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Almost everyone is from somewhere
else
By Louise Bolger
SUN STAFF WRITER
Did you ever notice that practically no
one living in Florida is a native Floridian?
Well maybe there are a few homegrown folks, but the majority
of people you meet are from somewhere else. I’m always
surprised to meet someone who grew up and went to school here,
almost like finding a Mayflower descendent in the Bronx.
Because of this, I decided to do a very brief and very unscientific
analysis of where people who are moving to the Island are
from. I took residential transactions during the month of
March and analyzed 48 sales in the three Island cities with
some very interesting results.
It appears that most of the people moving to the Island already
live in Florida. Fifteen of the 48 transactions were either
residents of one of the other Island cities, Bradenton or
somewhere else in the state. Lakeland was formerly home to
three of our new residents, but they also came from Zolfo
Springs, Tampa, Parrish, Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg, Longboat
Key and Sarasota. I guess you know a good thing when you see
it, so what’s the point of leaving the state?
The Midwest imported 10 new residents to the Island; this
was no surprise based on all the Illinois and Michigan license
plates visible during season. Illinois was the winner with
four, followed closely by Michigan with three, Ohio with two
and Indiana with one.
Usually transplants from the Northeast are not as numerous
as the Midwest, but during this time frame, they were neck
and neck. Nine families followed I-95 to our Island paradise
— three from New Jersey, two from New York, two from
Pennsylvania, one from New Hampshire, and one from Connecticut.
One of the more interesting numbers came out of the state
of Washington which sent four families to the Island. Could
this be the beginning of Washington challenging the Midwestern
states for control of Florida? Our neighbor Georgia accounted
for three moves and Minnesota for two. (Is there anyone left
in Minnesota?) The balance of intra-state moves was made up
of one each for Arizona, Tennessee and Arkansas.
As anyone who shops in Publix knows, the Island attracts many
people from out of the country. One of our new residents is
from the United Kingdom and one from the Virgin Islands. Based
on what I read weekly in the Manatee County tax records, the
United Kingdom imports more residents than any other foreign
country. However, I was surprised to see that Canada was not
represented in my sample group.
I guess what this all boils down to is that those of us already
living in Florida like it enough to stay. The Northeast is
starting to give up on the east coast of Florida and appreciate
the West. We’ll keep seeing the Illinois and Michigan
plates for a long time to come. And England is still trying
to take over the United States. To sum it up, practically
everyone in Florida is from somewhere else – and they
keep coming.
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