Renters, breathe easy: Miami loses title of eighth-most expensive market to Chicago

For Miami renters lamenting the city’s notorious unaffordability, relief may be on its way.

The city just lost its title of eighth-most expensive rental market in the country to Chicago for October, falling to ninth place.

The ranking comes from listing website Zumper, which tracks asking rents for apartment listings across the country.

In Miami, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment dipped 2.16 percent year-over-year to $1,810 in October, marking one of the city’s first rent decreases in recent history. Median rents for a two-bedroom apartment, however, held flat at $2,500 per month.

Despite the decrease, rents in the city are still unaffordable for many of its residents. Using the common financial advice that rent should only take up about a third of your income, a tenant would have to pull in $72,400 after taxes to comfortably pay $1,810 per month. Miami-Dade County’s median income is a much lower $48,100.

And though Chicago usurped Miami for the No. 8 spot, that might not be the case for long. Rents in the Windy City fell 8 percent year-over-year to $1,820 per month, separating Miami and Chicago by a mere $10.

At the top of Zumper’s list was San Francisco, where the ask for a one-bedroom apartment is a staggering $3,420 per month, eclipsing even New York, where median rents are $3,040. Even there, however, rents are on the decline. Rents in San Francisco dipped 5.5 percent year-over-year in October. — Sean Stewart-Muniz