The Miami metro area received a failing grade for affordability in a recent Realtor.com report that also found a nationwide shortage of homes within reach of middle-income buyers.
How Miami Scored
The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area was one of 13 metros to receive the report’s lowest grade, with an overall score of 29 out of 100. It scored 18.9 for affordability and 39.1 for homebuilding. A score from zero to 30 earns an F.
The report measures homebuilding partly by permits relative to population and the premium for new construction. Its affordability score considers how much of a median earner’s income goes to a mortgage on a median-priced home, as well as the share of listings affordable at different income levels.
Other Metros at the Top and Bottom
The other metros receiving failing grades were Los Angeles-Long Beach; Providence-Warwick, Rhode Island-Massachusetts; New York-Newark; Urban Honolulu; Boston-Cambridge-Newton; Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura; San Francisco-Oakland; Worcester, Massachusetts; San Diego; Stockton-Lodi; San Jose-Sunnyvale; and Riverside, California.
Des Moines-West Des Moines and Raleigh-Cary received A-plus grades. Columbia, South Carolina; Houston; and Indianapolis earned A grades. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Jacksonville, Florida; Oklahoma City; Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio, received A-minus grades.
National Supply Gap for Middle-Income Buyers
Nationally, middle-income households faced the largest supply gap. Buyers earning about $75,000 can afford homes priced up to roughly $261,140, but listings below that price account for only about 23% of the market. In a balanced market, 44% of listings would be below that threshold.
Miami Home Prices and Affordability
Realtor.com reported a median listing price of $589,000 in Miami-Dade County as of September, compared with $414,900 across Florida. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area’s listing-income alignment score was 67% in March 2026, up from 64.1% in March 2019. The score measures how closely the distribution of home listings matches household incomes.
Shortages of affordable listings are common in fast-growing Sun Belt metros, the report said.
Household Finances in Miami-Dade
United Way’s 2026 State of ALICE in Florida report, based on 2024 data, counted 155,328 Miami-Dade households in poverty, up from 145,803 in 2023. Another 408,619 households met the report’s ALICE threshold: earning above the federal poverty level but below the county’s basic cost of living. That was up from 381,666 the prior year.
Forty-one percent of county households were classified as ALICE, compared with 34% statewide. Fifteen percent were in poverty, versus 12% statewide. Across Miami-Dade ZIP codes, the combined share of households in poverty or below the ALICE threshold ranged from 83% in two ZIP codes to 15% in another.
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