Elhanan Harel and his wife were living in New York City, where they paid $1,770 a month for a tiny one-bedroom apartment. The rent might have been manageable had Harel’s lice-treatment business been doing well, but the pandemic’s disruptions had made it difficult to make ends meet.
In 2020, the couple moved to Miami, hoping their money would stretch further. The move initially paid off. Harel got a job running a COVID-19 lab, and the couple rented a spacious two-bedroom condo for $2,000 a month and spent far less on expenses like groceries and car insurance than they did in NYC.
By 2022, however, the couple had two children and a rent bill…
