Strong Job Gains Meets High Apartment Supply Across Florida

Job growth has been significant across the state of Florida in the current cycle, which would typically lead to solid apartment occupancy and rent growth. But apartment performance in the Sunshine State has been subdued by staggering new supply volumes.

Florida added 950,000 jobs in the 2020–2024-time frame, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was a standout performance, second only to Texas. In addition to total jobs gained, however, Florida also impressed in percentage growth. Only a few states have seen a higher percentage growth rate than Texas and Florida, including much smaller Utah and Idaho.

Still, even stellar job growth cannot prevent performance challenges brought on by high apartment supply in Florida.

Roughly 285,000 new market-rate apartments have been delivered in Florida over the past four years, while Texas saw nearly 395,000 units complete, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. In a distant third place was California, which added 170,000 units during that period. However, California's population (40 million) is nearly double that of Florida (23 million), which points to the significance of the local apartment supply volume.

The Florida market that saw the most new apartment supply deliver in the past four years was Orlando, with over 50,200 units. Other markets with deliveries around the 40,000-unit mark include Miami and Tampa, while Jacksonville saw completions of just under 30,000 units in the 2020-2024 time frame.

Notably, Jacksonville is a much smaller market than most of these, with an existing unit count of just over 148,000 units. That means that 20% of the market’s total volume of existing product was delivered just in the past four years. Meanwhile, Tampa and Orlando are nearly twice the size of Jacksonville, with almost 300,000 units each, and Miami’s existing stock even bigger at nearly 340,000 units.

Still, several markets across Florida have grown total apartment inventory significantly since 2020.

For more information on the state of Florida apartment markets, including forecasts, watch the webcast: Market Intelligence: 2025 Q1 Florida Region Update.