Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, during campaign stops continues to take credit for overseeing Florida’s boom economy, touting that he would do the same if elected president.
“I know how to do this,” he said in Maitland, Florida, on Monday.
From Washington Post:
But according to interviews with economists and a review of data, Florida owed a substantial portion of its growth under Bush not to any state policies but to a massive and unsustainable housing bubble — one that ultimately benefited rich investors at the expense of middle-class families.
The bubble, one of the biggest in the nation, drove up home prices and had many short-term benefits for the state, spurring construction, spending and jobs. But the collapse of the housing bubble as Bush left office in 2007, after eight years of service, sent Florida into a recession deeper than that in the rest of the country, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes.
Currently, Florida remains one of the top states for foreclosures, notwithstanding a reported steady recovery in the rest of the nation.
And Florida still has over 300,000 open foreclosure cases in state courts.
Read more HERE.
