NAPLES, Fla. – Jan. 14, 2015 – Florida has regained economic ground that it lost during recession – particularly in key sectors like jobs, visitors, housing, and manufacturing.
Analysts attribute the gains to a variety of factors, including the booming stock market, low mortgage rates and falling fuel prices.
Southwest Florida "tends to attract the more affluent retirees, and those are the people who, by and large, have reaped the benefits of a booming stock market," says University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith. "They are able to finance new home purchases and cash out assets and retire."
The state added a net total of 712 new residents per day or 260,000 overall last year, according to University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research director Chris McCarty. The in-migration rate is much higher than it has been since 2008 and has had a significant impact on the housing market.
Low mortgage rates have fueled new development in the region and enabled homeowners in the Rust Belt to sell their homes and move to the Sunshine State. While areas like downtown Sarasota have seen an increase in residential development, gains have been reported in suburban areas throughout the region as well.
Improvements in the regional job market mean locals are buying homes in the area, too, though Snaith says similar gains should not be expected this year.
"The growing labor force and rising labor participation rate will make lowering the unemployment rate more challenging," he says. "The pace of decline will slow dramatically, and could reverse direction in any given month, as labor force growth picks up."
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) (01/10/15) P. A1; Pollick, Michael
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