Growing population will aid Florida housing market: study

Florida’s fluctuating job market will continue to stymie population growth for the next few years, according to recent findings by the University of Florida, but in good news for housing, population growth will rev up again in the near future.

“The recovery is very slow, and that’s why we think Florida’s population growth will be slow,” said Stan Smith, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. His longer-range forecast is more optimistic, however. He said the state should add 2.52 million people between 2010 and 2020, 2.55 million people between 2020 and 2030 and 2.2 million people between 2030 and 2040.

If Smith is correct, that sort of population growth would permit housing construction to rise to more familiar levels by 2020. He expects statewide housing starts to increase from 40,000 a year now to 150,000 a year in a few years.

Florida’s unemployment rate is currently 10.8 percent, the fourth-highest in the nation. [Palm Beach Post]