Apartment rent rate increases wildly outpace many other parts of the country

Another week brings another opportunity for towns and cities across the region to lead the way in a national report of super-hot and overheated apartment rental markets. And the region, like it has been doing, came through.

The latest: The west coast of Florida’s four most populous MSAs — Naples-Marco Island, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater — all make the top 20 of a new report, titled 2022’s Most Expensive Areas to Rent. The report, from tech and data firm Lawn Love, looked at average rent prices (including year-over-year change), renters insurance premiums, and the share of renters spending 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities. Lawn Love analyzed 185 rental markets for its report.