Palm Beach County

South Florida, which 40 years ago gave birth to senior citizen icons such as the early bird special and condo commando, is a retirement mecca no more, according to new Census statistics released Wednesday.

Broward County lost 4 percent of its 65-plus population between 2000 and 2010, the Census reported, while Palm Beach County gained a modest 9 percent.

The numbers do not look good. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 17 percent of the homes in Florida are vacant - the second-highest vacancy rate in the nation behind Vermont. And in Palm Beach County it's worse - 18 percent of the homes are vacant.

Winn-Dixie’s announcement this week that it is closing 30 of its underperforming stores — nine of which are in Palm Beach County — has local residents wondering what the closures could mean for their community.

While 30 closures represents less than 6 percent of Winn-Dixie’s total store count, the move is significant because it means that more than a third of the current Winn-Dixie stores in Palm Beach County will be gone by Sept. 22.

Joshua Rand is the muscle. Not in a busting-skulls, Tony Soprano kind of way.

But he does seek to collect, and sometimes even buys, the debt left by delinquent homeowners who walk away from their mortgages - the same borrowers who often assume that a foreclosure or short sale wipes out their loan balance, ending their liability.

A principal in the New York-based Deficiency Judgment Recovery Network, Rand said he has "hundreds, maybe thousands" of home loans gone sour in Florida that his company, formed in late 2009, is working to collect balances from.

Sales of newly constructed homes were better than expected in April, increasing nearly 15 percent nationally over a robust March, and leaving a dearth of inventory not seen since 1968.

In the south, a region that includes Florida and 16 other states, new home sales increased nearly 11 percent over March and 38 percent compared to April 2009, according to a monthly Commerce department report released Wednesday.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted annual sales pace hit 504,000 in April. In the South, it was 278,000.

For the first time since February 2006, Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has fallen. April unemployment slipped to 12 percent from March’s revised rate of 12.3 percent.

This represents 1,113,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9,282,000, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

TALLAHASSEE - Since World War II, Florida has beckoned retirees looking to spend their golden years in the sun. The steady stream has made Florida's population the oldest in the nation.

Now, Florida is headed for an even grayer future in the Baby Boomer retirement era, state economists and demographers predict. The consequences: worker shortages and severe strains on public pensions and government services.

If you picked up the most recent Time magazine, you probably saw a story captioned: ``A Shrinking Sunshine State.''

And, if you're like many Floridians who are sick of stewing in traffic, you got your hopes up.

The University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, which tracks population trends, recently reported that the state lost 58,294 residents between April 2008 and April 2009.

The following represent city-, county-, and regional-level news stories around the state relating to the BEBR Population Program's recent release of the April 1, 2009 preliminary population estimates.

Brevard's population dipped last year - Florida Today - August 24, 2009
UF: Polk Is Losing People - The Ledger - August 22, 2009