[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

are you implying that it's not true? If you are, i'd love to see some links regarding that.

See Ferretts response. Comparing apples to oranges.

[JohnVosilla]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Do you have any thoughts of this on your own besides what a leftist editorial tells you?

I understand FL has a problem with overdevelopment, but this was poorly thought out legislation. There is no funding for it nor a system as to how it would be enforced. The legislation would have been a bit more palatable if a way to pay for it was included in the amendment. A common sense approach would have been a surcharge on any new development projects to fund the initiative.

It's not a suprise that a variety of newpapers in FL have come out against this. In its current form, Amendment 4 was written in la la land and is not based in reality.

Btw, overbuilding didn't lead to FL's problems. Overbuilding was actually a symptom of a broken system with the federal reserve issuing cheap cash combined with fannie mae/freddie mac artificially expanded the secondary market for mortgages. Now with credit markets as tight as they are, developers are in a world of hurt at the moment.

Overbuilding, rapid property appreciation not tied to income gains and an economy too dependent on real estate were the problems fueled to great heights of speculative excess by easy credit. That was the story in every fast growing high appreciation market from Phoenix to Las Vegas to Cali central valley. Even the fast growing outer suburbs of Atlanta, Charlotte and Salt Lake City plus many others in the fast growing sunbelt and out west as well were not immune but never had the degree of speculative excess and dependence on RE construction as the main local economic driver. In Florida land prices went to the moon and developers paid way too much during the bubble... sometimes more for a lot than what they could sell a decent sized home in the same community built new today

[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by JohnVosilla

Overbuilding, rapid property appreciation not tied to income gains and an economy too dependent on real estate were the problems fueled to great heights of speculative excess by easy credit. That was the story in every fast growing high appreciation market from Phoenix to Las Vegas to Cali central valley. Even the fast growing outer suburbs of Atlanta, Charlotte and Salt Lake City plus many others in the fast growing sunbelt and out west as well were not immune but never had the degree of speculative excess and dependence on RE construction as the main local economic driver. In Florida land prices went to the moon and developers paid way too much during the bubble... sometimes more for a lot than what they could sell a decent sized home in the same community built new today

You can thank cheap credit and low interest rates from the federal reserve for that.

[vaughanwilliams]

I don't want to hear anyone complain about clogged roads, endless strip malls, ticky-tack housing developments, illegal immigrant construction workers and contractors doing sub par work, stop lights at every new development, water shortages, WalMarts on every corner, ever again.
Amendment 4 was the last chance you all will ever have to have a say on what gets built and where. When Rick Scott gets done, the Dept. of Community Affairs, along with the state EPA, will be history, so I hope you enjoy your pavement.