Where can you find cheap rent in Miami-Dade County? Search these 10 areas
Frustration continues to mount due to increasing apartment rents across Miami-Dade County. But locals can find deals below the county’s $1,600 median monthly asking price for apartments in 10 neighborhoods.
The Miami Herald ranked the areas with the cheapest median rents in Miami-Dade, based on the prices for efficiencies, studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartment and condo units.
The neighborhoods in cities and towns that have the lowest median rents are determined according to ZIP codes with over 100 rental transactions last year, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service and Ana Bozovic, founder of brokerage and consulting firm Analytics Miami.
Although neighborhoods have several ZIP codes with varying apartment costs, locals can generally find cheap rents in North Miami Beach, Miami Gardens, Cutler Bay, Miami Shores, Allapattah, Homestead, Little Havana, Hialeah and Kendall. The asking rents range from $1,250 to $1,525 monthly, all well below the county’s midpoint price.
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Affordable apartment rentals are hard to find in this region with its steady population growth, especially of finance and tech executives and their professional employees, real estate experts say. As a result, locals live in one of the priciest rental markets — or by some measures the most expensive — in the country. Longtime residents keep struggling with the cost of living due to stagnant wage growth.
Prospective renters can turn to the City of North Miami Beach for the lowest rents in the county. Although the city has several ZIP codes, its ZIP code 33162 has the cheapest rents.
“A lot of apartments in that area have been there for years. That’s why the rents have been able to stay low here. It’s good for individuals right now, but I don’t anticipate that staying long,” said Arthur Sorey III, city manager of North Miami Beach. “We’re always approving new site plans.”
Long before incorporating as a city in the late 1920s, African Americans and Haitians called the area home, said Robin Bachin, an associate professor of history at the University of Miami and assistant provost for civic and community engagement. Rock mining and agricultural fields — for nurturing sugar cane and peas — were aplenty.
Today, the community has a population comprised of residents that are 42% Black, 39% Hispanic, 17% white and 3% Asian, according to data from North Miami Beach. The city has an average household income of $46,761 for a family of four.
North Miami Beach shares a common thread with the other sections of the county identified in the rankings of the lowest median apartment rental prices, Bachin said.
“Those communities were redlined in the 1930s and 1940s,” she said. “When bankers were looking at the housing stock they determined those neighborhoods to be too risky to make investments to stabilize the housing market. That process of informal segregation and redlining led to low investment.”
Expect rents to rise in all of these now most affordable communities, Bachin said.
“When you look at a lot of these neighborhoods and you see the growth happening today, and the fact that there has been a lot of building with little attention to the affordable market, it concerns me,” she said. “In some of these neighborhoods, we already see rents rising.”
For example, North Miami Beach is facing pricing pressure, Sorey said, noting housing development is causing apartment leases to get more expensive.
New real estate projects are underway across the city, including two towers with 700 rental apartments in the city’s cheapest ZIP code. City officials are trying to protect existing tenants by approving in late March an ordinance that would force landlords to give a two-month notice to tenants when they’re increasing rents over 5%.
“We are keeping the everyday people in mind,” the North Miami Beach city manager said.
Just like in North Miami Beach, developers rushing to meet housing demand are putting up apartment buildings throughout Miami-Dade. But with many new buildings far from being finished, Bozovic said, “Of course we’re going to see tremendous growth in the rental market. The sale market is moving in lockstep with the rental market. It’s supply and demand. Not everyone is going to purchase.”
Here’s the rundown where renters can find the cheapest apartments in Miami-Dade:
▪ 1. North Miami Beach
Median rent: $1,250 (ZIP code 33162)
▪ 2. Miami Gardens
Median rent: $1,300 (ZIP code 33169)
▪ 3. North Miami
Median rent: $1,350 (ZIP code 33161)
▪ 4. Cutler Bay
Median rent: $1,387 (ZIP code 33157)
▪ 5. Miami Shores
Median asking rent: $1,400 (ZIP code 33150)
▪ 6. Allapattah and Brownsville
Median rent: $1,400 (ZIP code 33142)
▪ 7. Homestead
Median rent: $1,450 (ZIP code 33035)
▪ 8. Little Havana
Median rent: $1,500 (ZIP code 33135)
▪ 9. Kendall
Median rent: $1,512.50 (ZIP code 33176)
▪ 10. Hialeah
Median rent: $1,525 (ZIP code 33014)
This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 6:15 AM.
