WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — With the influx of people moving to South Florida and the Treasure Coast, real estate experts said don't expect to see much of a correction in the market. But there is a glimmer of hope in the rental market.
The building business is busy across the Sunshine State.
The steady stream of folks moving here is prompting the construction of new condos with cranes being a frequent site across the area.
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Florida Atlantic University real estate expert Ken Johnson recently shared some new numbers from a new study released this month.
"Our growth is exceptional," Johnson said. "Martin and St. Lucie County is wildly exceptional."
He shows numbers suggesting rent prices across South Florida are stabilizing, but still very high.
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"I don't see a spike in rents again, but what I do see is that we're gonna go through this long period where we're gonna be talking about unaffordability," Johnson said.
He said Palm Beach County is packed with new residents, but the Treasure Coast is even more so.
"You can see it's most concentrated in St. Lucie County as opposed to Martin County," Johnson said. "Their population is expected to increase for every three people, there will be a fourth person in the next 10 years. They have, I believe, a little better capacity of catching this population because they have more open land to develop, but there is a huge demand there."
And the demand for affordable housing is off the charts.
"Right now it's ridiculous," according to real estate agent Holly Meyer Lucas. "If you make six figures, you don't have anywhere to even rent."
Meyer Lucas with Meyer Lucas Real Estate at Compass and others said that much of the construction going up is higher-end homes — pricing many Floridians out of the market. But she said there is some hope on the horizon.
"As we start going into [the tourist] season, 2023-2024 season, we're seeing a lot of landlords, who have had their homes on Airbnb, reach out to us to market their homes for an annual rental," Meyer Lucas said, "to try to find a tenant who is not an Airbnb-type tenant, so more of a local."
Meyer Lucas said that could mean a loosening in the rental market.
"As these landlords don't see those prices that they are used to seeing in 2020 and 2021, them moving inventory into the traditional rental space versus being on Airbnb, I think it's gonna stabilize a little bit," Meyer Lucas said.