It's more expensive to buy a home instead of rent in South Florida, with workers and buyers in Miami-Dade County bearing the hardest costs in the region.

There, buying a median-priced home not only takes more than half of a household's median income, but the median income itself is less than in Broward and Palm Beach counties, and in the U.S. overall, according to Move Inc.-operated real estate information website Realtor.com.

It took this year 65.5 percent of the median $46,205 household income to buy a median-priced home in Miami-Dade, Realtor.com data show. The difference between buying and renting is most pronounced in Miami-Dade County as well, with buyers spending 26.8 percentage points more on buying than renting.

The next most expensive place to buy this year was Palm Beach County, where it took 41.7 percent of the median $56,718 household income to buy a home. In Broward County, it took this year 38.9 percent of the median $55,141 household income to buy, Realtor.com data show.

The difference between buying and renting was less pronounced in those two counties, with Palm Beach buyers spending 10.2 percentage points more on buying than renting and Broward buyers spending 4.9 percentage points more on buying than renting, the data show.

“While rents are rising, the cost of ownership is rising even faster. Therefore, it's taking up more of a percentage of the median household income,” said Ken H. Johnson, a real estate economist and associate dean of graduate programs for Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. “And that's true in the U.S. as well as in South Florida in particular.”

The Beracha, Hardin & Johnson Buy vs. Rent Index jibes with Realtor.com's findings.

The index was created by Johnson, Florida International University Tibor and Sheila Hollo School of Real Estate director William G. Hardin III, and Eli Beracha, faculty director in the real estate school's international real estate program. It is updated quarterly to show whether market conditions make it better to buy or rent a home in terms of accumulating wealth.

For now things are pointing toward renting.

“It's becoming more and more difficult for you to build greater wealth through home ownership and building up equity as opposed to renting the same property and reinvesting in a portfolio of stocks and bonds,” Johnson said.

Yet, renting might not be the best choice for everyone, Johnson added.

“If you rent and you just spent any extra savings on consumption, sometimes I call it spending that extra money on beer and cookies, you won't create more wealth,” he said.

In that case, he added, it's better to buy.

While Miami-Dade County was the most expensive place in South Florida to buy a home this year, buyers still were better off than last year.

In 2016, it took 68.9 percent of the median $44,198 household income to buy the median-priced home, according to Realtor.com.

The gap between renting and buying also was bigger in 2016 than in 2017 when buyers spent 28.5 percentage points more to buy than to rent, data show.

It cost buyers less to become homeowners this year compared with last year because incomes increased in 2017, Johnson said.