ORLANDO, Fla. – July 7, 2017 – University of Central Florida (UCF) Economist Sean Snaith predicts that Florida’s gross state product will break the $1 trillion mark next year – and then climb to $1.074 trillion in 2019.

That gross state product level would make the Florida economy the 16th largest in the world, as ranked by the World Bank.

Snaith expects the gross state product to expand at an average annual rate of 2.9 percent through 2019 and outpace the projected average for the United States’ gross domestic product for the same period. Driving the economy will be job growth and home construction, Snaith said in his second quarter Florida & Metro Forecast.

“The fundamental underpinnings of the housing market in Florida continue to strengthen. Job growth in Florida is forecasted to continue outperforming the U.S. labor market and more baby boomers continue to reach the end of their working lives,” says Snaith, the director for the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the UCF College of Business Administration. “This bodes well for continued population growth via the in-migration of workers and retirees.”

Snaith notes that Florida faces a growing single-family-housing shortage because of the shrinking inventory of existing homes and a pace of housing starts that trails growth, which is rapidly pushing prices up in the single-family market.

“While this looks like another housing bubble, it’s really just an old-fashioned shortage in the single-family market,” Snaith says. “It is expected to correct itself as new housing starts ramp up over the next few years.”

Source: Florida Realtors