GAINESVILLE, Fla. — “Build it and they will stay” would be wise policy with today’s growing number of elderly and disabled people who want to remain in their own homes, a new University of Florida study finds.
By planning ahead, homes built now with features that meet the needs of people who have difficulty getting around will prevent more costly retrofitting in the future and perhaps avoid the trauma of moving to a retirement home, said Stan Smith, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research and the study’s lead author.
Florida is not as popular as it used to be among whites who are not Hispanic, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.
Analysts say the sluggish economy, rise in the cost of living and housing market slowdown are partly behind the falling numbers.
"It's certainly true that the non-Hispanic white population in Florida is declining and will continue to decline," said Stan Smith, director of the Bureau of Economic Business Research at the University of Florida.
But Smith said one has to be cautious about over-emphasizing year-to-year changes.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The bursting of Florida’s housing bubble and overall economy has also let the air out of the state’s famed population growth, which has shrunk to its lowest levels in three decades, according to the latest projections from the University of Florida.
Torrid population growth rates in Sun Belt metropolitan areas from Florida to Arizona, Nevada and California have slowed amid a severe downturn in the nation's housing market, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census Bureau data released today.
"It's really a slowdown in places with superheated housing markets that were almost out of control in terms of their growth," says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. "It reflects the rapid response to angst of getting financing in those areas. People are becoming much more risk-averse, much more conservative about moving."
Life in Polk County got cheaper in 2006 … relatively speaking. A recently released report from the University of Florida says so, ranking Polk's cost of living 35th out of the state's 67 counties, a decrease from the previous year.
The 2006 Florida County Retail Price Index ranks Monroe as the state's most expensive county, at No. 1, while No. 67 Washington is the cheapest. Polk's new rating was down from 25th in the 2005 report.
Newswise — The latest round of bad news in the housing market dealt a blow to consumer confidence in August, causing a three-point drop to 78, its lowest level in a year, a new University of Florida study finds.
