Miami Renters Will Leave Holidays With $1,500 in Debt, Study Shows

You fork over a few hundred dollars to whatever airline can deliver you to the ice-covered tundra the rest of your family calls home. Then you stock up on gifts you hope they won’t hate and pitch in on ingredients for extravagant meals.

By the time the holidays are over, you're broke.

It’s a tale as old as time — and one that’s especially true in Miami, where the rent is so high that plenty of people struggle to afford it even in a normal month.

A new analysis by RentCafe.com, a real-estate website, shows that Miami is among 15 U.S. cities that require the most substantial savings for the holidays. An average renter household in the Magic City needs $1,558 saved to break even after the holidays, the site says.

Without those savings, Miami renters will start the new year in debt. 
The study compares the National Retail Federation's 2017 holiday spending forecast against the median renter income in the nation's 50 largest cities, factoring in average rent and cost of living. The results show that in 26 cities, renters will spend more than they make over the holidays.

On average, they can't get through the season without $549 saved.

"With the holiday season in full swing, tenants deal with not only paying the rent, but with buying gifts, decorations, and festive dinners as well," the analysts wrote. "For renters, these extra holiday costs are a problematic addition to their monthly budget, as they typically have lower incomes than homeowners."

The burden on renters in Miami — who according to RentCafe spend an average of $1,596 of their $2,210 monthly income on paying the landlord — was outranked mostly by other cities that also have notoriously high rent: Manhattan, Boston, San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles.