Florida

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_snd-florida.html


***************

"An optimist looks at a glass and says the glass is half full. A pessimist looks at a glass and says it is half empty. An engineer looks at a glass and says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be." (John C. Maxwell quoting an unknown source)

***************

So, without my knowledge, the wonderful people who supply my posting format have changed how I do it, the mechanics of the whole thing. I'm in new territory here so we'll see how this effort works.

"City Journal" has a great current article on Florida's comeback. Over the first decade of this century, one of the leading stories demographically was Florida's slump. This was obviously caused by Florida's housing bubble. What was not so obvious was the "halfback" phenomenon: new Floridians moving not all the way back to their states of origin but "halfway back:" to North and South Carolina where the cost of living was considerably lower.

But, Florida has turned it around. At the beginning of this decade (between 2009 and 2011), Florida's total population gain - which includes domestic migration, international migration and births minus deaths - was more than 500,000 people, putting the state on track to become the nation's third -largest by 2013.

What happened? Housing prices and cost-of-living returned to historical norms (not counting the Miami metropolitan area). Nevada (another bubble or sand state) has had the same thing occur with housing prices and cost-of-living but there's been no comeback. Why? The problem with Nevada is that it's joined at the hip with California. Las Vegas and Reno depend on tourist trade from California and there the economy remains depressed. Between 2000 and 2011, California lost nearly 1.7 million people to domestic migration. According to Wendall Cox, "California's high cost-of-living seems likely to discourage new residents from moving to the state, and, left unreformed, its out-of-whack finances, poor business climate and anemic job creation in the largest metropolitan areas will probably complicate any return to its former growth. The Sunshine State has ousted the Golden State as the place for optimists to watch."

And then there's Texas. Texas has been the leader in domestic migration since it took over that title (from Florida) in 2006.