WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The cost to rent a home in Florida continues to rise above the national average.
But according to a national survey by Florida Atlantic University, there is some good news for residents.
Rent hikes devastated many residents who live in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast about a year after the pandemic hit.
Tenants unable to cope with increases of several hundred dollars left the state or were forced to move in with families or even into their cars.
Others who couldn't swallow the rent increases, which in many cases were several hundred dollars more a month, were evicted from their apartments and homes. But the days of those steep hikes may be over.
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"Our rents have stopped going up so dramatically," FAU economist Ken Johnson, who with other economists gathers data on rents across the U.S. and Florida, said.
In the Sunshine State, renters aren't seeing as much sticker shock when they renew their leases.
However, many still face rents they have a hard time affording.
"They're still very, very high," Johnson said. "[They are] higher than they should otherwise be, which means we're probably in for a prolonged period of unaffordable rent as people continue to move into the state."
Contact 5 found through the Apartments.com website that there might be a glimmer of hope.
Rents at some apartment complexes in Palm Beach County are falling more than $100 a month.
Prices are still much higher than the pre-pandemic rental rate. Johnson said conditions remain for rents to rise in the near future.
"We're not building as fast as people are coming in," Johnson said. "In Palm Beach County, for example, we need in the next 10 years roughly 7,000 units a year. We're building 3,500 a year."
Johnson also said that many recent buyers use their homes to make money as short-term rentals or as vacation homes for themselves. That takes the potential rental property off the market.