The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta released an analysis of the structural pressures of housing affordability in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach metropolitan area, which quantifies the accumulated gap between income and the actual costs of purchasing or renting a home in the region.
The document, signed by researchers Domonic Purviance, John Douglas, and Sarah Stein, does not report new price increases but rather measures the structural imbalance using two proprietary tools: the Home Ownership Affordability Monitor (HOAM, with data up to July 2026) and the Southeastern Rental Affordability Tracker (SRAT, based on 2022 to 2024 Census data).
In terms of purchasing, the HOAM indicates that a household with the median income of the area —$85,483 annually— would need to allocate approximately 60% of its income to acquire the median-priced home in the region, set at $534,333.
This percentage more than doubles the 30% threshold that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) uses as a reference for affordability, a guideline that is not a legal or banking requirement.
The rental landscape offers no significant relief. According to data from the 2024 Census analyzed by the SRAT, nearly 60% of all tenant households in the metropolitan area spend more than 30% of their income on housing, a level that surpasses the national average. Over 33% of these households face a severe burden, allocating more than half of their income to rent.
Pressure is unevenly distributed. Among low-income renting households—those earning around $74,000 or less per year for a family of four—81% spend more than a third of their income on rent.
Among those with middle incomes, who earn between $74,000 and $111,000 annually, 60% also experience a burden of costs. Only 19% of high-income households find themselves in that situation.
One of the most striking phenomena described by the analysis is tenant displacement: 47% of high-income rental households occupy housing priced affordably for lower-income earners, as the shortage of supply in the more expensive segments pushes them down the price scale, leaving those with the lowest earnings with no options.
In 2024, according to the SRAT, there were only 26 affordable units available for every 100 renter households with incomes at or below 50% of the area median income.
Among the structural factors that explain this situation, the analysis indicates the strong demographic growth from 2020 to 2025: the area's population grew by 4.9%, adding more than 350,000 residents, compared to the national rate of 3.7% during the same period, according to Moody Analytics estimates.
This demand pressure is compounded by additional costs specific to Florida. Property insurance, property taxes, and homeowner association (HOA) fees have collectively increased by 150% over the past decade in the area, although they have recently moderated: the estimated median monthly cost decreased from a peak of $4,310 in July 2025 to $3,980 in January 2026.
As a complementary context, a Zumper report from September 2026 —which measures the prices of active listings in the city of Miami, not the overall tenant market in the metropolitan area— placed Miami as the sixth most expensive city in the U.S. for renting, with a median rent of $2,500 per month for a one-bedroom apartment.
It involves a methodology and a scope different from that of the Atlanta Fed, so the two figures are not directly comparable.
The report America's Rental Housing 2026 from Harvard University estimates that nearly half of all renters in the country —22.7 million households— were experiencing cost burden in 2024; South Florida significantly exceeds that average.
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