Much of South Florida’s black population has shifted northward from Miami-Dade to Broward over the last 10 years, helping cities like Miramar grow rapidly. Miami-Dade County’s black population declined 0.4%, while Broward’s saw a 27.7% uptick, with many of the new residents having roots in the Caribbean. Non-Hispanic blacks now make up 17.1% of Miami-Dade’s population, down from about 19% in 2000. In Broward, blacks account for 25.7% of the population, up from 20% 10 years ago.
South Florida’s community of Asians also increased last decade, up 35.3% to 55,692 in Broward and up 14.8% to 35,841 in Miami-Dade.
Across the region, several cities experienced dynamic changes in a decade.
• Homestead — the poster child for the housing boom and bust — saw its population double since the last census. The number of residents swelled from 31,000 to more than 60,000.
But the growth isn’t all positive. Fueled by cheap land and easy credit, housing stock in the city, tucked in deep south Miami-Dade, doubled to 23,400 units. That led to an increase of vacant homes: 4,400 are empty, a more than 300% spike over the last census figures.
• Coral Gables grew by 10.7% as more people flocked to the affluent bedroom community, pushing the city’s population up to 46,780 in 2010 from 42,249 in 2000. Vice Mayor William “Bill” Kerdyk Jr., connected the population growth to the building boom earlier in the decade, when more than 1,000 condominiums and apartments sprang up in the downtown area and northeast quadrant. The vacancy rate jumped to 11.4% in 2010 from 5.9% in 2000.
• Key Biscayne’s population grew to 12,344 people in 2010 from 10,507 in 2000.
“We are growing without laying a brick,” said Councilman Enrique Garcia. “A lot of condos that are owned by snowbirds are being bought by young families.”
• Miami Beach saw condo towers and new developments pop up from South Pointe to North Beach, and the city’s tax base ballooned from $7.6 billion to $24.7 billion. On South Beach alone, the stock of condo units increased by 5,600 since 2003, jumping more than 50%, according to CondoVultures.com.
But the census shows that the city’s permanent population stayed flat. Kevin Crowder, head of economic development for the city, said the census numbers reflect what the city already knew — that a substantial number of vacant units are actually second or third homes for tourists
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