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Florida has earned a title no renter wants to hear: the worst state in the nation for apartment hunters when it comes to how much they pay in rent.<\/p>\n
A new Consumer Affairs analysis ranks the Sunshine State as the single worst state in the country for renters, showing that the cost of rent across Florida is about 18% higher than the national median. Without change, housing advocates warn that these skyrocketing costs are actively threatening the state\u2019s future ability to retain its workforce.<\/p>\n
For local residents like Kevin Green, renting has simply been a way of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been here for 20 years,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n He noted that one of the primary benefits of renting is avoiding out-of-pocket costs for property maintenance and repairs.<\/p>\n \u201cWasher and dryer always going out, or the refrigerator is going in and out and you have to fix this and that,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n The housing crunch is also impacting policymakers directly. State Representative Anna Eskamani has filed tenant protection legislation for years, and she is a renter herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI live with my twin sister in Orlando,\u201d Eskamani said. \u201cWe are renters. We rent a house. And Orlando actually is a very large renter community.\u201d<\/p>\n Eskamani, who is 35, pointed out that data reflects how homeownership is drifting farther out of reach for younger generations. The average age of homeownership in the United States has now climbed to around 42 years old.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope to pursue that goal before 42,\u201d Eskamani said, adding that she is currently running for mayor of Orlando to focus on the housing crisis at the municipal level. \u201cWe cannot retain top talent in our state if the next generation cannot afford to live in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Clyde Stophel says rising rent is pushing him to consider leaving Florida for more affordable housing.<\/p>\n He says, \u201cHere, more recently, I\u2019ve been wanting to move more upwards to South Carolina because they\u2019re a little cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n State Rep. Anna Eskamani says stronger tenant protections are needed as housing costs remain high.<\/p>\n She says, \u201cWhen you face an eviction on your record, it is devastating to every part of your life\u2026 everything we can do to prevent an eviction is going to save us money long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n While statewide trends paint a grim picture, you could call Jacksonville the \u201cbest of the worst\u201d when compared to other Florida cities. Despite the state\u2019s overall dismal ranking, it remains significantly cheaper to rent in the River City.<\/p>\n The latest report from housing platform Zumper shows that Jacksonville\u2019s one- and two-bedroom apartments are priced around $1,130 and $1,330, respectively. That means local rent sits well below Florida\u2019s median rent, which currently hovers around $1,669.<\/p>\n Local officials say they are actively working to help tenants who are struggling to keep up with the market. A city spokesperson told Action News Jax that municipal programs are already in place to assist residents with eviction protection and direct rental assistance.<\/p>\n Furthermore, data from the city\u2019s new affordable housing tracking dashboard shows that nearly 7,000 below-market-rate homes have been built or are on the way since Mayor Donna Deegan took office in 2023. Of those units, roughly 6,000 specifically target affordable or low-income thresholds.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida has earned a title no renter wants to hear: the worst state in the nation for apartment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1571,2217,28,116,118,117,125347,88611,125348],"class_list":["post-297726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-affordable-housing","tag-anna-eskamani","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-kevin-green","tag-state-representative-anna-eskamani","tag-worst-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}