Florida is leading the nation in tourism with its year round hot and sunny climate, swaying palm trees and unique combination of snow-white beaches along the Gulf of Mexico and crashing surf along the Atlantic Coast. The Sunshine State's population is rapidly growing and new construction is popping up almost daily increasing home values and offering all types of housing options and many active homes for sale. Prestigious universities such as the University of Florida in Gainesville, the University of Miami and Florida State University in Tallahassee (Florida's capital) cover the state from top to bottom. Beautiful residential real estate in Florida can be found all over cities such as Pensacola or Destin in the Panhandle, Orlando (DisneyWorld!) or Tampa in the central part of the state, the Atlantic coast's Daytona Beach or Cocoa Beach, Miami's South Beach or, of course, tropical Key West down at the tip. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for the American renunciation of any claims on Texas. On March 3, 1845, Florida became the 27th state of the United States of America. On January 10, 1861, before the formal outbreak of the Civil War, Florida seceded from the Union; ten days later, the state became a founding member of the Confederate States of America. The war ended in 1865. On June 25, 1868, Florida's congressional representation was restored. Until the mid-twentieth century, Florida was the least populous Southern state; however, the local climate, tempered by the growing availability of air conditioning, made the state a haven, and migration from the Rust Belt and the Northeast sharply increased the population. Economic prosperity combined with Florida's sudden elevation in profile led to the Florida land boom of the 1920s, which brought a brief period of intense land development before the Great Depression brought it all to a halt. Florida's economy would not fully recover until World War II. Today, Florida is the most populous state in the South besides Texas, and the fourth most populous in the United States. The gross state product of Florida in 2005 was $596 billion[8]. Personal income was $30,098 per capita, ranking 26th in the nation. Florida's economy relies heavily on tourism. About 60 million visitors visit the state every year. Warm weather and hundreds of miles of beach attract vacationers from around the world. The Walt Disney World Resort, a mega-resort consisting of four theme parks, more than twenty hotels, water parks, shopping centers, and other attractions, is an important tourist attraction located in Lake Buena Vista. Together, Walt Disney World, and other theme park resorts such as Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld, are an important driver of the Central Florida economy. Other major industries include citrus fruit and juice production, banking, and phosphate mining within the Bone Valley region. With the arrival of the space program at Kennedy Space Center in the 1960s, Florida has developed a sizeable aerospace industry. The state did not have a state minimum wage law until November 2, 2004, when voters passed a constitutional amendment establishing a state minimum wage and mandating that it be adjusted for inflation every six months. The beach at Bahia Honda in the Florida KeysHistorically, Florida's economy was based upon cattle farming and agriculture (especially sugarcane, citrus, tomatoes, and strawberries). In the early 1900, land speculators discovered Florida, and Plant and Henry Flagler developed railway systems, which led people to move in, drawn by the weather and local economies. From then on, tourism boomed, fueling a cycle of development and tourism that overwhelmed a great deal of farmland. In 2004 and 2005, key industries along the west coast¿commercial fishing and water-based tourist activities (sports fishing and diving)¿were threatened by outbreaks of red tide, a discoloration of seawater caused by an efflorescence of toxin-producing dinoflagellates. Florida is one of the nine states that do not impose a personal income tax