Families fleeing Florida (high housing costs blamed)

[Herman Munster]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115931354362274915.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks

In Florida, school principals, real-estate developers and economic-development officials are scrambling to solve a troubling mystery: Where did the kids go?

Across a state long plagued by shortages of teachers and classrooms, school-enrollment figures show declines or no growth this fall. The Palm Beach County public-school system in south Florida saw its first enrollment drop since 1971 -- a 1.9% decline to 170,582 students. Broward County, surrounding Fort Lauderdale, lost 3.1% of its students. Growth in Orlando and Tampa has slowed to roughly half... Overall, the number of students in Florida public schools now is expected to grow by just 30,000 students to 2.67 million, well below recent annual increases of about 65,000.

The reason: School officials say that even though it has cooled in recent weeks, Florida's overheated housing market -- with the median existing-home price up 90% since 2001 to $248,400 in August -- is pricing young families out of the state.

Ranking fourth in population among states, Florida remains one of the fastest-growing places in the country, adding an average of 1,000 new residents a day to its total of 18.3 million. But the state's tried-and-true formula of plentiful jobs, abundant sunshine and low taxes suddenly isn't enough to hold onto thousands of families as real-estate speculators and empty nesters are snapping up property, shrinking the supply of affordable homes for newcomers who traditionally pumped up school enrollment. And, despite being spared so far this year, there are signs of growing weariness following eight hurricanes that plowed into the Sunshine State in 2004 and 2005, causing insurance rates to skyrocket and some residents to move away before the next big storm hits. Last November, Kevin and Christy Kilpatrick left Plantation, near Fort Lauderdale, for rural Lawrenceburg, Tenn., to escape south Florida's escalating living costs, congestion and hurricanes...