Port St. Lucie Housing Market Growth Loses Momentum

Port St. Lucie was America’s third fastest-growing city between July 2005 and July 2006, according to U.S. Census counts released this week.

Back then — before the Florida housing market tanked and builders started laying off workers — most of the Treasure Coast was growing.

Local home builders still were in the process of building during that 12-month period and houses still were selling.

The census ranking is a happy statistic for local officials and builders in the Port St. Lucie housing market, but one they don’t expect to see repeated in the future.

“If you take 2005, that was a banner year,” said Don Santos, Treasure Coast Builders Association spokesman.

“It won’t be until we start comparing July 2007 numbers to July 2006 (that) you’re going to see numbers that are more in line with what’s happening … We’re all in it (a building slump). It’s sort of an epidemic in Florida, not just the Treasure Coast.”

In the next several years, Santos said to expect statistics that look more like the zero increases of Fort Pierce and Vero Beach — even in Fellsmere, which has annexed thousands of acres for development.

Fellsmere will have a hard time filling houses unless it also attracts jobs for its residents, a problem that has led to high inventory and reduced prices throughout the Florida mortgage market.

People still are moving to Florida in higher numbers than most states, said Scott Cody, a University of Florida demographer.

But the population flood of recent years has slowed to a steady stream or, in some cases, a slow drip, leading many to wonder what’s next.

• Locally, building permits have dropped off drastically in the past six months across the Treasure Coast.
• Single-family home permits fell to record lows this year in Port St. Lucie, where — less than three years ago — they were hitting record highs.
• Demographers also suspect the state’s occupancy rate, which measures how many homes actually are lived in, is falling.

Still, some officials are optimistic, saying eventually the housing market will pick up and Florida home loan applicants will return - albeit at a more sustainable pace.

In the past six years, only Vero Beach and Fort Pierce stayed stagnant. Port St. Lucie grew 61 percent while Okeechobee and Stuart increased by about 10 percent and Fellsmere and Sebastian increased 25 percent.

The slump will let governments catch up on improvements and development needed to serve those double-digit population increases, officials said.

Santos said builders are particularly optimistic about St. Lucie County, which has attracted a great deal of commercial development in the last year, including Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, a biotech organization.

“People talk about leaving Port St. Lucie … but it’s still a great place to live,” Vice Mayor Jack Kelly said.

“Everything is becoming more and more regional and those cities growing show that the region as a whole is becoming more attractive.”

The U.S. Census calculates each year how much cities’ populations have grown and then ranks the country’s largest cities — those with more than 100,000 residents — by their growth rate. Here are the rankings and growth percentages for July 2005-July 2006:

1. North Las Vegas, Nev. — 11.9 percent
2. McKinney, Texas — 11.1 percent
3. Port St. Lucie — 9.9 percent
4. Cape Coral — 8.1 percent
5. Gilbert, Ariz. — 7.8 percent
6. Grand Prairie, Texas — 6.6 percent
7. Peoria, Ariz. — 5.8 percent
8. Cary, N.C. — 5.1 percent
9. Denton, Texas — 5.1 percent
10. Lancaster, Calif. — 5.0 percent

Other Florida housing markets in the Top 50 …

13. Miami — 4.5 percent
22. Orlando — 3.3 percent
41. Tampa — 2.2 percent

SOURCE: TCPalm.com