Fewer people moving to Florida

According to recent census estimates, fewer people are moving to Florida and state officials are looking for new ways to promote the state, the Miami Herald said.

The numbers are the lowest they have been in years with the most recent data showing only 461,088 people moved to Florida from other states in 2009 - a figure 171,080 lower than that of 2005. In addition, 439,665 people moved from Florida to other states, meaning the state is nearly losing as many residents as it is gaining.

To combat this loss of residents, which some experts believe is a result of the state's housing crisis, significant job loss, natural disasters and overall effects of the recession, state offiicals have begun an attempt to rebrand the state and popularize it for reasons other than warm weather.

"The Florida you knew three years ago is gone, and it's not coming back. Our challenge is to create high-skilled jobs to accommodate people who want to move to Florida,'' Bob Swindell, CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, told the Herald.

However, the problem may not be with Florida itself. The Herald also notes that a potential cause for the lack of people moving to the state is the fact that the low demand in the housing markets in other states is making it difficult for people to sell their homes in order to relocate.  

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