Orlando rents are rising ridiculously fast compared to other major cities

If you're reading this from a four-bedroom apartment you share with three other people and a squatter boyfriend, you already know what's up: Orlando rents are rising ridiculously fast compared to other major U.S. cities.

A new report from Zillow shows average rents in Orlando increased to $1,472 in November, which is slightly above the median U.S. rent of $1,449.

Orlando saw the biggest increases in rents among metropolitan areas with a  4.4 percent jump from last year. The only other city that came close to Orlando's figure was Riverside, California, with a 3.9 percent increase and an average rent of $1,925.

Tampa came in lower on the list with a rent increase of 2.9 percent and average rent price of $1,402, while Miami's rents only went up slightly by 1 percent to an average rent of $1,874.



Good thing Florida's hourly minimum wage is going up a whole 21 cents in 2019 to $8.46, right?

While Orlando's rents are not as expensive as San Francisco ($3,417) or New York City ($2,392), it's still unaffordable for the working poor.

Renters in Orlando need to earn at least $16.33 an hour ($33,960 a year) just to afford a studio apartment and not be rent burdened, according to 2018 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.  Workers who earn Florida's current minimum wage ($8.25) need to work 84 hours a week just to rent a modest one-bedroom at fair market rates, the report said.

The low-paying jobs offered by the region's tourism industry, coupled with a 46 percent decline in new rental units projected by the end of 2018 is leaving poor residents paying a staggering 63.7 percent of their wages on the bottom third of affordable rentals, according to a Zillow report.

One out of every three households in Orlando is considered "cost-burdened," which means people are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent or mortgage rather than food, transportation, health care and other necessities.

With Orlando's affordable housing crisis on the brink of implosion, we're all just watching a runaway train no one cares to stop at this point.

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