The struggle to find the most affordable housing option is real for most Floridians statewide; but trying to do so in New Smyrna Beach today could be costlier than anywhere else in the Orlando Metro area, according to a recent report.
Zumper – a “digital marketplace for renters and property managers,” according to its website – released an analysis of one-bedroom rental listings in the area, which included 18 cities.
New Smyrna Beach easily topped the list with a one-bedroom rental median of $2,040, according to Crystal Chen, the report’s author. The city of Clermont placed second with $1,570. NSB’s figure represents a 7.3% decrease from the same time last year.
While the report “analyzed active listings that hit the market (July 2025),” New Smyrna Beach has taken the report’s top spot in previous years.
The two-bedroom median price was $2,680 for New Smyrna Beach, putting the city at the top of that category as well. Ormond Beach placed second with $2,000.
Well ahead of other area towns like Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Palm Coast and DeLand, New Smyrna Beach real estate agents have “certainly seen the impact of rising rental prices,” according to Sarah Caudill, real estate agent and co-owner of Florida Life Real Estate Group.
High rentals costs driving increased interest of first-time home buyers
While Florida Life Real Estate Groups operate in the home market, the fact that New Smyrna Beach renters are facing growing monthly costs is “shifting some perspectives,” Caudill said.
“High rental demand and new construction incentives are also attracting investor buyers, which adds competition to the market and can create affordability challenges for first-time buyers,” Caudill wrote in an email to The News-Journal.
Therefore, she said, “many renters are now evaluating the long-term financial benefits of homeownership more seriously.”
“When monthly rents begin to rival or exceed mortgage payments (especially with the right loan programs or down payment assistance), buyers are more motivated to explore purchasing instead of continuing to rent.”
Caudill and her team are seeing “new construction demand increase, especially from first-time home buyers who are facing rising rent.”
“Buyers can get in now to a brand-new home with a great bought down interest rate of 3.99%-4.99% from the builder and we are able in many cases to negotiate all their closing costs to be covered by the builders,” Caudill added.
According to a recent report from University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, “Florida added over a million households between 2019 and 2023, including nearly 195,000 renter households.”
“Overall, rising rents are pushing more people to consider buying, but they’re also increasing pressure on both the rental and for-sale markets here in New Smyrna Beach,” Caudill wrote. “It’s a trend worth watching closely.”
How do NSB’s rental prices compare to Daytona Beach, rest of Volusia?
Ormond Beach’s median for one-bedroom rental listings fell to $1,440, placing the city seventh on the list. Palm Coast with $1,430 was ninth; Daytona Beach with $1,280 was 13th; Port Orange with $1,250 was 14th; and DeLand with $1,110 was 17th.
Except for New Smyrna Beach, every city fell below the state median for one-bedroom rentals at $1,580, according to Zumper’s report.
In comparing numbers from last year’s report, Ormond Beach’s one-bedroom rental median value increased by 17.1%, while Daytona Beach’s rose by 2.4%. On the other hand, DeLand saw a 10.5%-decrease. Port Orange and Palm Coast saw 9.4% and 1.4% declines respectively.
Here is how each city ranked in Zumper’s report:
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: New Smyrna Beach ‘most expensive’ for 1-bed rentals in Orlando Metro area, report says
Reporting by Brenno Carillo, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
