No. 10: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla.

Average monthly rent: $611
Annual drop: -9.5%
Q4 2009 drop: -1.3%

The Palm Bay market was one of the casualties of the troubled economy in Florida, where the state population shrank in 2009, the first time in decades, according to the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research. In the past two years, the unemployment rate in the Palm Bay area has skyrocketed, reaching 12.1% in December 2009, nearly three times its 2007 rate. The vacancy rate, at 14.4%, was the highest of the 88 metros surveyed by AXIOMetrics. Landlords gave renters an average 1.5-month discount in Q4.

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