Although apartment sizes in the US are shrinking, Miami has come out as an exception, where apartments have gotten larger, adding an extra 105 square feet in the past 10 years, but current growth in the city might end the trend. 

According to a report by RentCafe, new apartment sizes in Miami have an average square footage of 912. Ten years ago, the average rental square footage of apartments was 807. However, apartments in the area are not expected to increase, the report said, and rental sizes are expected to shrink by about 90 square feet.

Nationally, new apartment developments are measuring about 887 square feet, down 54 square feet in the past decade. The largest year-over-year decrease in square footage took place in 2022, with 30 square feet less than 2021, due to more developments of studios and one-bedroom apartments, which have a 57% share of the nation’s home market.

Tallahassee led the nation with the largest apartments in new developments, with an average size of 1,182 square feet, while the average size of all apartments is 991 square feet.

All Florida cities, the report also said, have registered larger apartments from new developments compared to 10 years ago. Gainesville apartments have added an average of 126 square feet in new developments in the past decade; St. Petersburg has added an average of 54 square feet; Jacksonville has added about 42 square feet to its apartments; Tampa has added about 32, and Orlando about 23 square feet.

Doug Ressler, senior analyst at RentCafe, said that the Miami metro area is expecting a significant amount of new apartment supply over the next 36 months, with about 10,904 new units, adding 7.1% to the current stock in 2023; 8,857 new units in 2024 and about 10,529 new units in 2025.

Miami Metro is the eighth largest multi-family market with 342,845 completed units and 289,401 units in development, of which 39,713 had broken ground as of December, according to data from Yardi Matrix.

In addition, new lease asking rents are at an average of $2,356, up 8% from 2021, placing Miami 45th in the nation’s year-over-year rent growth.

“Miami was America’s most competitive rental market this year,” said Mr. Ressler. “Two-thirds of renters renewed leases. The lack of state income tax, business-friendly climate, and booming tech scene attracted droves of Millennials and even Gen-Zers looking to work and live in the Sunshine State.”

The real estate market, he added, “is moving from a 15-year artificially inflated environment of low interest rates and value inflation that the [Federal Reserve] created to keep the economy goes in the next normal. Markets are trying to figure out where they’ll land, and that may be nothing like the last 15 years.”

As pricing gets adjusted to the new income rate increases, new construction is harder to find. “Rising interest rates really do not seem to be slowing things down much,” he said. “No one knows when inflation will abate, or how high up interest rates will go, and there’s no relief in sight.”