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University of Florida

Florida struggles with affordable housing despite construction boom

Brittany Sylvestri
February 11, 2025

Home prices and rents in Florida have stabilized in the last two years following a period of rapid growth. However, a new University of Florida report on recent housing trends highlights a continued shortage of affordable housing for the workforce and seniors on fixed incomes.

Single family and multifamily construction continues to increase, said Anne Ray, the manager of the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse at UF’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies.

Florida’s single family home inventory reached nearly 5.9 million homes in 2024, according to the report. Seventy-one percent of these homes are homesteaded, indicating that they serve as the owner’s primary residence rather than as second homes, vacation homes, or rental properties. 

“Despite growth in the stock, a significant number of Floridians continue to face cost burdens, spending a large portion of their income on housing expenses. When families pay a large share of their income for housing, it’s harder to cover other critical costs such as food, transportation, and health care.” —Anne Ray, the manager of the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse at UF’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies

Key findings from the report include: 

Affordability

  • The median single family home price in the first half of 2024 was $411,600, while median rent in July 2024 was $1,555.
  • Median home prices ranged from below $250,000 in rural areas to above $500,000 in pricey coastal communities.
  • The shortage of affordable rental housing is acute for renters with incomes below 80% of area median income (AMI), especially for those with incomes below 60% AMI.. Statewide, an estimated 883,863 renter households with incomes below 60% AMI pay more than 40% of their income in rent.

Construction trends

  • Single family home production has increased steadily over the past decade. Florida produced 138,717 single family homes in 2023, the last full year for which data is available.
  • Lee County led the state in single family construction in 2023 with 10,702 new homes, followed by a group of counties stretching across Central and West Central Florida, including Polk, Pasco, Lake, Osceola, and Manatee.
  • Multifamily production continued at the strong pace that began in 2020. In 2023, Florida added 354 multifamily developments with 10 or more units, for a total of 50,547 new apartments, and 1,199 smaller multifamily developments (2,467 units).
  • Multifamily development was concentrated in Florida’s large urban counties (Orange, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Broward, Duval, Palm Beach) and in other fast-growing counties including Polk, Lee, Manatee, and St. Johns.
  • In contrast, condominium construction was much less active. The state added 6,791 newly built condominiums in 2023, a third of which were located in Miami-Dade County.