Apr 28, 2008 12:00 PM, By JON SPRINGER

Subprime woes have slowed residential growth, but some markets are calling for more stores By: By JON SPRINGER

The subprime mortgage crisis has come to roost for retailers relying on new stores for growth. The slowdown in home sales has slowed migrations to places like Florida, which for years was a sizzling market for new homes and the retailers who followed them there or anticipated their arrival.

“The Baby Boomers, which really are all coming of age right now, can't get down to Florida or anyplace else because they can't sell their [current] house,” Herbert Zarkin, chief executive officer of BJ's Wholesale Club, remarked in a conference call last year. “And that has a big impact on Florida, there is no doubt about it. There has been a lot of guys that were building clubs, ourselves included, in anticipation of the continuing arrival of all this population.”

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