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A large geographic portion of the Gulf Coast — the parts south of the Skyway Bridge through Naples — came up flat in a report of Florida cities and towns on the rise.
The study, from finance website NerdWallet, analyzed three metrics for 147 Florida cities from 2009 to 2012. The metrics were population growth, employment growth relative to statewide employment and income growth. Not one city or town from Collier, Lee, Manatee or Sarasota County made the top 75 under those measurements. Sarasota was No. 81, Lehigh Acres was No. 90 and Fort Myers was No. 146.
Cities and towns in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties fared much better on the list. Three from those counties made the top 10: Dunedin and Clearwater in Pinellas County and Keystone in Hillsborough County. Largo, Pinellas Park and Plant City made the top 40.
Dunedin was cited for its picturesque waterfront and lively downtown art scene, in addition to the growth. Employment rose 13.1% there, the report states, and median income jumped 8.6%. Clearwater's big catch in the survey was a 22.1% increase in median income. Keystone, NerdWallet's No. 2 town in the state for homeownership in a separate survey, made the top 10 on account of population and median income. Population rose 18.6%, while income climbed 10.4%.
The top three cities in all of Florida on the rise, according to the survey, are Pine Hills, west of Orlando in Orange County; Parkland in Broward County; and West Little River in Miami-Dade County. Here's a glance at Gulf Coast cities that made the top 50 of the list, and where some other major areas fall in the rankings.
Rank, city population employment income overall growth score
4. Dunedin -2% 13.1% 8.6% 58.5
6. Clearwater 1% 3% 22.1% 58
10. Keystone 18.6% 3.6% 10.4% 54.8
18. Largo 4.2% 6.7% 7.1% 51.7
31. Pinellas Park 7.8% 2.1% 7.8% 48
37. Plant City 7.7% 3.2% 3.6% 46
40. Port Charlotte 20% 4.3% -3.3% 45.6
53. St. Petersburg 2.2% 0.5% 7% 43.9
64. Tampa 3.2% 0.8% 4.8% 42.9
70. Brandon 15.5% -0.2% 1% 42.4
81. Sarasota 1.6% 4.5% -2.9% 40.8
90. Leigh Acres 44.6% -9.6% 0.6% 39.7
146. Fort Myers 2.9% -14.9% -3.5% 18.5
Note: Employment is growth relative to statewide employment.
Source: NerdWallet
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