The housing censuses for 1950, 1960, and 1970 show that Pinellas County 

 has over one-third of the mobile homes in Southwest Florida (Table 4). The 

 next largest share is in Hillsborough County. These two counties have over 

 half of the mobile homes, but their percentage of the ten county total is 

 declining. The other eight counties have had sizable increases in the number 

 of mobile homes; Charlotte and Monroe Counties are exceptions. Census data 

 after 1970 are not yet available. 



Table 4. Number of mobile homes in the counties of Southwest Florida in 1950, 

 1960, and 1970 (U.S. Department of Commerce 1961, 1971). 



County 1950 1960 1970 



Charlotte 



Collier 



DeSoto 



Hillsborough 



Lee 



Manatee 



Monroe 



Pasco 



Pinellas 



Sarasota 



Southwest Florida — — — 



Florida 19,592 65,087 172,100 



*Data not immediately available ( — ). 



Multi-family Dwelling Units 



The multi-family building permits authorized from 1975 to 1979 for South- 

 west Florida (Table 5) show that the percentage of multi-family units in 

 Southwest Florida is low for Pinellas County (20%) and Hillsborough County 

 (17%). These percentages are low because much of the retiree-oriented resi- 

 dential development started before the construction of multi-family structures 

 for retirees and vacationers (e.g., time-sharing units) become popular; conse- 

 quently, a large portion of retirees are housed in mobile homes and other 

 single-family structures. This is probably true, but to a lesser extent, in 

 Hillsborough County where the economic base is more diversified. The propor- 

 tion of multi-family homes in DeSoto County is small and single-family homes 

 predominate because it is an inland, agriculturally-oriented county usually 

 overlooked by retirees and tourists. In the other counties, the percentage of 

 multi-family homes to single-family homes is higher because their residential 

 growth better reflects recent trends toward multi -family rental and condomin- 

 ium housing. 



59 



