Newer apartments in Miami are bigger than national average

Newer apartment units in the Miami metro area are averaging larger in size than those in many cities across the country.

Why it matters: Apartment sizes are shrinking nationally, a reversal in the rental market that saw units get bigger during the early part of the work-from-home era.

By the numbers: The average size of newer Miami apartments is 912 square feet, nearly 3% bigger than the 2022 national average of 887 square feet, per a new report from listing service RentCafe.

• But that pales in comparison to our neighbors in Tallahassee, with its average at 1,182 square feet — the largest of the 100 U.S. metros analyzed.

The big picture: Nationwide, newly built apartments shed 30 square feet on average compared with 2021, per the report.

• That sharp decrease was fueled in part by more studios and one-bedroom apartments entering the market, researchers found, analyzing the 100 metro areas with the most high-density units.

Flashback: In 2020 and 2021, demand for more space resulted in larger unit configurations across the U.S., RentCafe analyst Adina Dragos tells Axios.

• "Fast forward to 2022, the demand for more apartments prompted developers to accommodate more units in their projects," Dragos says.
• Case in point: 57% of apartments completed last year were small units across the U.S.

Of note: At the local level, researchers considered new apartments those units built between 2013 and 2022.

What we're watching: Apartments under construction. As the market keeps fluctuating post-pandemic, their size could signal whether Miami's trend of bigger rentals will stick.