(23 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
St. Augustine, Florida – 13 March 2025
1. Cars driving past St. Augustine welcome sign
2. Trolley with tourists
3. St. Augustine sign
4. School group on historic district tour
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Aliyah Meyer, economic researcher, St. Johns Chamber of Commerce:
"So this is the oldest city in America. It started with the Spanish and then it’s kind of grown since then. And now it’s just this beautiful historic area."
6. Various of Mike Waldron working in his home office
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7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Waldron, remote worker in healthcare technology field:
"If, in fact, I was not working remotely, I would not be able to move down here. I’ve been working remotely now for about nine years."
8. Various of Mike Waldron working in his home office
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9. SOUNDBITE (English) Aliyah Meyer, economic researcher, St. Johns Chamber of Commerce:
"Yeah. So it was 25% of new residents were coming in as remote workers, and they were bringing their jobs with them. They kind of saw the opportunity to get more space, the larger areas, larger homes, and they also have so many amenities available to them. We have the historic district, we have Ponte Vedra, we have the beautiful coastlines. So all of that available was bringing a lot of people in, and the flexibility around remote work gave them the opportunity to really take advantage of what was available to them."
10. Trolley and people walking in historic district
11. People looking at boats in the bay
12. People walking along the water
13. Various of people in historic district
14. City of St. Augustine sign
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15. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Waldron, remote worker in healthcare technology field:
"I would say it, it certainly has gotten worse. And it’s very evident by the build up, if you will."
16. Cars driving onto bridge
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17. SOUNDBITE (English) Aliyah Meyer, economic researcher, St. Johns Chamber of Commerce:
"Since 2019, there’s definitely been an extreme amount of growth, especially in 2022. That’s when we saw that over 12% growth rate starting to hit the county. But but since following, it’s been about a 5% growth year over year. And that’s what we’re seeing projecting out. We are seeing a lot of residential growth and not as much of commercial growth. So we definitely want to start targeting that industry and bringing in more high paying jobs to the area and kind of diversifying our industry and the job market available to our new residents."
18. Various of people walking around historic district
19. For rent sign displayed in residential area
20. Various of people walking around historic district
STORYLINE:
Thousands of white-collar, remote workers have moved to the St. Augustine, Florida area in the 2020s.
It has transformed the city which calls itself “the oldest city in America” into one of the top remote work hubs in the United States.
In the county home to St. Augustine, the percentage of remote workers almost tripled from 8.6% in 2018 to almost 24% in 2023.
The initial draw was that Florida schools were back to in-person learning in 2020, while pandemic restrictions were in full force in other parts of the U.S.
The influx of new residents has brought growing pains, particularly when it comes to affordable housing.
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