Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Florida (2026)

Florida closed 189,510 homes in the last six months at a statewide median of $375,000. The fifteen cities below all closed at less than $240,000, and every one of them recorded at least 100 sales in that same six month window. They are ranked cheapest first. One thing this list does not do: it does not tell you what any of these properties rent for. No rent estimates, no rent-to-price ratios, no cap rates, no cash-on-cash returns, because none of those survive contact with an actual address. In Florida the insurance line alone can swing a deal. What is genuinely measurable at the city level is entry price and transaction volume. Shortlist on those, then verify rent and cash flow per property in the rental property calculator and the deal analyzer.

The ranking

1. Lauderdale Lakes, $110,000

The cheapest entry point on this list by a $48,000 margin, and it is in Broward County, not a rural corner of the state. A $110,000 median means roughly $22,000 down at 20%. At 170 closings in six months, about 28 a month, there is enough recent activity to price a property honestly.

2. Clearwater, $158,000

A $158,000 median on the Gulf side with 183 recorded closings, about 31 a month. That is a Tampa Bay metro address at $217,000 below the Florida median, and metro-adjacent locations generally draw a broader working tenant pool than isolated markets. Liquidity is moderate: 183 closings gives you a workable comp set, not the depth of a 400 plus sale market.

3. Lauderhill, $170,000

Lauderhill pairs a $170,000 median with 309 closings, roughly 52 a month. Low entry price plus real liquidity means you can both buy and sell without the market dictating your timeline, which is why Lauderhill deserves a serious look.

4. Barefoot Bay, $170,500

At $170,500 across 105 closings, roughly 18 a month, Barefoot Bay is the thinnest market in the top four. This Brevard County community trades as its own submarket, which cuts both ways: pricing is internally consistent and easy to comp, but 105 sales in six months means fewer buyers when you want out.

5. Okeechobee, $185,000

368 closings at a $185,000 median, about 61 a month, is a strong volume-to-price combination for an inland market. Okeechobee is not a metro suburb, so the tenant pool is local rather than commuter-driven, and the property mix runs toward older single family and manufactured housing. Manufactured and site-built homes at the same price behave very differently on resale, so confirm which you are buying.

6. Avon Park, $188,700

A $188,700 median across 163 closings, about 27 a month, in the Highlands County interior. Entry is roughly $37,740 down at 20%, and the market is small enough that the individual property drives the outcome far more than the local trend.

7. Punta Gorda, $205,000

211 closings at a $205,000 median, roughly 35 a month, on the southwest coast. Punta Gorda's median sits $163,495 below nearby Cape Coral, which closed 3,193 sales at $368,495, so this is a cheaper entry into the same coastal region. Southwest Florida coastal property carries insurance and flood considerations that can dominate the operating math, so that line item needs a real quote.

8. Holiday, $209,500

Holiday is the second busiest market here with 468 closings, about 78 a month, at a $209,500 median. That is the profile most investors say they want: low entry with heavy transaction volume in the Tampa Bay orbit. High volume means your valuation rests on many recent trades rather than a handful.

9. Palatka, $214,950

A $214,950 median across 149 closings, about 25 a month, in Putnam County roughly an hour from Jacksonville, which closed 5,401 sales at $295,000. The $80,050 discount is real, and so is the tradeoff: 149 closings is a thin book, and thin books mean slower exits.

10. Deerfield Beach, $217,500

The highest volume market on this list at 900 closings, roughly 150 a month, at a $217,500 median. Nothing else here is close on liquidity. A Broward County coastal city trading $157,500 below the state median with that much activity is worth understanding, and the explanation is almost certainly product mix, meaning condos and attached units rather than single family homes. Association documents, reserves and assessment history are the central due diligence item.

11. Port Richey, $219,000

377 closings, about 63 a month, at $219,000. Port Richey sits in the same Pasco County corridor as Holiday and offers a similar profile: low entry, high volume, Tampa Bay adjacency. With both markets closing between $209,500 and $219,000 and posting 468 and 377 sales respectively, the corridor has enough depth that you can be patient about which property you buy.

12. Defuniak Springs, $220,000

A $220,000 median across 187 closings, about 31 a month, in the Panhandle. The only market here that is not in peninsular Florida, running on a completely different economy than the South Florida and Gulf Coast entries above it. The comp set is local and should stay local.

13. Arcadia, $220,000

Same $220,000 median as Defuniak Springs, but with 106 closings against 187, roughly 18 a month. Arcadia is the second thinnest market here. Inland DeSoto County pricing is genuinely low, and with that few trades both your purchase valuation and your eventual sale depend heavily on the specific buyer in front of you.

14. Port Charlotte, $227,250

168 closings at a $227,250 median, about 28 a month. Port Charlotte is Punta Gorda's coastal neighbor at a $22,250 premium and carries the same southwest Florida insurance exposure. Entry cost is still $147,750 below the state median.

15. Ocklawaha, $235,000

The top of the affordable list at $235,000 across 123 closings, roughly 21 a month, in Marion County near Ocala. Ocala itself closed 2,657 sales at a $279,000 median, so Ocklawaha is the cheaper rural version of a market with regional depth behind it. That context helps on valuation. The 123 local closings are what you will actually be selling into.

How to read this list

City names come from listing records, so a large city can appear under more than one spelling with its counts split. Confirm you are comping inside the actual submarket, not just the label. Low entry price plus high volume are necessary conditions for a good rental market, not sufficient ones: a cheap purchase carrying a large monthly assessment can easily be the worse deal, and no city median will surface that.

Verify the deal, not the city

• •Pull a valuation and inspect the comps. On Resideline the comparable sales are visible and adjustable, which matters most in the thin markets here. - Check the accuracy dashboard. Every estimate is frozen when the property is listed, then graded against the price it actually closed at, so the track record is published rather than claimed. Live valuations cover 31 states. - Model the hold in the rental property calculator with locally verified rent, tax and insurance numbers. - Model the full deal, including financing and exit, in the deal analyzer. - If renovation is involved, run the ARV calculator before committing to a budget. The free tools work without a signup and the market pages go below the city level. For statewide context, see our Florida housing market breakdown.