{"id":3238,"date":"2022-03-31T00:38:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T00:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/a-record-spike-in-rents-hits-tampa-bay-after-newcomers-flocked-to-florida-during-the-pandemic-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2022-03-31T00:38:18","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T00:38:18","slug":"a-record-spike-in-rents-hits-tampa-bay-after-newcomers-flocked-to-florida-during-the-pandemic-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/31\/a-record-spike-in-rents-hits-tampa-bay-after-newcomers-flocked-to-florida-during-the-pandemic-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"A record spike in rents hits Tampa Bay after newcomers flocked to Florida during the pandemic – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Zenith Word, 33, was hoping to stay another year in the $1,000-a-month, two-bedroom apartment in a walkable, diverse neighborhood in northeast Tampa.
Word, a disabled Army veteran who is on a fixed income, suspected this winter\u2019s lease renewal might come with an increase, but the new figure was jarring: $1,300.
Word, who uses they\/them pronouns, scrambled to find another apartment, only to discover rents were just as steep. They also scanned rentals in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Worried about winding up on the street, Word trained their cat, Mau, to walk on a leash and get used to being toted in a backpack.
But it didn\u2019t come to that, Word said, because a friend living on the outskirts of Tampa offered them a vacant room for $800 a month \u2014 which opened up because a family member had died.
\u201cHousing is a necessity, and it shouldn\u2019t be this scarce and difficult to obtain,\u201d Word said.
Across metropolitan Tampa-St. Petersburg, renters are struggling with a sharp rise in housing costs. The average rent for single-family homes, condo units and small multi-unit buildings increased by more than 28 percent over the past year, from $1,561 in February 2021 to $1,999 last month, according to an analysis by Florida real estate academics that was shared with NBC News.
Their study examined the Tampa Bay area, which includes St. Petersburg, as well as three other Florida cities \u2014 Fort Myers, Miami and Orlando \u2014 where units had been leasing below historic pricing trends in early 2021. They found an even bigger change than they had expected: Rents have risen in all four markets, by 24 percent to 32 percent, and at a clip the researchers had never previously recorded. In a typical year, rents swing by about 1 percent or 2 percent.
\u201cThis is all pretty abnormal, and what\u2019s most shocking to me is the magnitude of the differences in the numbers,\u201d said a co-author of the study, Ken H. Johnson, an associate dean at Florida Atlantic University\u2019s College of Business.
Across the country, other recent real estate analyses have found similar spikes, with Miami and Tampa often high on the list, as well as Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; Las Vegas; San Diego; and the New York City area.
In Florida, renters living below the poverty line are being hit particularly hard. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that there are 28 affordable rental homes in the state for every 100 extremely low-income renters, or people who make no more than 30 percent of their areas\u2019 median incomes. That\u2019s the worst ratio in the Southeast and one of the lowest nationwide.
The problem is especially acute in the Tampa Bay market, where the population is about 3.1 million. The pandemic beckoned thousands more people to its beachside communities and the rental vacancy rate fell, creating a pronounced housing shortage that experts don\u2019t expect to improve any time soon.
The staggering rise in rents is squeezing people across the socioeconomic spectrum, housing experts say, and fueling a crisis in which tenant advocates, the real estate industry and local political leaders are clashing over potential solutions.
\u201cPeople are saying that they\u2019re spending 50 percent of their income, 60 percent of their income on rent \u2014 and the rents just keep going up,\u201d said Karla Correa, 22, one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Tenants Union. \u201cIt\u2019s so unsustainable.\u201d
Central Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast has become a prime relocation destination, with Tampa ranking behind only Miami and Phoenix as the top U.S. cities where people want to move, according to a homebuyer migration report<\/a> the real estate company Redfin released last week.
Housing experts say the population influx was driven by Florida\u2019s loose pandemic restrictions and a shift to remote work, as well as the lure of lower taxes and a warmer climate. And it comes at a moment when the local real estate market is hot: The typical Tampa home is worth nearly $375,000, up by more than 31 percent from a year ago, compared to a 20 percent increase in home values nationwide, according to a Zillow analysis<\/a>.
Meanwhile, experts say, the housing stock in Tampa hasn\u2019t grown sufficiently since the Great Recession 15 years ago. Development has been hindered by the challenges of securing land, meeting construction and zoning requirements and sourcing materials amid supply chain shortages.
\u201cIf it\u2019s just too expensive to buy a home, then you\u2019re just going to keep renting,\u201d said Corianne Scally, a researcher with the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank focusing on social policy issues.
In December, Angel D\u2019Angelo learned that the rent for his one-bedroom apartment in Riverview, a suburb of Tampa, would increase by nearly $300 per month, to $1,630. D\u2019Angelo, who works in recruiting for an insurance company, had already put off replacing his car after a wreck last summer and now faced another unplanned expense. He called the management company and negotiated the increase to $205 more per month.
\u201cI don\u2019t know how lucky I\u2019ll be next time,\u201d D\u2019Angelo said.
Frank LoTurco, a vice president of the Picerne Real Estate Group, which oversees D\u2019Angelo\u2019s apartment complex, acknowledged that the company has recently raised rents after it limited increases during the pandemic. The reason? \u201cSimple economics,\u201d he said, pointing out that more people are clamoring for limited housing.\u00a0
\u201cFrom a market condition standpoint, we\u2019ll do our best to obviously make a profit,\u201d LoTurco said, \u201cbut at the same time, we\u2019re not trying to hurt the residents, so to speak.\u201d
D\u2019Angelo worries about what the rental surge will mean for his 59-year-old mother as she draws nearer to retirement. Tens of thousands of retirees flock to Florida every year, but many older residents can\u2019t cut back to even part-time work if they want to afford housing.
\u201cIf these things don\u2019t get under control, how are we going to be able to afford to pay for her to live somewhere?\u201d D\u2019Angelo said.
Christopher Lai, a real estate agent in Tampa for more than 15 years, doesn\u2019t believe the rental market is close to leveling off, as hedge fund investors continue to scoop up homes at a record rate<\/a>. Lai said some of those investors are renting homes at 30 percent increases compared to a few years ago.
\u201cThis is a full-fledged crisis,\u201d Lai said. \u201cPeople want to buy a house, to move up, but now you may have a whole generation of renters who won\u2019t be able to buy a home because they\u2019re priced out.\u201d
State and local leaders have tried to tackle the affordability problem by increasing and upgrading Florida\u2019s housing supply. Legislators earmarked $362.7 million<\/a> for affordable housing efforts, including paying for repairs to lower-cost units and helping first-time homebuyers with down payments. St. Petersburg dedicated at least $34.3 million<\/a> of its stimulus money to affordable housing, while Tampa launched a $5 million emergency rent assistance program this month and has allocated public land for new low-income homes.\u00a0
St. Petersburg officials have also recently discussed changing zoning regulations and increasing the density that developers can build. In 2019, the City Council enabled homeowners to build small apartments on their land, often known as in-law suites or granny flats, which can be rented out.\u00a0
Tenant advocates want more.\u00a0
The St. Petersburg Tenants Union has called for rent control, or limits on the rent landlords can charge. Such a freeze is generally not allowed under Florida law, but some proponents have called on the City Council to declare a housing state of emergency and hold a referendum on the issue. A subcommittee of the council voted against the idea last month.\u00a0
Rent control also faces opposition from industry groups, including the National Apartment Association, which lobbies on behalf of property owners.
Instead, Greg Brown, the group\u2019s vice president of government affairs, wants federal legislation to encourage more landlords to participate in the Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s Section 8 program, which helps low-income families pay for housing.\u00a0
Advocates for low-income tenants support more federal funding for Section 8, but they also want bigger changes. The National Low Income Housing Coalition advocates for a federal rental assistance fund, like the temporary relief programs that were launched during the pandemic. And Correa, the St. Petersburg Tenants Union organizer, suggests that the city repurpose vacant homes for people in need.\u00a0
Correa said the fallout from escalating rent has stretched across generations. At the rally last month outside City Hall, she saw an elderly demonstrator carrying a sign warning, \u201cIf my rent goes up any more, I\u2019ll be homeless at 80.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
Correa believes the fear is well-founded. In February 2020, just before the pandemic began, a team with the Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative counted almost 1,500 people experiencing homelessness. A staffer who aids unhoused families with children<\/a> in the Pinellas County School District, which is part of the Tampa Bay region, said calls for assistance have increased by 3,000 percent in the last year.\u00a0
From the bedroom of Correa\u2019s downtown St. Petersburg apartment, she can see a homeless shelter.
\u201cPeople want to talk about human rights abuses in other countries \u2014 look at what\u2019s happening in our own city,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how the city government allows for this to happen.\u201d
Bracey Harris\u00a0is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Jackson, Mississippi.\u00a0
Erik Ortiz is a staff writer for\u00a0NBC News focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
© 2022 NBC UNIVERSAL<\/p>\n

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ProfileSectionstvFeaturedMore From NBCFollow NBC NewsZenith Word, 33, was hoping to stay another year in the $1,000-a-month, two-bedroom apartment in a walkable, diverse neighborhood in northeast Tampa.Word, a disabled Army veteran who is on a fixed income, suspected this winter\u2019s lease renewal might come with an increase, but the new figure was jarring: $1,300.Word, who uses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}