29, which represents a fall of 1.7% year -on -year. The average rental price in the 50 largest metropolitan areas was recorded at $ 1,699, $ 5 more than in March and $ 60 less than its maximum of August 2022.
