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Thursday, June 29, 2006
We’re not in Cincinnati any more …
Same chapter, different verse from a powwow on South Florida’s economy in Palm Beach Gardens: Frank Nero, head of Miami-Dade County’s economic development agency, tells a story about a Cincinnati company considering moving 300 people to Miami.
Once company officials realized South Florida home prices were almost three times Cincy’s median ($137,700 in the first quarter of this year, according to the National Association of Realtors), they scotched the deal.
A couple questions spring to mind: First, where have these guys from Ohio been the past few years — stuck in a real estate time warp? And second, where are the new jobs coming from now that Florida no longer is the low-cost, low-tax haven it was for years?
The general consensus: Higher home prices mean Florida is going to have to shed its traditional low-wage, low-skill rap for better-paying gigs.
“It really is a transition into a knowledge-based economy,” said Larry Pelton, head of the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County.
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