Is renting or buying in South Florida's hot housing market best? Expert analyst weighs in.
MIAMI - South Florida has one of the hottest housing markets in the nation, which begs the question — should you rent or buy in 2025?
Justin Westerfeld and Daniella Gainza are looking to buy their first home. The high school sweethearts got engaged about a year ago, but the tight South Florida housing market has forced them to redefine their dream home.
"We've probably looked at 15 houses. Some of them were single families, some of them were townhomes, and we quickly realized that we were going to have to give up the dream of having a single family house in our price range. So we settled for a townhouse and it was a disaster trying to find one," Westerfeld said.
Especially with a $450,000 budget and limited options in Broward County. Even the search itself cost more than expected.
"The home inspections aren't cheap, the appraisals aren't cheap. We've probably spent a couple of thousand dollars just trying to find a house," Westerfeld said.
That's on top of the emotional toll of watching multiple offers fall through.
"I don't want to get my heart attached to something that isn't official," Gainza said.
Housing prices in Miami and Broward
Real estate analyst Ana Bozovic, the founder of Analytics Miami, said the couple's frustrations are reflected in her market research.
Bozovic said that in Miami-Dade County there were about 3,600 homes in the market, single family homes, under half a million dollars in pre-COVID December 2019.
"So 3,600, you have choices, right? In December 2024 there were 650," she said.
Bozovic said that's down an astonishing 80% and the same holds true for Broward County.
"Our median pricing for a single family (home) is up almost two times, 80%, versus pre-COVID 2019," she explained.
So what's the median price now? In Miami-Dade County, the median price for a single family home is $660,000. It was under $400,000 in 2019, Bozovic said.
She said that Broward was similar, but a little bit lower.
Buying or renting in South Florida, which is the best option?
"If they have the certainty that they want to stay within their geography for a while, for 10 plus years, they need to buy," Bozovic said. "If they don't have that certainty, then there is some relief coming in the rental market because we do have product coming for the apartment buildings that'll take pressure off the general inventory structure."
But, Bozovic warns, the new apartments won't be cheap, especially with an influx of people moving here from the northeast and now following the devastating wildfires in California.
"We found out that renting was the same situation. You basically were just paying somebody else's mortgage, so at that point you might as well just buy a house to get in the market and then figure it out from there," Westerfeld said.
The bottom line, according to Bozovic, is that the South Florida housing market is in the midst of a long-term upswing in price and demand.
"The long and short of it is, if you're looking to buy a single family below a million dollars, there is no benefit to waiting whatsoever," she said.
Market analysts say currently there is low inventory, resale prices are at an all-time high and the migration of wealthy buyers is fueling unprecedented growth in the South Florida housing market.
