May 18, 2026
A new WalletHub report rated Miami the least affordable city for renters out of 182 U.S. cities — placing it below famously expensive locales like New York and Boston (1).
Rental prices have been quickly rising across the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, rent prices have doubled over the past 20 years (2), outpacing median wage growth (3).
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Miami's rent increases have been particularly steep since the beginning of 2022. Rent costs went up by over 40% in the last four years alone (4). These quickly rising costs are forcing some Floridians out.
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"Before leaving Florida, I lived in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Coral Gables that I moved into in 2020. My rent started at $2,200, but five years later, management was asking for $3,750 — even though nothing in my unit or building had changed," Natalie Alatriste, who grew up in Miami-Dade county (5) told Business Insider. She moved to northern Virginia in 2025.
Here's why rent costs are going up in Miami — and across the state of Florida.
Florida law is bringing billionaires in droves
Florida is appealing to billionaires because it's one of the eight states that don't charge income tax (6). Its laws also tend to be business-friendly, with a focus on deregulation (7).
Because of this, billionaires have been coming to Miami in droves. The National Association of Realtors reported that Florida had the largest net migration rate of all other states in 2023, with 372,870 new residents (8). And Compass' Ultra-Luxury report for 2025 showed that sales of housing priced at $10 million or above increased by 46% that year (9).
Billionaires might also be moving to Florida specifically because so many other wealthy people live there. Jeff Bezos began calling the Miami area home in 2023, moving into an area colloquially called the "billionaire bunker." Members of the bunker have even started to have a say in local politics (10).
As more and more billionaires move in, businesses and housing are starting to cater to the wealthy, pricing regular Floridians out.
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Florida makes it hard to institute rent control
Places like Boston and New York also rank poorly on Wallethub's most affordable cities list, at 151 and 161, respectively, but they partially make up for their high rent costs by paying their residents more.
For example, New York residents make, on average, $40.65 per hour, compared to the US average of $32.66 (11). Miami residents make a little less than the US average wage, at just $31.88 per hour (12).
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A report from the nonprofit Miami Homes For All says that 60% of renters in the Miami area are cost-burdened, and 76% of people in the Miami area are stressed about the rising cost of living (13). Steeply rising rent is a huge contributor to that stress. But Florida law makes it hard for legislators to get rent hikes under control.
A Florida law (14) makes it illegal to limit rent increases under most circumstances. The only way for Miami legislators to institute limits is to declare a housing emergency. Once an emergency is declared, voters have to approve rent limits, which would last for one year (15).
No part of Florida has successfully implemented rent control since the 1970s.
Unless costs go down (or wages go up), native Miami residents will continue to be forced out of their homes in favor of their new billionaire neighbors.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
WalletHub (1); Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (2),(3),(4); Business Insider (5); Tax Foundation (6); CBS News (7); National Association of Realtors (8); Compass (9); Axios (10); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (11),(12); Miami Homes For All (13); Korte PA (14); NBC Miami (15)
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Kit Pulliam is a DC-based financial journalist with over five years of experience writing, editing, and fact-checking financial content.
