Take the profits

Conventional wisdom during the depths of the economic downturn held that small community banks might never survive the real estate collapse.

Indeed, real estate lending is the bread and butter of community banks in Florida. The collapse in values and subsequent wave of residential and commercial foreclosures during the real estate bust forced regulators to close the weakest banks while others lost millions of dollars.

But now, the fact that small community banks have weathered the storm to become profitable again indicates there may be room for small lenders on the Gulf Coast after all.