It makes more financial sense to buy than rent in Greater Miami, according to new research from ATTOM Data Solutions.

In its analysis, which incorporated 2017 rent data from HUD, wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and public record sales deed data from 540 counties, ATTOM calculated what share of local wages were needed to buy and rent in Greater Miami’s counties. And in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties, buying was universally more affordable.

A changing housing market

Buying a home remains more affordable than renting in 66 percent of the U.S. housing markets that ATTOM analyzed, although Daren Blomquist, the firm’s senior vice president, stressed in his comments that the scenario could change.

“While buying continues to be more affordable than renting in the majority of U.S. markets, that equation could change quickly if mortgage rates keep rising in 2017,” Blomquist said. “In that scenario, renters who have not yet made the leap to homeownership will find it even more difficult to make that leap this year. Additionally, renting may end up being the lesser of two housing affordability evils in a growing number of high-priced markets.”

Indeed, it is interesting to look at the fine print of ATTOM’s analysis, which we have collected in the chart below. Between the three Greater Miami counties, only in Miami-Dade was the percentage of wages required to rent below 45 percent, but just barely – at 44.6 percent, rent in the county is still expensive. High rents across the board do not bode well for renters who hope to one day enter the homebuying market, as more income dedicated to rent means less income dedicated to saving for a down payment.

And while buying is technically more affordable in all three Greater Miami Counties, the considerable increases in the amount of wages necessary to purchase a median-priced home – particularly the 12.2 percent rise in Broward – is stoking existing fears that the area is becoming totally unaffordable.