Nearly four years after the start of a devastating recession, South Florida’s recovery barely musters a passing grade.
The hiring landscape can boast of only anemic job growth, but unemployment remains near record highs. Real estate prices are bumping along a bottom. Spending hasn’t kept pace with price increases. Only South Florida’s tourism and cargo industries can boast sustained growth.
When Florida voters head to the polls on Nov. 2, 2010, aside from casting votes for public office, they’ll also have six state constitutional amendments to mull over.
One of the proposals up for a vote, Amendment 4, aims to put land use changes before local voters, and has sparked heated debate.
SEBRING - If you've found it just a wee bit easier to find a parking space lately, it may be because municipalities in Highlands County experienced a decline in population.
Of course, that's just silly.
Finding parking spaces has more to do with winter visitors going north than anything else.
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.
THE VILLAGES — Third time was the charm for Fritz and Tina Masur.
Little that they experienced as age-restricted homeowners in Arizona or Illinois compares with the quality of life they found during the past year in The Villages.
The experiences of the Village of Hemingway couple also provide a glimpse into the dynamics of new population estimates that ranked Sumter County last year — largely fueled by growth in The Villages — as the state’s second-fastest growing county in terms of percentage increase.
Just when analysts thought the long housing slide was over, national figures for new home sales in January sank to another low, with numbers not seen since record-keeping began in 1963.
The 11.2 percent drop in sales of new homes from December surprised some experts who had expected the market to perk up after a dismal end-of-year showing.
Department of Commerce figures released Wednesday showed January's seasonally adjusted annual sales pace was 309,000 nationally. The previous record low for monthly sales was January 2009 with 329,000.
To develop his clients' vast land holdings, attorney Glenn Storch met with Volusia and Brevard county officials, bordering property owners and conservation groups.
They talked about roads. They talked about water. They discussed residential densities and jobs creation, debated how much land should be preserved, explored the impact on school construction planning. The company pulled together a panel discussion of national experts to critique their plans in public.
"We have spent four years thinking about how to do the right thing, and we're only halfway there," Storch said recently.
The most vivid sign of Florida's fight against recession came in August with the news that the state's ever-rising population declined in the 12 months ending April 1. Preliminary estimates show a drop of 58,000 in a state where growth has fueled the economic engine for more than 60 years.
The Tallahassee metropolitan statistical area, however, gained population during the same period. Wakulla County's increase of 3.5 percent to 31,791 was the most dramatic.
TALLAHASSEE — A development boom is brewing under the radar of Floridians distracted by deteriorating real estate values and record foreclosures. The state is processing an unprecedented number of proposals for new homes and commercial development. If approved, these projects could pump more than 600,000 rooftops onto a market suffering from a surplus of product and slowdown in population growth.
