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By Jeff Ostrowski
Published in the Palm Beach Post | Dec 31, 2018
We thought you might like this article by Jeff Ostrowski of the Palm Beach Post, re-printed on December 31st, 2018. Click on the blue highlights to see further information.
By some measures, Palm Beach County’s economy was firing on all cylinders in 2018. By other metrics, it lagged the rest of Florida.
In one sign of strength, unemployment fell to an all-time low of 3.1 percent in September and October, eclipsing the previous record achieved during the real estate bubble.
Meanwhile, large-scale home building returned to the county, and buyers began moving into their new homes in the Westlake and Arden developments in western Palm Beach County. West Palm Beach and Boca Raton saw building booms focused on apartments and condos. And there were other projects that commenced and will be unveiled in the near future — the Kravis Center , Norton Museum of Art and Clematis Streetscape project.
However, the housing hangover still lingers. More than a decade after the real estate bubble, median home prices remain below their 2005 peak.
And Palm Beach County’s job growth and economic growth continues to lag the overall state.
Jeff Ostrowski – Palm Beach Post
