2011 ICSC Florida Retail Report
The retail market in Florida continues an uphill battle to recovery. The state continues to lag slightly behind the rest of the nation, due in large part to the severity of the housing and unemployment struggles. The progress has been slow and intermittent. While antecdotal evidence from many industry experts suggests that the recovery is on its way, much of the
statistical information points to Florida having reached the bottom of the market, but not yet seeing solid signs of recovery.
Florida’s unemployment rate will continue to be a good indicator of our industry’s health. As of June 2011, unemployment for the nation is 9.2%, while the unemployment rate for Florida reported 10.6%, Florida’s being 80 basis points better from the same time last year. Another bright spot in fundamental data across the state is the stability in occupancy. Statewide occupancy has been stable over the past seven quarters. Since the third quarter of 2009, the lowest point was 89.0% and has been slowly increasing to 89.3% currently. Over the last 6 months, about half the markets analyzed in this report had an increase in occupancy. Of those that decreased, only one market was more than -0.3%. The glut of tenant moveouts has ceased to be a significant problem and less tenants are requesting rent relief compared to a year ago.