MIAMI, Fla. — The average working American needs to work at least 63 hours to earn enough to pay the typical rent in the U.S. of $2,040, a new study from Zillow found. The news is even worse in Tampa and other parts of Florida.
Based on Zillow's study, the 63 hours needed to pay rent is three more hours than a year ago and six more hours than in October 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Zillow's research found that even with a very strong labor market, the pay just isn't keeping up with rent prices. Overall, rents have jumped 36.9% over the past five years, while the average wages are up only 23% during the same time frame.
And while the news is bad for renters across the country, it's especially bleak in Miami. Renters in Miami now have to work 96 hours at the average wage to pay the normal rent. That's more than 24 hours more than Miamians needed to work to pay rent five years ago and the largest gap in the top U.S. metro areas.
Tampa residents aren't having much better luck than their neighbors to the south. According to Zillow, renters in Tampa will have to work 69 hours to pay the average U.S. rent of $2,040. That's nearly 20 additional hours worked to pay rent than in 2015 when Zillow first started calculating the difference.
Zillow reported the rental market as a whole has slowly started to cool, but it hasn't resulted in meaningful price drops. Instead, rents have stopped rising at the steep rates seen earlier in 2022 and last year. Still, the slight easing is not doing enough to ease affordability burdens, Zillow said.
