Walt - 09 May 2007 08:03 PM

[I run an office during the day and deliver pizzas at night. Not that hard just alot of hours.

I assume you get alimony for the children. Between the alimony and your two jobs I would think you could at least (at the time of the divorce and couldn’t afford the payments on the old home) tried to buy a less expensive home, possible a mobile home, if need be. At least if you were in your own home and carrying a mortgage, your interest payments would be tax deductible (rent isn’t).  Further, your payments (other than homeowner’s insurance) would be fixed for the life of the mortgage (15-30 years), whereas rent will go up annually—as you know.

It is much easier to speak than to act. While that is a good suggestion. There are a lot of variables I am sure that none of us know. My family and I do own our home and struggle to survive here (with two incomes). I also have lived here my entire life and have seen the area change dramatically. No one can predict the future.

Mobile homes are no longer an easy answer. They are hard and very expensive to insure. We live in a manufactured home with homestead exemption. Our taxes and insurance are multiplying like bunnies. We work very hard to have what we do. It also sounds like the single mother above also works very hard to do the best that she can. I commend her for working so hard to give her children the best life possible. Unless you are wealthy alimony does not happen. You can get orders for child support, but getting them to pay can be fun too (ask my dad, he never paid his).

Yes, the working class are being pushed further and further away and down. No matter how hard we work, how many jobs we hold, there will always be someone wiser going “well wouldn’t it have made sense to.... shouldn’t you have.... etc…

And the comment about her not having kids if she could not afford it was out of line. I am sure when she had her children things were better than they are now. You do not know when a spouse will leave or die; jobs will be lost; hurricanes will destroy your home… unexpected medical expenses will occur..etc.. There are so many variables in life that one person can not judge another (and shouldn’t) on just a few facts.

Thank You for that bit of encouragement, Now I don’t feel like such a looser after his comments.

jcarnahan - 10 May 2007 11:22 AM

Walt - 09 May 2007 08:03 PM

[I run an office during the day and deliver pizzas at night. Not that hard just alot of hours.

I assume you get alimony for the children. Between the alimony and your two jobs I would think you could at least (at the time of the divorce and couldn’t afford the payments on the old home) tried to buy a less expensive home, possible a mobile home, if need be. At least if you were in your own home and carrying a mortgage, your interest payments would be tax deductible (rent isn’t).  Further, your payments (other than homeowner’s insurance) would be fixed for the life of the mortgage (15-30 years), whereas rent will go up annually—as you know.

It is much easier to speak than to act. While that is a good suggestion. There are a lot of variables I am sure that none of us know. My family and I do own our home and struggle to survive haere (with two incomes). I also have lived here my entire life and have seen the area change dramatically. No one can predict the future.

Mobile homes are no longer an easy answer. They are hard and very expensive to insure. We live in a manufactured home with homestead exemption. Our taxes and insurance are multiplying like bunnies. We work very hard to have what we do. It also sounds like the single mother above also works very hard to do the best that she can. I commend her for working so hard to give her children the best life possible. Unless you are wealthy alimony does not happen. You can get orders for child support, but getting them to pay can be fun too (ask my dad, he never paid his).

Yes, the working class are being pushed further and further away and down. No matter how hard we work, how many jobs we hold, there will always be someone wiser going “well wouldn’t it have made sense to.... shouldn’t you have.... etc…

And the comment about her not having kids if she could not afford it was out of line. I am sure when she had her children things were better than they are now. You do not know when a spouse will leave or die; jobs will be lost; hurricanes will destroy your home… unexpected medical expenses will occur..etc.. There are so many variables in life that one person can not judge another (and shouldn’t) on just a few facts.

I don’t recall asking your permission to state my opinions. I wasn’t judging her, that’s your personal inference. I just made the comment that if wages were low here when she got married and started a family, then she should take that into consideration. One also should have contengiency plans for rainy days (unexpected expenses). I also made suggestions; one, that renting (all other things being equal) is more expensive than buying in the long term, and that she may be better off buying a modest home.

In the state I came from I happened to know a guy from Avon Park. He said he moved to my state because there was no meaningful employment here in HC. This was 15 years ago, so I think I can safely assume wages/employment here has been the pits for a long time (since you are so sure things were probably much better then than they are now).

Also, if one is Homesteaded, their property taxes are capped at 3% maximum per yer, as per the Save Our Homes Exemption. My property taxes actually dropped a few dollars due to a reduced millage rate for 2006 (better check yours).

Yes, HC is changing and getting more expensive. One can blame the new residents that moved here, or maybe, they might want to blame the HC natives that sold their property and homes to the new residents. One can’t have it both ways.

My wife and I only stayed in our mobile home for eight months, then we bought a piece of land and built on it. The native married couple that sold us their bare lot were happy to take our money, and so was the contractor and local sub contractors (like Bagwell Lumber, Caulfied & Sons Plumbing, 621 Sod Farm, Marlin Marble, Sebring Cabinets, Bowen Roofing, and other businesses here). Yes, one can’t have it both ways.  This is why I said there are negative tradeoffs to growth in earlier posts.

I have been away from Sebring for too long to have a meaningful opinion about whether the growth is too much or too fast. I have read some comments expressing the fear that Highlands County is being turned into a giant strip mall.

Is it? I don’t know.

But if a majority of citizens feels that way, they don’t have to put up with it. There are other ways to build a great community. Most of the alternatives to endless strip malls generate higher property values, more tax revenues, more employment, higher margins for business owners and a cleaner environment.

This better way has been tried and succeeded in many small and medium sized towns.

There is a wealth of information available, free, on this very subject from the non-profit organization, the Urban Land Institute. You can find their website at this URL:

http://www.uli.org

All the best.

REG CROWDER
http://www.RegCrowder.com

It’s wonderful having the stores and restaurants we were used to in New Port Richey and Tampa here at last- Circuit City, Books-A-Million (with the coffee bar), Panera Bread, the Olive Garden (under construction). The area is becoming civilized. Now, we need infrastructure, including public transportation.

Dale- I feel your pain. I was a single mother working two jobs years ago, too. I had no help from the “sperm donor”.
It was hard during the reign of Bush I, and it’s even more difficult today. I remember falling asleep in the parking lot of my day job (with a state social services agency) because I had worked all night at my night job and had gotten no sleep.

this topic has branched into a couple of directions. i’ll go ahead and add my 2 cents.

booming growth? well sebring does seem much larger than when my family located here in 1993. no longer can you go to any public location and recognize everyone you see. that tells me there are people coming in. and yes we do have a lot of new restaurants and stores, i can’t complain about that.

do i think this town is headed into a good direction? no, not really. the charm that was here so many years ago is much harder to see. and with all of the new places we have, sit many, many empty or run down buildings that perhaps could have used a face lift and served as places for new business. in addition the infrastructure for transportation in my opinion will not be able to support the continuing growth and influx of people. there is one main route through town and if we continue, yes it will be just like driving in brandon. what has happened here does not make sense.

as for our population. this is a retirement mecca. it will always be a retirement mecca. there is BIG business here as far as healthcare is concerned. but that is not the only viewpoint we can take. there are needed services here and the retirees can not fill those services. they are not going to be our nurses, teachers, police officers, cashiers, cooks, etc. so if this area doesn’t become more working class friendly i see failure looming. again this does not make sense.

a little background. my husband and i are both nurses. we have school age children. live in a modest two bedroom home. we have the advantage of a career in demand, careers that pay well. we do not splurge on many things. our cars are paid off. we make ends meet but there isn’t a lot left over. our trips to the new restaurants in town are a special occasion. that being said, we often look at others around us and wonder how in the heck they are making it.

we could definitely use a larger home. but it is so disheartening and disgusting to see what people are charging for a modest three bedroom home. it wasn’t this way even five years ago. how many homes stay on the market for years?! they then add “for rent” signs that sit and sit for months. why are they not getting any interest? there are plenty of people who need a place to live, who want a different place to live. did people get themselves into THAT much financial mess that they really need to have such high asking prices? noticing a trend? it just does not make sense.

my children attend public school. i have no complaints about the school or teachers. i do wonder why my children are zoned where they are...we pass more than one elementary school on the way to their school. fortunately i believe they attend the best elementary school in the county. but yet another thing about sebring or even highlands county that does not make sense.

i will say that if the people who “plan” things don’t start making sense...we will be looking elsewhere. and that will leave two more empty nursing positions in a field that is already having a tremendous shortage. yes the #1 county in the state for retirees (did i get that right?), the retirees who will inevitably need healthcare may find themselves waiting a lot longer for their care because the needed, hard working people will be elsewhere.

Like Walt, I moved here because it was quiet and affordable. No use in repeating his opinions on this subject. IMO he’s spot on.

I say stop building altogether. We have everything we need here in HC now. If we want something not available here there’s several big cities within an hour’s drive. I order a lot of the things I need off of the Internet. Most of the time there’s no taxes collected, and often the shipping is free.

My name is Burt, I’m retired, my wife and I live in Avon Park Lakes and we love it. We were both Born and raised in Miami and used to love the old Miami.  Before we retired and moved here we learned to hate the place because it got ruined before our eyes. No more big city for us.