Realtor.com gave Miami a failing grade driven by very poor affordability and a skewed new-construction market that favors luxury units, a result of geography, high costs, and heavy demand from wealthy nonlocal buyers.
Miami scored 29/100 on Realtor.com’s 2026 Metro Report Cards, with affordability at 18.9 and homebuilding at 39.1.
Geographic limits (Everglades and Atlantic) force vertical growth and raise per-unit costs, pushing developers toward luxury condos.
New-construction units in Miami carry a 248% premium over the median resold home, keeping median households priced out.
# Miami's failing grade explained
Realtor.com's 2026 Metro Report Cards gave Miami an overall score of 29 out of 100. That grade reflects two separate problems: very weak affordability and a new-construction market that does not produce housing priced for typical local residents.
Affordability: 18.9 out of 100. The median Miami household earns about $74,274 annually and the median-priced home is roughly $507,237. At those numbers, the median earner would spend nearly 47% of income on a monthly mortgage payment, well above a 30% affordability benchmark.
Homebuilding: 39.1 out of 100. Miami shows a lot of construction activity—cranes are visible across the city—but most of that supply is high-end condos rather than units priced for local buyers.
Several cost drivers make building affordable housing in Miami difficult. Land is scarce because the city is boxed in by the Everglades to the west and the Atlantic to the east, so developers must build up rather than out. That drives a concentration of condominiums, many positioned as luxury product.
Construction and labor costs, financing expenses, rising insurance costs, and slow permitting add to the baseline cost per unit. Those factors push developers toward projects with higher margins—luxury units—rather than lower-priced homes local households can afford.
Realtor.com's own analysis shows the scale of the mismatch: a typical newly built home in Miami costs about 248% more than the median resold home. That new-construction premium means adding units does not automatically expand affordable supply.
As a result, lower-income and first-time Miami buyers compete mainly for existing homes while new supply targets higher price points. Even with significant apartment and condo building, affordability remains tight because the new units are out of reach for median households.
The state of Florida overall earned a B on the Realtor.com State Report Cards. Miami is the sole major Florida metro that received an F. Other Florida metros have more geographic room to expand and thus face different cost dynamics, allowing relatively better homebuilding and affordability outcomes compared with Miami.
Constrained by geography and driven by global wealth, Miami has become Florida's sole failing housing market.
The Realtor.com report puts Miami at 29 out of 100, while nationally, homes affordable to $75,000 earners make up just 23% of listings.
For buyers outside the vacation segment, affordability remains a central concern
Florida is now experiencing one of the biggest housing market downturns in America, and Cape Coral is at the center of it. Home prices are falling, housing inventory and supply are surging, home builders are sitting on vacant new construction, and more homeowners are being forced to sell at huge losses. The Florida hou
Mortgage rates are back around 6.75% in Florida, while pending sales nationally just turned negative for the first time since late 2025. Now you’re seeing price cuts and distressed sellers in Florida. And the really interesting part is buyers taking on riskier mortgages just to make the numbers work. That tells me the
Not every city is winning in affordability
Loading more related stories...
Open the app view to save this story, compare related coverage, and continue from the same source.