The University of Florida’s Center for Housing Studies recently put out a study saying 42,170 more people in Florida struggled to pay rent in 2024 compared to 2023.
9,434 of those people, about 22%, live in northeast Florida.
Here’s a breakdown of the number of renters in our area, UF says spent at least 40% of their income on rent in 2024 and how much the number increased from 2023:
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– Baker: 497 renters, +59 from 2023
– Bradford: 625 renters, +45 from 2023
– Clay: 6,160 renters, +1,241 from 2023
– Columbia: 1,966 renters, +393 from 2023
– Duval: 55,420 renters, +4,390 from 2023
– Nassau: 1,796 renters, +2 from 2023
– Putnam: 2,014 renters, +194 from 2023
– St. Johns: 6,777 renters, +3,113 from 2023
– Union: 348 renters, -3 from 2023
Action News Jax brought these numbers to the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) to get some more context on how they may fall into recent housing trends, or if they give any signals on where the rental market is going.
NEFAR President Mario Gonzalez said a housing shortage fueled by the pandemic is still affecting rent prices today, but an explosion in the number of homes available is making rent prices cool down.
“What we’re seeing in 2024-2025 is actually a softening of the rental market, a bit,” said Gonzalez, “we had an excess of multifamily homes available [in 2024], but their price points were still high.”
The UF study says 904,635 people around Florida spent at least 40% of their income on rent in 2024. Most banks recommend spending 30% on rent, or less, to afford the cost of living. The UF study says the number of people paying more than that on housing costs was 862,465 in 2023.
In the Jacksonville area, particularly, Gonzalez said multiple counties have seen the number of single-family and multifamily homes skyrocket because of development, which he tells Action News Jax will, over time, allow renters to keep more money in their wallets.
“The prices haven’t really changed yet, but we had this crazy high inventory of rental homes, so that’s where the light at the end of the tunnel comes in,” Gonzalez said.
NEFAR has a county-by-county breakdown of the services available for those struggling to afford rent in our area. You can find those services by clicking the link https://www.nefar.realtor/helpful-links/.
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