MIAMI (WSVN) - South Floridians know all too well that it’s expensive to live in paradise, but a new study shows it may be even worse than we expect.
Harvard University’s America’s Rental Housing Report for 2017 shows that the Miami metro area (which includes Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach) has the highest cost burden of all large cities in the country, while Florida has the highest cost burden of all 50 states.
But what does that mean? The study says “cost burdened” individuals spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
Unfortunately, the news just gets worse for Miami residents. The report says not only are 61 percent of Miami renters cost burdened, but 34 percent of people in the Magic City are considered to have a “severe” cost burden. That means they spend over 50 percent of their income on their rent.
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies says the median monthly rent in Miami is $1,260, while the median income for renters here is just $37,000 a year, or $3,083 per month.
Miami sits at the top of the list of metro areas with the highest share of cost-burdened renters, followed by Los Angeles, Riverside (California), New Orleans, and San Diego.
Meanwhile, Florida is at the top of the list of states, followed by California and New York.
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