Florida has experienced the second largest drop in the nation in the percent of residents paying greater than half of their income toward housing costs.
Between 2009 and 2012, severely cost-burdened working households fell in 30 states. Arkansas led the nation with a 3.8 percent drop in cost-burdened households. Florida’s drop was the second most notable, at 3.4 percent. In 2009, just over one-third of Floridian households spent more than half of their paycheck on housing costs. In 2012, this ratio fell to 29.8 percent.
These figures, published in a report by the National Housing Conference, nevertheless depict Florida’s overall ratio of cost-burdened residents as among the highest in the nation.
At 38 percent, Miami ties with Los Angeles in leading the nation in its percentage of residents with severe housing cost burdens. Orlando has the fifth highest rate at 32 percent.
Yet both Miami and Orlando experienced among the highest drops in these ratios over a three year period, too, at 3.5 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.
A separate December 2013 report found five Florida cities (Miami Gardens, Hialeah, Gainesville, Pompano Peach, and Tallahassee) to fall within the top 10 cities in the nation for median gross rent as a percentage of household income in the U.S. In this study, residents of Miami Gardens spent an average of 45.6 percent of their income on housing rent.
