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As the owner of 2 properties that have temporarily frozen in  value, I too have decided to get rid of my teaser mortgages and so I have refinanced them and now I pay at least the full interest payments on my loans. I noticed that even with all of the recent crackdowns in the mortgage industry, Life still goes on. And we are not having a Real Estate bubble!

Homes are still being sold for more than the owners paid.

The profits are not as exagerated as they were 3 years ago, but I have the confidence that the market will continue to move up slowly perhaps at a 5% per year rate

But that could still make you 20 to 25 percent in less than 5 years time.

Now what is happening is that all of those Mickey Mouse Mortgage companies and brokers are going down. They used to approve anybody, using dirty tricks, fake pay stubs etc. Now I am glad that the Banks are cracking down on all of this Fraud. And the truth is that we all should make money honestly and this world would be a much happier place.

Miami is listed as one of the worst cities for traffic. The average commuter spends at least one hour to get to work each day. Some of these people live within 15 miles of their job, yet it takes them a whole hour to get to work. The reason is simple, not enough roads for too many cars. So the city has been trying to take care of this, by building new roads and busways. But that has its own problems, these projects are long and costly. They also have to block existing lanes on the highways and less lanes, means even more traffic. Another problem that Miami has, is too many tourists from too may different countries. They may know how to drive in their own cities, but they do not know that Miami is different.

Too may people think that driving offensively is the answer. What they do not realize is that you also have to drive defensively. Almost every day, there are about 10 to 15 car accidents. The main reason is that the persons involved were driving normal. They were following the normal traffic rules. For example they drive through a green light, with no need to look right and left. But in Miami that is the wrong answer. If you want to survive for many years without getting into an accident, somebody needs to teach every driver that you must look left and right, even when you drive through a green light, or just about any intersection. They also need to teach this to all of the high school kids that just got their drivers license. Too many people run red lights, so you have to look out for them, and that is about the only way to avoid accidents. My only conclusion is that you have to drive defensively or you will become another statistic.

I was thinking about this, over the weekend. When I retire, even if my house is paid off in full, I will still have to pay almost $1000 a month in property taxes. If Social Security only pays the same amount of about $1000 each month, then we are in big trouble. Oh, and if there is no social security left when I retire, that will also be a big problem.

So as we know, Florida’s population growth is based on almost 50 percent of people who retire from other states and then move to Florida, for our beautiful climate, that we all take for granted. If these people find out, how high the property taxes are, they may go to some other states.

Florida cannot afford to let this happen. This will ruin out whole economy. Real Estate prices will stop rising and more people will leave the State. So, now you know one more reason to vote for a Sales tax increase or any other legislation to get rid of our High property taxes and insurance rates.

If you are planning to buy a home, townhouse, condo etc. Make sure you find out who and what kind of homeowner association you may be about to fall under. I have dealt with 3 so far in south Florida, via my own ownership. I have also been affected my several others while managing my own local moving company.

There are some association that have some rules that either came straight from Hell or perhaps Russia, Cuba or any other communist nations. They have rule about when a person can move in or out. How much furniture that they can have and yes, even rules about what type of sex, gender, color, age etc that a owner can be or who is allowed to rent from you.

And yes somehow they are hidden behind a bunch of lawyers who created rules that are 95 percent in favor of the association and 5 percent on the side of the owner.

I have found places in Miami Beach that do not let a person move in or out unless they pay $250 elevator fee.

Another place would not let me deliver a single mattress, because it was 5 minutes past 5:00 PM. I had to tie it to the customers car until the following morning.

I have found places where you can only move 1 day of the week.

Where I live now if you park your car wrong you will get towed in less than 10 minutes.

There are so many examples. Please feel free to share any crazy encounters that you have with an Association.

This is Legal communism in America.

This could be the best thing for Florida homeowners and investors.

Before we can complain about the effects of an increase, people need to do some simple math. First let’s assume that the average person only uses less than 50 percent of their income for use on items that include sales tax.  You do not pay sales tax on your rent or mortgage payments. So let assume that you make about 60,000 per year. Well then you only can spend 30,000 per year on items that may include Sales tax. So using the current Miami Dade sales tax rate, currently at 7 percent; you may or may not be spending, $2000 a year on sales taxes. 

The new Florida homeowner’s insurance law changes are not working. The new law was passed last month, but so far there have been no signs of any rate reductions, that is, unless you have Citizens insurance. And the people who have that, are paying such high premiums, that a measly 20% reduction will seem like nothing. What happened to the big companies that the law makers have claimed will come back to Florida?. I have called my agent several times and so far nothing is happening. As a matter a fact, they told me that rates are still rising. We need cheaper homeowners insurance, or at least the option to insure our houses for less money. For example I am willing to accept the first $50,000 from insurance and anything that exceeds that amount, than I would pay for it myself. So If a Hurricane hits my roof and it looses a few tiles, I would replace them even if the color does not exactly match. One reason why Florida’s homeowners insurance is so expensive is that so many people are getting their whole roof replaced only because many insurance adjusters tell the homeowners that if they cannot find the same color roof tiles or shingles, that they can use that as an excuse to get a whole new roof. This is why a smaller hurricane like Wilma has caused insurance claims to be almost as high as was after hurricane Andrew. Hurricane Andrew was a much stronger storm. Roofs needed to be replaced back then, because they were really damaged. Shame on anybody who makes the insurance company’s pay for a whole new roof! If you only loose a few tiles, you should fix your roof. If you do otherwise, then you are a thief. And the insurance company’s aught to force those people to go with Citizens, because thieves belong with thieves.