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90% in Palm Beach County can afford prices


OutlawSteph

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Hi folks. What does everyone here think developers should do to address this issue. I'm sure many of you saw the headline in the Palm Beach Post today: 90% of the people here can't afford to buy a home. This goes way beyond affordable housing when an overwhelming percent of the population can afford to buy something.

I'd never claim to know the answer to this, but I expect the developers to come up with something. There must be some way to be profitable and address the needs of the majority of the people. In the short run and the long run, business and our whole ecomony are going to hurt very much because they can't retain employees.

(EDIT: Sorry for the typo in the title. It should, of course, read 'CAN'T afford'..)

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It's a tough question to answer. When I lived in Boca 20 years ago much of it still could be considered middle class, but those days are long gone as those neighborhoods are well beyond the reach of anyone that could be considered middle class. I am not sure how it could be fixed and the issues go beyond what could probably be accomplished locally as some of this is cause by the huge disparity of wealth in this country.

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Well, maybe since the state (read: everyone's tax money) is paying for insurance for the people living along the coast, we could tell the wealthy land owners along the coast to stuff it and good luck rebuilding on your own when a hurricane comes by. Take that money and put it into middle to low income housing along our coastlines. The wealthy need a place for the housemaids, gardeners and auto detailers to live.

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I like your idea Bulldogger. I believe Citizens is going to stop covering any home assessed at over $1 million.

Did you see where they are proposing so-called affordable housing? Pahokee and Indiantown. How convenient is that? Heck if I lived in Pahokee, I'd be driving 45 minutes to go to Barnes and Noble and over 1 hour to go to Whole Foods. And at $200,000 per home, I doubt current residents of Pahokee could afford it. I know I can't.

I'm really laughing at the development on Belvedere, near Haverhill. It's all low income and run down around there, and they are building $400,000 homes. :rofl:

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This is a free market and free markets (though they have up & down swings) they do tend to fix themselves back to a reasonable level. Think about it: If 90% of the people can't afford a home there, then what happens when Joe Blow needs to sell his $1,000,000 home? No one can afford it, so he gets no offers, guess what he does next month...he lowers it to $900,000. No one can afford that either, so 3 months down the road he's getting desperate and he lowers it to $700,000...bingo someone can now afford his home. The same thing will happen with a $400,000 home; the seller may need to drop it to $300,000 (a little more affordable now) before someone makes an offer. These things work themselves out. I didn't see anyone complaining 5 years ago when a house in South Florida was costing about $150,000!

I'd be really worried if I just bought a home in a market where 90% of the people cannot afford to buy a home, cause that market has now reached its peak...the home prices only have one way to go...down.

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This is a free market and free markets (though they have up & down swings) they do tend to fix themselves back to a reasonable level. Think about it: If 90% of the people can't afford a home there, then what happens when Joe Blow needs to sell his $1,000,000 home? No one can afford it, so he gets no offers, guess what he does next month...he lowers it to $900,000. No one can afford that either, so 3 months down the road he's getting desperate and he lowers it to $700,000...bingo someone can now afford his home. The same thing will happen with a $400,000 home; the seller may need to drop it to $300,000 (a little more affordable now) before someone makes an offer. These things work themselves out. I didn't see anyone complaining 5 years ago when a house in South Florida was costing about $150,000!

I'd be really worried if I just bought a home in a market where 90% of the people cannot afford to buy a home, cause that market has now reached its peak...the home prices only have one way to go...down.

Perhaps someone who is very wealthy from outside the area could afford this $1,000,000 home as a playground.

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