Florida's empty home rate is highest in USBy admin | March 22, 2011 5:37 AM EDT
Florida has roughly half the population of California, but more vacant houses. In fact, Florida, has more vacant houses — 1,567,778, more than one out of every six — than any state in the country.It's a dire statistic offered up last week by the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 survey.
The data reinforce how the Sunshine State got so grossly overbuilt, how many people lost their houses to foreclosure, and how many simply walked away from homes. Now that the pace of state population growth is more modest, it will take a good long while for these empty homes to be absorbed by new households.
In all, 17.5 percent of the homes in the state are vacant, according to the 2010 census survey. The census took a snapshot of occupied and vacant housing in this country as of April 1 last year. That statewide vacancy rate is up 34 percent from 2000 when the last big census survey was conducted.
Some parts of Florida are emptier than others.Some small-population counties have huge home vacancy rates, the census survey found. Along the Panhandle coast near Port St. Joe, for example, Franklin and adjacent Gulf County suffered 51 and 41 percent vacancy rates, respectively.Among more populated counties in the state, southwest Florida is ground zero for vacancies. At the top of the list is Collier County, home to upscale Naples, where one of every three homes is vacant. Right behind are Lee (Fort Myers), Charlotte (Port Charlotte) and Sarasota counties. ...............(more)
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http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/125417/20110322/floridas-empty-home-rate-is-highest-in-us.htm#ixzz1HWWJm5dp