Cape Coral: Sell your houses and leave (Sarasota, Fort Myers: for sale, foreclose)

[Compression]

Originally Posted by Roller2200

The city has lots of cash. Just look at the huge police department they built. Awsome!!

Dont ya love that big wall around it, like a prison compound. Guess they dont want their officers to escape..................

YC.......

[yoko]

“The city’s department heads are in the midst of crafting an austerity budget that doesn’t raise the tax rate. But at the direction of five councilmen, the city’s staff won’t look at new taxes or fees to offset the property tax rate.

The city will continue to run government chiefly through property tax dollars. But..

....it’s bad business to rely so heavily on something as volatile as property values.Property taxes are expected to drop up to 10 percent in Cape Coral ahead of next year, City Manager Carl Schwing said. If the city is to keep its tax rate flat, it will have to cut about $12 million from the operating budget. Schwing has already brought forward $3.8 million in budget reductions this year with plans to bring forward more savings ideas in coming weeks.

In this year’s budget, 67 %of the city’s $119 million operating budget comes from property taxes. That’s money for police, fire, code enforcement and myriad functions of City Hall.

Steve Riggs, chairman of Cape Coral’s Financial Advisory Committee, said relying too much on property taxes is bad business. “


Cape Coral leaders form budget strategy | news-press.com | The News-Press

[Blue Star]

Cities, Towns, States, and Counties ARE running into trouble. Here are some headlines.


04-07 14:40: S&P puts Orlando, Florida bond ratings on watch negative.

L.A. to Shut Down City Departments in Budget Crisis; IBEW Local 18 Head: "How Taxpayers Feel Is Not Relevant"

Food Stamp Usage Hits Record 39 Million, 14th Consecutive Monthly Increase

Detroit Bankruptcy Looms with Deficit of $446 Million in Budget of $1.6 Billion

L.A. Controller Says City Could Run Out of Cash by May 5

[yoko]

Originally Posted by Blue Star

S&P puts Orlando, Florida bond ratings on watch negative.

Surprise, surprise!

Cape Coral is the Epicenter of Florida’s severe recession. Cape Coral with his second highest rate of foreclosed homes nation wide, the highest rate of homes built with Chinese Dry walls state wide, the highest falling prices in the state, highest rate of unemployment nation wide, highest rate of property taxes state wide, and historically highest level of falling population in the state is hurting its neighbors and Florida in general.

“In this year’s budget, 67 percent of the city’s $119 million operating budget comes from property taxes.
For comparison, Lee County property taxes account for 37 percent of a $611 million general fund. In Fort Myers, it accounts for 44 percent of a $88 million general fund, and in Bonita Springs it’s 48 percent of a $13.9 million fund.”

Cape Coral leaders form budget strategy | news-press.com | The News-Press

Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents
"Florida's relentless and miserably planned growth spawned problems that the peninsula is struggling to handle, including skyrocketing property taxes and hurricane-insurance premiums. Governor Charlie Crist has tried in recent years to rein in those twin vampires, but together they can still exceed what folks in many other states pay for state income tax, local property tax and homeowner's insurance combined. And whereas high-cost states like New York, California and Illinois also have some of the country's highest median incomes, Florida's is in the bottom half.

In a state that worshipped condo-flippers as great entrepreneurs, it was all a house of cards waiting to be blown down when the housing bubble burst. Now that it has happened, those Floridians who haven't left the state had hoped their officials might change the way they do things - or at least not attend a Kentucky Derby party hosted by the same FPL honchos lobbying them for a rate hike, as a Florida Public Service Commission director has admitted to doing a few months ago. But if Miami and Florida officials can't get their acts together, they can probably expect even lower head counts in the years to come."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090903/us_time/08599191991600 (broken link)

[yoko]

" April 12, 2010

A majority of Cape Coral's current City Council has strongly committed to cutting spending rather than increasing taxes or fees to deal with the city's declining revenues.

Spending cuts have already been steep. Another $12 million will have to come out of current spending to balance the budget in the face of another anticipated drop in property values and tax collections.
More cuts will cause pain, especially if more layoffs are needed and it takes longer to deliver essential services.

But this is what the new council, allied to Mayor John Sullivan, promised: Cut spending to the bone to live within the city's shrunken means."

Cape Coral council should stick to its guns on budget: Editorial | news-press.com | The News-Press



But for how long?

"Of the 10 markets studied, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. is projected to reach positive equity by 2020."
Recovering lost home equity will take years Realty Q&A - MarketWatch

[rikoshaprl]

Originally Posted by yoko

" April 12, 2010

A majority of Cape Coral's current City Council has strongly committed to cutting spending rather than increasing taxes or fees to deal with the city's declining revenues.

Spending cuts have already been steep. Another $12 million will have to come out of current spending to balance the budget in the face of another anticipated drop in property values and tax collections.
More cuts will cause pain, especially if more layoffs are needed and it takes longer to deliver essential services.

But this is what the new council, allied to Mayor John Sullivan, promised: Cut spending to the bone to live within the city's shrunken means."

Cape Coral council should stick to its guns on budget: Editorial | news-press.com | The News-Press



But for how long?

"Of the 10 markets studied, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. is projected to reach positive equity by 2020."
Recovering lost home equity will take years Realty Q&A - MarketWatch

Good for the council!!! I only wish the federal government would do the same!

The statement Cape Coral-Fort Myers and positve equity is ridiculous. It is assuming all homes were bought at the top af the market. Many have positve equity now.

[yoko]

" Foreclosure rates in Cape Coral-Fort Myers have increased for the month of February over the same period last year, according to First American CoreLogic.

According to newly released data from First American CoreLogic on foreclosures for the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area, the rate of foreclosuresamong outstanding mortgage loans is 13.47 % for the month of February, an increase of 0.99 percentage points compared to February of 2009 when the rate was 12.48 percent. Foreclosure activity in Cape Coral-Fort Myers is higher than thenational foreclosure rate which was3.17 % for February 2010, representing a 10.30 percentage point difference.

Also in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, the mortgage delinquency rate has increased. According to First American CoreLogic data for February 2010, 22.93 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared to 20.05 percent for the same period last year, representing an increase of 2.88 percentage points."

Foreclosure rates in Cape Coral-Fort Myers increase - NorthFortMyersNeighbor.com, news, sports, Florida info, North Fort Myers Neighbor


Instead of a house in Cape Coral, buy yourself an alarm clock!

[Fred Perkins]

the same could be said for any town USA.
one has to look towards building a better community , lets think positive , not pessimistic .

[mrcoolmrcool28]

Originally Posted by Fred Perkins

the same could be said for any town USA.
one has to look towards building a better community , lets think positive , not pessimistic .

Great point, It's happening everywhere. Florida is NOT the #1 state in home foreclosures. The foreclosures though are good news, bad news. Bad news for those who made the bad decision to buy during the housing boom, Good news for those who are buying now. Mr.Cool

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by yoko

" Foreclosure rates in Cape Coral-Fort Myers have increased for the month of February over the same period last year, according to First American CoreLogic.

According to newly released data from First American CoreLogic on foreclosures for the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area, the rate of foreclosuresamong outstanding mortgage loans is 13.47 % for the month of February, an increase of 0.99 percentage points compared to February of 2009 when the rate was 12.48 percent. Foreclosure activity in Cape Coral-Fort Myers is higher than thenational foreclosure rate which was3.17 % for February 2010, representing a 10.30 percentage point difference.

Also in Cape Coral-Fort Myers, the mortgage delinquency rate has increased. According to First American CoreLogic data for February 2010, 22.93 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared to 20.05 percent for the same period last year, representing an increase of 2.88 percentage points."

Foreclosure rates in Cape Coral-Fort Myers increase - NorthFortMyersNeighbor.com, news, sports, Florida info, North Fort Myers Neighbor


Instead of a house in Cape Coral, buy yourself an alarm clock!

just to clarify since yoko didn't pick this up.. the article says "outstanding mortgages" what was left out is that in the month of february there was a sharp rise in the amount of buyers that paid cash. 71% of all homes bought in february were paid cash. in the past year 64% have been bought with cash.

What this means is the outstanding mortgage pool is shrinking.

here's an analogy in a dozen eggs there is one that is cracked so 8.33% of my eggs are cracked. I take out two eggs and make a delicious omellete. There is still only 1 cracked egg but now cracked eggs make up 10%.

The housing industry in swfl is getting stronger and no matter what opinion articles yoko puts out the facts are sales are way up, foreclosure's are way down, inventories are way down, and avg sales prices are on the rise.

and by the way yoko has two separate posts on this thread one says property taxes are skyrocketing the next says they are declining... which is it. If they are rising you have something negative to say about it , if they are declining you have something negative to say about it. if house prices go down it's bad , if they go up they're overpriced.