State economists said that they expect Florida’s economic recovery to start six months later than what they had originally anticipated. They made their revisions after reports that unemployment and the number of bank foreclosure homes in Florida rose in the first six months of this year.

Market data showed that foreclosure filings from January to June were made on 268,064 bank foreclosure homes, earning Florida the second spot in the state foreclosure rate ranking. For the first six months of 2009, Florida’s foreclosure activity rose by 7 percent compared with the last half of 2008 and 42 percent higher than the first six months of 2008.

Meanwhile, the economists at the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research predicted that the state’s unemployment rate will rise by 11 percent or almost 1 million jobless people by the end of 2011.

Office of Economic and Demographic Research head Amy Baker said that the economists were hoping that some changes at the national level would be able to benefit Florida. However, she said that initiatives such as economic stimulus and assistance to the credit market have failed to make some impact. This development may force state officials to raise taxes or reduced some services.

According to Dave Denslow, an economist at the University if Florida, to balance the budget based on the revised state forecast, Florida officials need to generate an additional amount of $2 billion.

The state’s current budget was reinforced by $5 billion in government stimulus fund and $2.2 billion in new taxes and fees.
Meanwhile, adding to Florida’s woes is the rise in demand for social service programs, particularly Medicaid which is provided to people who cannot afford the healthcare system.

Senate economic-improvement committee chairman Don Gaetz said that an increase in unemployment rate and the number of bank foreclosure homes indicated the lack of business activity which is crucial in the economic recovery. He added that when people are unemployed, they need Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance which could burden the state financially.

Florida’s unemployment rate in June was higher by 11.5 percent, while one out 33 homeowners in the state received filing for foreclosure homes.