Wages are no longer enough to pay for housing in Miami, which has become the least affordable real estate market in the United States, worse even than New York. To be an owner, you have to allocate 78.7% of your income to that end and with rents skyrocketing, evictions do not stop.
But this situation goes beyond Miami and affects a large part of Floridians who want to buy or rent a home.
So much so, that this week neighbors protested once more in front of the St. Petersburg City Hall to request that a state of housing emergency be declared due to the escalation of prices in this city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
A clear example of the situation in Florida is that of Nicolás Avedano. This computer scientist almost two years ago had to return to his parents’ house because he mightn’t find anything that fit his budget in Miami.
Although he acknowledges that it was “difficult” to make the decision to return, given his 38 years, he is aware that many people do not have that possibility and “stay on the street or at friends’ houses, in an armchair or something,” he explained. to Eph.
Since then, every day he looks to see if, luckily, prices drop, but these “go up and up more every day”, while wages are not enough. “There is no way around this,” she lamented.
MIAMI, THE MOST EXPENSIVE CITY
Although it is a general problem in Florida, the worst is lived in Miami, which surpassed Los Angeles in October 2021 and New York this February as the most expensive city in the country in relation to income, according to a study to the 100 most populated cities made by the real estate portal RealtyHop.
The coronavirus pandemic caused thousands of people from northwestern states to move to Florida due to its better climate and lower tax burdens, to which must be added the continuous arrival of foreign investors.
The arrival of these people with greater purchasing power caused prices to skyrocket, while wages have lagged behind.
If the median home value in Miami is, according to RealtyHop, $589,000, the average income of each household remains at $39,000, according to the latest figures from the Census Bureau.
And in rent the situation is the same or worse. In 2021, five of the ten US cities where housing rents increased the most were in Florida, according to a report from the Zumper real estate portal.
Miami and Tampa, with a 38% increase, led this list that also includes Orlando (32%), Jacksonville (27%) and St. Petersburg (24%), while the national average was 11.6%. .
This has placed Miami as the fifth most expensive city to rent in the country, with an average of 2,280 dollars per month, in this list headed by New York (3,190) and San Francisco (2,590), where, however, the average income of each household are much higher, at $63,000 and $112,000, respectively.
EVICTIONS
Neighboring cities to Miami, such as Hialeah, whose population is 95% Latino, also suffer from the problem.
Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo had to come to the aid of residents with a federally funded rent relief plan for a few months.
The controversy was sparked following the tenants of a 20-apartment building in the city were notified last December that their rents would rise from $1,050 to $1,650, and whoever might not afford it would have to leave the properties within days.
One of those affected, the Cuban Judet Pérez, explained to Efe that they are “desperate” because they cannot find a place to go and they already have an eviction order, which they have temporarily stopped through legal action.
Pérez denounced that the tenants who have agreed to accept the new figure now see that the company that owns them has raised their rent once more, up to 1,800 dollars.
Lizzie Suárez, spokesperson for the activist group Miami Workers Center, which helps people facing eviction from their homes, explained to Efe that the situation is “getting worse” in South Florida, especially since large companies are buying apartment buildings. and raise rents to “ridiculous prices”.
Suárez indicated that since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, nearly 22,000 eviction processes have been registered in the local court.
To try to alleviate the situation somewhat, cities in Miami-Dade County have recently approved or are debating measures that extend the period of notice for rent increases to 60 days so that tenants have room to seek alternatives. The problem is that there are hardly any or they are too expensive.
