How dense are we and how dense should we be? These are big questions to be answered in determining our future land-use pattern in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
David Denslow, a researcher at the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, says the baby boomer retirement wave already has started and is crowding out working families. He said wealthy boomers taking early retirement helped drive up Florida's housing prices, making real estate unaffordable for working families. "Some of the working families have gone to the Carolinas or Virginia, and that's showing up in our stagnant school enrollments," he said.