Florida Statewide Housing Data

Population and Permitting Trends

Housing supply and affordability cannot be viewed in isolation. Population growth and permitting activity have likely each played a role in shaping housing market conditions across the state.

• Florida’s Population Growth (Figure 1)

  From 2001 to 2023, Florida’s population grew by over 6,250,000 residents. In recent years, the state’s population has surged past 22 million people⁵. According to the Census Bureau’s 2024 population estimates, Florida has the third-highest population of all states.

• Statewide Permitting Activity (Figure 2)

  After a high of over 287,000 housing units permitted in 2005, permitting activity in Florida plummeted in the late 2000s. According to HUD data, just over 35,000 units were permitted in 2009—a drop off of 200,000 units in just four years. Since this low, total permitting activity in the state has trended upwards. However, recent numbers are still well short of the mid-2000s peak. In 2023, just under 194,000 housing units were permitted in the state.

• Single- vs. Multi-Family Permits (Figure 3)

  Single- and multi-family permitting activity have trended at different amounts, however, in similar patterns in the state. Single-family permitting has consistently outweighed multi-family permitting. For example, in 2005, over 209,000 of total units permitted were single-family units. While single-family permitting activity decreased significantly afterwards, multi-family permitting followed the same trend. In 2023, roughly 125,800 single family units were permitted, compared to about 68,000 multi-family units.

Housing Affordability

Housing affordability is a pressing issue in Florida. Recent trends suggest that median listing prices exceed the maximum affordable price for a median-income household. This relationship is illustrated in Figure 4 and Table 1. These trends suggest a concerning affordability crisis for Florida’s housing market:

• Rising Costs vs. Median Household Incomes

  Florida’s median household income of $71,711 suggests the maximum “affordable” home price for the median single-family household is around $258,031 using conventional affordability measures⁶. However, according to recent FRED data, Florida’s median listing price has surged past $440,000 in recent years. There is clearly a large gap between the median home on the market and the home the median family could purchase without being cost-burdened.

• Implications for Households

  The median household would have to see an increase in income of over 50% to purchase the median home without being cost-burdened. In other words, even a household earning 150% of Florida’s median income cannot afford the median home according to conventional measures. This suggests lower-income households are largely priced out of available homes on the market. As a result, homeownership opportunities are largely reserved for wealthier residents in the state. It is important to note, however, that statewide affordability trends mask differences between counties. Home prices and household income vary considerably from county to county.

Table 1: Florida Housing Affordability by Household Income (Statewide)

2023 Statewide Average Monthly Median Listing Price: $466,390

Housing Supply Trends

Figures 5 and 6 show Florida’s housing supply trends over time based on an estimating model developed for the DeVoe L. Moore Center at Florida State University. The model uses 5-year American Community Survey estimates of housing vacancy and occupancy rates for owner and rental units to estimate trends of the relative surplus or shortage of residential housing in Florida. The overall supply trend suggests a significant housing shortage in Florida, with a deficit in both renter and owner-occupied housing.

• Overall Housing Supply Trends in Florida (Figure 5)

  On a statewide level, Florida has trended towards a worsening housing shortage. The earliest years of data collection suggest that in the mid- to late-2000s, the state had a cumulative surplus of over 125,000 units. By around the 2011–2015 period, this turned into an estimated shortage. The data does not suggest a recovery occurred after this period. Recent trends indicate that supply relative to demand has continued to fall. The most recent estimating period (2018–2022) suggests that Florida has a cumulative shortage of 120,800 housing units.

• Rental and Owner Occupied Unit Shortages (Figure 6)

  The recent estimates of a shortage extend to both owner- and renter-occupied housing. While there have been fluctuations on a period-to-period basis, the overall trend has been the same for the two housing types. In the earlier estimating periods (2006–2010 and 2007–2011), owner- and renter-housing appears to have hovered around a surplus of 70,000 units. Since the 2007–2011 period, the trends have been downward. Worth noting is that although renter-housing initially had a deeper estimated shortage, more recent data suggests a larger shortage of owner-housing. The most recent period (2018–2022) of data collection indicates a renter-shortage of just under 54,700 units and an owner-shortage of just under 66,200 units.

Moving Forward

Based on the estimates, Florida faces a severe housing shortage: approximately 66,000 owner-occupied units and nearly 55,000 rental units are missing from the market. Yet the gap is even worse in certain metro areas—Miami-Dade, Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa now rank among the least affordable housing markets in the nation. There are a few counties in Florida that have particularly pronounced cumulative housing shortages. Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida, has the highest estimated shortage in Florida, at just over 12,700 units. Broward has the next highest shortage (10,233 units), followed by Hillsborough (8,360) and Duval (6,941).

The consequences of a housing shortage ripple through the state’s economy and quality of life. Businesses cite housing costs as a barrier to attracting and retaining workers. Families are pushed farther from jobs, stuck with long commutes, and forced into trade-offs between housing, childcare, and healthcare.

The causes for shortages for the State are layered and persistent.

• Permitting delays can drag out projects for months or years. Unfortunately, these delays can drive up housing costs.

  • Moving forward, streamline local permitting, standardize building codes, and encourage construction of starter homes.

• Restrictive zoning locks in low-density, single-family development and often ignores the demand for smaller homes, townhomes, and apartments.

  • Moving forward, encourage upzoning and flexible land uses. Reduce restrictive lot size minimums and promote lot splits for single-family properties.

• The limited adoption of flexible solutions such as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and residential duplex units (RDUs) can serve as a barrier to building more affordable units.

  • Moving forward, promote Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and duplexes. These relatively small units could be blended gradually into neighborhoods while aiming to preserve local charm and character.

• Local politics can turn housing developments into battlegrounds. Due to additional layers of complexity, uncertainty, and costs, developers, entrepreneurs, and locals encounter barriers adding housing supply in a timely and sustainable manner.

  • Moving forward, prioritize housing production in localities experiencing shortages by identifying and addressing barriers.

This website and interactive housing shortage map offers Floridians a data-driven tool to address their local housing problems. Developed by housing economists for the DeVoe L. Moore Center at Florida State University, the Florida Policy Project, and Reason Foundation, the tool allows residents and elected officials to see local-level housing trends, track shortages in single-family and rental units, and understand whether their local market has been in balance, surplus, or deficit over time.

With straight-forward housing supply numbers tailored for local use, citizens and policymakers alike can see how deeply the housing shortage cuts into their communities—and why fixing Florida’s broken housing system is no longer optional.