South Florida County Has Fallen Victim to Foreclosure Crisis

The economic recession had its first victim in a county in South Florida. Economic emergency has been declared in this county. The county whose economy was flying high through the housing boom a decade earlier has now crashed, thanks to the foreclosure crisis. In fact, houses across America are being foreclosed in great numbers. As banks are repossessing the homes, property values have crashed.

The situation is indeed grim. Now the county — St. Lucie – has taken an initiative to jump-start the local economy. It plans to come up with construction projects worth $25 million to $ 30 million that will use local labor. The county commission hopes that this will breathe new life into the troubled economy. The commission also expressed the view that there was not much cause for concern. The country is in the grip of an economic recession and declaration of emergency in a particular county does send distress signals but that should in no way, spoil the optimism of the board members.

The board officials are trying to save unemployed workers by giving them jobs in the construction industry. It has been laid down that the contractors who take up construction jobs must employ 75 per cent local labor.

The National Association of Counties observed that no other county in the country has ever taken such a step. Many bio-tech companies have set up shop here, yet the rate of unemployment has remained low – 12.8 per cent. This is the third highest unemployment rate in 67 counties in Florida. The rate is also much above the statewide figure of 9.7 per cent and the national figure of 8.5 per cent. Besides the construction industry, there have been job losses in hospitality, finance, government and even healthcare sectors.

St. Lucie rode high on the construction boom, grew fast, and fell equally fast when the recession set in. From 2000 to 2007, value of property shot through the roof and the population of the largest city, Port St. Lucie nearly became double. It touched a figure of 151,000. But when the economy crashed, everything came crashing down. Above 10,000 houses were foreclosed in 2008. Alarmingly this is thrice the number of homes lost to foreclosures in three hurricanes.

St Lucie county commissioners acknowledged that it would not be easy to impose the restrictions on contractors. Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said it is important to employ people if the economy is to be saved.