While many parts of the country are seeing an increase in home building, it hasn't reached the town of Sebring, Florida. Their boom was in 2006, when contractors were replacing residences that were destroyed during four devastating hurricanes in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, the area saw 1,152 homes. In 2012, only thirty, with a further fifty mobile homes.

Ron Handley used to employ thirty people to frame houses for his firm, Homes by Handley. Now he employs five, and ran for county commissioner as the job would supplement his income. The alternative? "I could start naming names of people who are out of business. We're down to a third or a quarter of the ones who were here then."

Likewise, county government has scaled back. The Highlands County Building Office gets along with just seven employees, of whom only three are inspectors. In 2006, the office had a staff of eighteen.