Population data released late last year from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that Florida is growing quicker than any other state, with its population growing nearly 2% from 2021 to 2022 alone. That figure increases to 3.3% from April 2020 to July of last year — representing more than 700,000 new residents who call the Sunshine State home.
The national economy faces a major test this year as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy in an effort to bring down the inflation that has wracked the country for the past two years. Many economists fear that the Fed will tip the country into recession as it raises interest rates. Already, the Fed's rate hikes have translated into sharply higher mortgage rates and thrust the housing market into what the industry has described as a recession — but Florida has defied that trend.
“People were going to restaurants, people were going out more,” Salese told the Washinton Examiner, noting that in Connecticut at the time, people weren’t socializing as much, and major events like graduation parties weren’t happening. Certain businesses, such as movie theaters, remained shuttered or at reduced capacity as her family made the move south.
“The area was already growing, but now it just really accelerated because a lot of people realized they could work remotely, and a lot of people who maybe wanted to live in Florida someday decided they could live there now and work remotely,” he said. Her store was in a smaller location when she first started out but has expanded greatly alongside the population of a now-bustling downtown Naples. While she started out just selling shoes and hats, the store now stocks much more. She even has her own European clothing line, traveling across the Atlantic for business several weeks per year. She described the increase in population and visitors to the area since she started as “tremendous.
DeSantis last month delivered his first State of the State address since being handily reelected. The governor addressed the state’s economy just a few sentences into the speech, which was closely watched given his possible presidential ambitions.
Not the northern states that didn't follow the govt telling us how to protect ourselves.