"Dave Kearton" wrote in message
...
muff528 wrote:
From my home in Lakeland.........some low quality photos.

Going...........



Do your property values go up or down because of events like that, "and
the
smell, that gasoline smell..."


I'm thinking it's got to be worth another 10 or 15 points.


--

Cheers

Dave Kearton

This is Florida. ANY event increases property values. :-)

During the last couple of years prices have spiked, largely because
of speculator buying. This accelerated the normal increases in pricing in
the
state, artificially increasing "values" as determined by the real estate
industry and the taxing authorities. There is currently a grassroots
"movement" to have the state government "do something" about
the resulting property tax increases. As a double whammy, insurances
have correspondingly increased because of the greater exposure to
risk by the higher "values". Meanwhile, no-one wants to concede that
the artificially inflated values are, in fact, artificial and short-lived.
People who have recently purchased a home don't want to admit that
they made a mistake and taxing authorities are not willing to give up
what amounts to a windfall. A lot of questionable loans were made to
sub-prime borrowers and many are giving up their homes to lenders
who are now stuck with properties which are not worth the outstanding
loans. People who owned property for any length of time sold their
homes for a large profits. With cash in hand they found that they could not
even replace the home they just sold with one of equal value without getting
strapped with the higher taxes and insurance. As long as you own a property
the taxes can only be increased annually by a certain small value (~ 3%).
As soon as the property it is sold it is reassessed so a $80k house
becomes a $250k house. Meanwhile the homestead exemption remains at
an archaic $25,000.

You'd think that the big "chem-trail" left by the shuttle would keep people
away. Besides that, we have to put up with that annoying double
sonic boom just about every time the shuttle returns and it's flight path
takes it near Lakeland. (What a great sound!)

Blue'ns (Sorry for the rant), TP