Tampa, FL Rental Investment Market: DSCR & STR Numbers (July 2026)

The Read

What the numbers say about investing in Tampa

Tampa, FL's rent-to-price ratio is 0.52% — thin by DSCR standards. A $410,000 median price producing $2,150 in monthly rent means the typical deal struggles to cover PITIA at standard leverage, so DSCR borrowers here usually need larger down payments, interest-only structures, or below-median purchases to make the ratio work.

That ratio is below the 0.67% median of our 15-metro DSCR leaderboard, and Tampa, FL currently ranks #13 of 15 with a composite score of 49/100. Rents are actually falling (-1.0% year over year), so a deal that barely covers today gets harder, not easier — underwrite with no growth assumption. A 0.89% effective property tax rate is genuinely low, and because taxes sit inside PITIA, that quietly adds basis points of coverage the headline rent number doesn't show.

Here's the honest math: at 20% down and today's indicative rate, the median Tampa deal computes to roughly a 0.78 DSCR — below 1.0, meaning the rent doesn't fully cover the payment. That doesn't make the market uninvestable, but it does mean DSCR financing at the median price point requires bigger down payments, no-ratio programs at a premium, or deals bought meaningfully below the median.

Tampa isn't on our short-term-rental board — the opportunity we track here is the long-term rental engine: Florida lease economics, DSCR qualification, and price discipline. Treat every number on this page as a metro-level screen, not an appraisal: rents and prices vary block by block, so run your actual address through the calculator and get a real quote before you write offers.

Data as of July 2026 — refreshed monthly. Metro-level estimates for screening, not underwriting.

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