Greater Downtown Miami Faces Nearly 5-Month Supply Of Residential Properties Listed For Rent Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

Landlords Seek Median Rental Rate Of $2.78 PSF In Greater Downtown Miami Residential

DOWNTOWN MIAMI (May 13, 2020) - Nearly 2,700 residential rental properties are formally listed for lease in the Greater Downtown Miami market of South Florida amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from Condo Vultures® Realty LLC. 

Based on completed leases of about 586 residential properties monthly in the first three months of 2020, Greater Downtown Miami now has nearly a five-month supply of rentals - apartments, condos, efficiencies, multifamily and townhouses - available in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach at the start of the traditional Summer Buying Season, according to the report based on data from the Southeast Florida MLS Matrix. 

A balanced market is generally considered to have about six months of supply. More months of supply listed for lease suggests a tenant’s advantage and less months typically indicates a landlord’s advantage in the market. 

When analyzing the rental market, please note that corporate-owned apartment projects are typically not included in the statistics as the landlords do not generally listed their units for lease in the MLS.  

In this new COVID-19 pandemic era, numerous questions exist about how the South Florida residential real estate market will perform going forward, both in the short- and medium-term periods. After a typical start to the new year, the South Florida residential real estate market began to change dramatically at the end of the first quarter of 2020. 

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a "state of emergency to create a pathway to obtain funding and resources to stop the spread of COVID-19" on March 9, 2020, the South Florida residential real estate market continued to function, albeit with changes for safety that included social distancing and a push for virtual tours instead of buyer actually visiting properties.  

Nearly a month later on April 3, 2020, DeSantis instituted a 30-day "statewide stay-at-home order" that effectively shut down the Florida economy but in doing so deemed residential and commercial real estate businesses "essential services," according to an industry press report.

Despite the ability to transact real estate during the "stay-at-home order," it is unclear how many buyers have been willing to view properties - either in person or virtually - in hopes of purchasing residences. It is also unclear how many sellers have opened their properties to potential buyers given the contagiousness of the COVID-19 virus. 

Once the "stay-at-home order" was finally lifted on May 4, 2020 for nearly all of the state - excluding the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach (which was reopened on May 11, 2020) until further notice - the Florida economy was thought to be in recession like much of the United States. 

This being said, about 316 rental properties are currently under contract - or pending - and waiting to transact at a median monthly asking price of $2,500 per unit or $2.59 per square foot in Greater Downtown Miami. 

The median asking price of a Greater Downtown Miami residential rental property currently listed for lease is $2,750 per property monthly. This works out to a median asking price of $2.78 per square foot monthly, according to the data compiled by CondoVulturesRealty.com. 

In the first three months of 2020, the median transaction price of a Greater Downtown Miami residential rental property was about $2,400 or about $2.58 per square foot monthly, according to the data. 

This means the current asking price of a Greater Downtown Miami residential rental property listed for lease is nearly 15 percent higher than the median transaction price achieved on a monthly per-property basis and nearly eight percent higher than the median transaction price achieved on a monthly per-square-foot basis between January and March of this year. 

In the first quarter of 2020, a landlord needed 38 days - on a median basis - to lease a Greater Downtown Miami residential rental. The current median Days-On-The-Market rate for a Greater Downtown Miami residential rental property listed for lease is 53, according to the statistics. 

CondoVulturesRealty.com is a licensed Florida brokerage that specializes in assisting buyers and tenants in value-oriented acquisitions of condos in the tricounty region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

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