Are you looking to live cheaply in Florida? Florida is now the #1 state to relocate in the entire United States. With the exception of Texas and Florida all other states have state taxes which people moving to Florida are trying to escape. Some of the huge draws of Florida is itโ€™s great weather, abundant jobs, below average cost of living and plentiful beaches.

The beach town of Titusville has the cheapest average apartment rental rate in the entire state of Florida, at $876, while Coral Gables had the highest, at $2,628, according to a new RentCafe report using data from Yardi Matrix on Nov 28, 2019.

The average rent among the 30 Central Florida municipalities included in the report is $1,241, according to RentCafรฉ’s October report. The national average is $1,476.

Meanwhile, the fastest-growing rent in the Sunshine State was seen in South Florida’s Pompano Beach, which jumped 3.7%, or $54, to $1,503 from September to October. The biggest rent drop in the state was 2.4% in Tamarac. DeLand had the biggest local percentage decrease from September, dropping rents by 1.2%.

Four Central Florida cities had average monthly rents higher than $1,400: Winter Garden, Ocoee, Orlando and Oviedo.

The cheapest places to rent in Central Florida are Titusville, with an average rent of $876, and DeLand, at $877.

Renters are in a better position to create wealth than homebuyers, South Florida professors say, U.S. housing markets including South Florida’s have approached the peak of their price cycles. It’s better to rent than buy a home, according to the latest โ€œBuy vs. Rentโ€ index.

โ€œDonโ€™t squander your savings generated by renting. Rre-invest your money in stocks and bonds,โ€ said Ken Johnson, one of the indexโ€™s creators and a real estate economist at Florida Atlantic University.

โ€œWe see people shifting into renting,โ€ he said. โ€œWe donโ€™t see any signs that this is going to be like 2007, where weโ€™re going to have a market crash in terms of housing prices.โ€

The quarterly Beracha, Hardin & Johnson Buy vs. Rent Index is designed to signal whether market conditions favor buying or renting a home in terms of wealth creation over a fixed holding period, relative to historical market conditions and alternative investment opportunities. The index focuses on 23 major metropolitan housing markets. The Miami area market encompasses Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Johnson said slowing housing starts, rising mortgage rates, decreased demand and unsustainable price increases are all combining to slow housing markets around the country.
The biggest contributor to rising ownership costs is rising home prices, Eli Beracha, co-creator of the index and associate professor in the Hollo School of Real Estate at Florida International University, said in a statement.

The costs of ownership, including mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and maintenance, Beracha said, โ€œare rising faster than the cost of renting a comparable property. Therefore, renters who take the money theyโ€™re saving each month and reinvest it are going to build wealth faster than those who buy a home, on average.โ€

In Fort Lauderdale, average rents rose by 6.5 percent to $1,853. In West Palm Beach, they rose by 5.1 percent to $1,397, and by 2.5 percent to $1,623 in Miami.

Johnson said saving, not spending, is the preferred course for renters to take.

โ€œWe are not encouraging anybody to rent and not reinvest,โ€ said FAUโ€™s Johnson. โ€œThat is the wrong thing to do.โ€

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