`Bubble City': Workers Flee Naples, Florida's High Home Prices

Bloomberg reports:

The Naples-based Collier County School District raised pay an average of 6 percent on July 1. Still, 15 teachers who planned to move to Naples withdrew from contracts that were to begin this month because of housing costs, said Debbie Terry, the district's recruitment director. The district had 65 unfilled jobs three weeks before the start of the school year.

The Collier County Sheriff's Office hasn't been able to fill almost 100 positions, even after offering signing bonuses of as much as $3,000 since Jan. 1, said Darlyn Estes, senior human resources analyst.

Naples, named after the Italian coastal city, lies across the peninsula from Miami, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the northwest. Its population of 300,000 had an unemployment rate of 2.3 percent in May, near a 10-year low and half the U.S. rate of 4.6 percent.

High housing cost do discourage many people.