Five Reasons Regular People Can't Afford Miami Real Estate

Could another real-estate crash hit Miami sometime soon? Some analysts think think so. More than 3,000 condo units became available in the past few years, and a mind-blowing 11,000 are set to hit the market within the next two years. Miami's housing market took a beating in the past three...

By Jerry Iannelli

November 6, 2016

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Could another real-estate crash hit Miami sometime soon? Some analysts think think so. More than 3,000 condo units became available in the past few years, and a mind-blowing 11,000 are set to hit the market within the next two years. Miami's housing market took a beating in the past three months, and if the trend continues, those 11,000 new units might flood out the market completely.

If you're a condo investor, that is bad news. But there are more than a few working-class folks in Miami who might be happy to see rent and real-estate prices in Miami drop back to affordable levels. Cranes are everywhere, which certainly pleases developers and politicians, but it's hard to find a person without a trust fund who's excited about how much he or she pays for rent right now.

Though the city has never really been a place where the poor have thrived, Miami's housing woes have totally spun out of control in the past few years.

Here are five reasons why:

1. The rent is too damn high, and it always has been.

2. Three-quarters of people of color in Miami don't have much money saved thanks to the city's insane rent prices.

3. Miami denies more black and Hispanic mortgages than anywhere else in the nation.

4. Want to live in très cool downtown Miami? Too bad it's a playground for rich kids.

5. Rich people fight affordable housing tooth-and-nail whenever it gets proposed.

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Jerry Iannelli is a former staff writer for Miami New Times from 2015 to March 2020. He graduated with honors from Temple University. He then earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

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Twitter: @jerryiannelli