The Florida land boom of the 1920's was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925. The land boom left behind entire new cities, such as Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami Springs, Opa-locka, Miami Shores, and Hollywood.

The boom eventually fizzled out as disaster followed in the shape of the September 1926 Miami Hurricane, which drove many developers into bankruptcy.

In 1925, some 7,000 people seeking a new life and perhaps a new fortune entered Florida each day. In Massachusetts alone, owners of more than 100,000 bank accounts used their savings to invest in Florida land. Deposits in Florida banks increased 400 percent in three years. Ohio politicians were so shocked by the size of the wave of cash flowing southward that they banned Florida real estate firms from doing business in their state.

The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 continued the catastrophic downward economic trend, and the Florida land boom was officially over as the Great Depression began. The depression and the devastating arrival of the Mediterranean fruit fly a year later destroyed both the tourist and citrus industries upon which Florida depended.

In a few years, an idyllic tropical paradise had been transformed into a bleak humid remote area with few economic prospects. Florida's economy would not recover until World War II.

Sources:

Bubbles, Booms, and Busts: The Rise and Fall of Financial Assets.

BUBBLE IN THE SUN; The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought On the Great Depression; Article By Christopher Knowlton