Rental rates for homes in South Florida rose 7% last year

Aerial view of Fort Lauderdale (Credit: Getty Images)
Aerial view of Fort Lauderdale (Credit: Getty Images)

Rental rates for single-family homes in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area increased an average of 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.

RentRange Data Services also reported that the vacancy rate among houses for rent in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area was 5.3 percent in last year’s fourth quarter.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale is one of six metropolitan areas in Florida where the pace of rent increases for single-family homes rank among the 25 fastest in the nation, according to RentRange.

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House rents rose, on average, at an annual rate of 10.9 percent in the fourth quarter in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro area, the second-fastest increase among U.S. metro areas. The 7 percent increase last year in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area ranked 11th among U.S. metro areas.

The comparable annual rates of house-rent hikes were 7.7 percent in the Daytona Beach area (10th nationally), 5.8 percent the Tampa-St. Petersburg area (19th nationally), and 5 percent in Lakeland and 4.8 percent in the Orlando area (24th and 25th, respectively, in the nation).

Statewide, the highest fourth-quarter metro vacancy rates among houses for rent were 11.4 percent in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, 8.5 percent in Tampa-St. Petersburg, and 8 percent in Lakeland. The lowest vacancy rates were 5.3 percent in Miami-Fort Lauderdale and 4.6 percent in the Daytona Beach area. – Mike Seemuth