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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