Data Analysis

Zillow's October 7, 2026 analysis found that a renter earning $100,000 can afford a median 1,674 square feet in Jacksonville and 1,000 square feet in Miami, a gap of 674 square feet on the same budget.

Orlando came in at 1,474 square feet and Tampa at 1,299, both above the national median of 1,152. Miami's median listed rent of $2,600 is higher than the $2,500 a $100,000 salary supports under the 30 percent guideline.

Zillow published an analysis on October 7, 2026 of what a $100,000 salary rents in each of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, and Florida's four metros in the table land at opposite ends of it. A renter earning $100,000 can afford a median 1,674 square feet in Jacksonville, 1,474 in Orlando, 1,299 in Tampa and 1,000 in Miami. The national median is 1,152 square feet. Jacksonville and Miami are 674 square feet apart on an identical budget. Miami's median listed rent of $2,600 sits above the $2,500 a month that salary supports at the 30 percent guideline Zillow uses.

How does Zillow define an affordable rental at $100,000?

Zillow applies the standard guideline that a household should spend no more than 30 percent of gross income on rent, which puts a $100,000 earner at about $2,500 a month. The metro table reflects listings at the top of that range, between $2,333 and $2,500 a month. For comparison, Zillow puts the typical renter household at $58,000, or about $1,450 a month.

Nationally, Zillow found that a $100,000 earner can access 77 percent of the rental listings on its site, more than double the share available to the typical renter household, and gets nearly 20 percent more living space. The typical market rent nationally is $1,932 a month on Zillow's Observed Rent Index, and the median listed rent for 2026 is $1,750. At $2,500 a month, Zillow puts the national mix of affordable rentals at 52 percent apartments, 30 percent single-family homes and 18 percent condos.

Treh Manhertz, senior economic research scientist at Zillow, said of the spread across markets, "The variation we see in what a $100,000 income rents across markets is ultimately a supply story."

Which Florida metro gives a $100,000 renter the most space?

Jacksonville, by a wide margin. Its median of 1,674 square feet is the seventh largest of the 50 metros in Zillow's table, counted by this desk. The median affordable rental there has three bedrooms, and 63 percent of what fits the budget is a single-family home, the fourth highest single-family share of the 50 behind Oklahoma City at 77 percent, Memphis at 73 percent and Las Vegas at 67 percent.

Orlando is next at 1,474 square feet, also three bedrooms, with 49 percent of affordable listings single-family. Tampa is 1,299 square feet and three bedrooms, with 46 percent single-family.

All three sit above the national 1,152 square feet. Thirty-four of the 50 metros do.

Why is Miami so different from the rest of Florida?

Miami is the outlier in every column. Its median affordable rental is 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms, 152 square feet below the national median. Only 15 percent of what a $100,000 earner can afford there is a single-family home, against 63 percent in Jacksonville. And 35 percent of the affordable listings are one bedroom or smaller, against 2 percent in both Orlando and Jacksonville.

The clearest marker is the rent level itself. Miami's median listed rent of $2,600 is above the $2,500 budget, which puts a $100,000 salary below the midpoint of the Miami rental market rather than above it. Counted by this desk, seven of the 50 metros have a median listed rent above $2,500: San Jose at $3,539, New York at $3,175, Boston and San Francisco at $3,000, San Diego at $2,830, Los Angeles at $2,748 and Miami at $2,600. Miami is the only one of the seven outside California, New York and Massachusetts.

On the other side of the table, Orlando and Jacksonville are at 2 percent one bedroom or smaller, among the lowest shares in the country. Only Indianapolis, at 1 percent, is lower.

What does the Florida spread say about rental supply?

It says the four markets are built differently, which is the point Manhertz makes about supply. In Jacksonville and Orlando the stock a $100,000 budget reaches is largely detached houses with three bedrooms. In Miami it is largely apartments and condos, a third of them one bedroom or smaller.

That difference is structural rather than cyclical, and it will not move much with rates or with a season. A renter who moves within Florida at the same income is changing housing type, not only price.

Zillow's table does not cover Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach, so this reading applies to the four metros it does cover and not to South Florida as a whole.

What should Florida renters and landlords take from this?

For renters, the comparison that matters is size and type at a fixed budget rather than rent alone. A $2,500 budget in Jacksonville is a three-bedroom house with room to spare; the same budget in Miami is a two-bedroom unit near the market median. Current conditions in each market are on their hub pages: Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and Miami.

For owners weighing a rental, the single-family share is the number to watch. In Jacksonville and Orlando a detached house competes against a large field of other detached houses at this price point. In Miami it competes against very little of its own kind. Statewide and metro-level figures are collected on the Florida Housing Intelligence market pages, and the desk's running coverage is at Florida Housing Intelligence.

Limitations

The median listed rent figures come from listings Zillow collected between January and August 2026. Zillow states that smaller units list more often than larger ones, which pulls a listed median below the typical market rent. That is why Miami's $2,600 listed median and the national $1,750 listed median are not directly comparable to the $1,932 national typical market rent from Zillow's Observed Rent Index, which is a different measure.

The square footage, bedroom, single-family and one-bedroom columns describe listings priced at the top of the $100,000 budget, between $2,333 and $2,500 a month, rather than the whole rental market in each metro.

Zillow's table covers 50 metros and includes only four in Florida: Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach are not in it, so nothing here describes those markets.

The rankings in this article, including Jacksonville's seventh-largest median size, its fourth-highest single-family share, and the count of seven metros with a median listed rent above $2,500, are this desk's own computations from Zillow's published 50-metro table. Zillow published the figures; the ordering is ours.

The 30 percent of gross income guideline is a convention used for comparison across markets. It is not a lending rule and it does not describe what any particular household can carry.

Sources

Zillow, "What $100K rents: A house in Memphis, a one-bedroom apartment in San Jose," October 7, 2026, including the 50-metro table and methodology note. https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2026-10-07-What-100K-rents-A-house-in-Memphis,-a-one-bedroom-apartment-in-San-Jose

Zillow Observed Rent Index, cited in the same release for the national typical market rent of $1,932.

Disclosure: Jon Brooks is a co-founder of Momentum Realty, a Florida real estate brokerage that owns and funds Florida Housing Intelligence. Momentum has a financial interest in Florida real estate transactions, including in markets named here. See our editorial standards.