In the Florida Housing Market, Rewards are Still Worth the Risks
The pioneers who settled Florida were a tough bunch, writes editorial page editor Diane Steinle in the St. Petersburg Times, braving mosquitoes, bears in the woods, heat, humidity, disease and isolation.
Living in Florida in 2007 is even scarier.
Hurricane season is less than four weeks away, and because of past hurricanes, homeowner’s insurance rates have soared so high that some people are going uninsured. By choice.
Or their insurance companies have canceled them, so they must pray state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has enough to cover their losses if a storm hits.
Some Floridians - mostly those who own businesses or second homes - are facing big property tax bills because property values escalated so much in the past several years and those properties aren’t protected by the Save Our Homes cap or eligible for the homestead exemption.
The double whammy of rising taxes and soaring property insurance has driven the cost of getting a Florida mortgage so high that many have been forced to put their homes on the market - just as the housing market went cold, buyers disappeared and home prices began to plummet.
Those who can’t find a buyer or some way to continue to pay their Florida mortgage loan now face foreclosure. Florida is now one of the top states for foreclosures.
Oh well, if you can’t afford home ownership anymore, you can rent, right?
The trouble is that rents are also escalating - a two-bedroom unit costs more in rent than some Florida mortgages - because landlords face those same insurance and tax bills and because a fair percentage of Tampa area apartments converted to condominiums during the late, great condo boom.
Well, if you can’t pay get into the rental market, you can probably qualify for a local government’s affordable housing program or get a federal Section 8 housing voucher.
Uh-oh. Those affordable housing programs might not be around much longer.
The Florida Legislature is preparing to force local governments to cut their tax revenue collections - legislators call it tax reform - and local governments say they have no choice but to chop expenditures for things such as recreation and arts and yes, even affordable housing.
And those Section 8 vouchers? Well, the feds still hand them out, but the waiting list for an apartment is so long that you could wind up homeless before you land one.
Not to worry, there’s a nice tent city in St. Petersburg. Oh, wait, that’s gone too. Let’s not think about it.
Instead, let’s focus on this: It’s spring in Florida. The jacaranda and bottlebrush trees are blooming. The trees are full of birds. The sun is warm, palm trees are framed against a bright blue sky, and you can slip more than a toe into the Gulf of Mexico without shivering.
The parks are full of picnicking families, boats are plying the waterways, and the soccer and baseball fields are covered with children playing their hearts out.
The gardenia bush you could never get to bloom has exploded with creamy white blossoms so numerous that the leaves of the plant seem to have disappeared. And the fragrance is out of this world.
Yes, in Florida, problems are many, but we still enjoy abundant gifts.
SOURCE: St. Petersburg Times
