This blog post is, indeed, a little esoteric. But many experts have predicted that another financial bubble is going to collapse, this one involving the HOA housing industry.
You really have to dive in between the lines of the story linked below. But this financial expert is predicting societal changes which actually could lead to a housing collapse in suburban America. He says the most dynamic part of our growing financial culture is the diversity of thought and creativity that’s only found in our inner cities and not in our stale suburban neighborhoods. He claims that our societal focus on suburban life is destined for failure and calls it “…the primary reason for global financial crisis.”
I’m no economist and my own predictions are far less sophisticated than his. But it boils down to the same conclusion: Sir Thomas More’s vision of Utopia is exactly backwards and is destined to collapse simply because the human spirit is not designed for life in Paradise. It’s evolutionarily designed for survival of the fittest. And the HOA Utopian model was never designed to handle the harsh realities of life.
When those institutions which underwrite home loans discover that the typical Homeowner Association model does not protect or stabilize property values, when they discover that homes outside HOAs actually rise faster in value than those inside gated neighborhoods, when they finally discover that embezzlement is the Achilles heel of covenant controlled developments, then investor money will start flowing out of homeowners associations and back into more traditional neighborhoods.
Things are heating up in Jacksonville, Florida! The orders have been issued: Pay $35 per dog to DNA test your pooches‘ poop or pay a $100 per day penalty and lose your rights to the amenities. The max is $1,000 in fines, but the board is lawyering-up so they’ll be adding lots of zeros to that number.
When was the last time you heard of an HOA or condo complex that wasn’t having a dog poop fight?
This subject is a “hot button” for me. Why? Not only is it unsightly, but the run–off is bad for the ecosystem when it rains and washes the fecal matter into the waterways. (see the link below). And there is no excuse for it!
I wonder? Would these same people who don’t pick-up after their dogs like it if they saw dirty baby diapers or a fully-loaded adult diaper lying out at the curb? No! They would be the first to raise hell! Just a few days ago, I walked across the grass only to realize the gut-wrenching smell in my truck was emanating from the soles of my brand new shoes, floor mat, garage floor, and left me with a nasty clean-up job. For a woman who owns no pets (but loves them) it really irked me.
For the eight years I’ve lived in an HOA, dog poop has been a massive problem. With no size restrictions, let me assure you some of these dogs could be fitted for a saddle. And their “monster muffins” could fill a five gallon bucket!
DNA testing won’t solve the problem. Those who leave it lying around will figure out a way to contaminate the evidence. Just like these folks in Villa Medici who are already plotting to haul it in from fields afar.
From my observation the dogs in HOAs are getting along better with each other than we humans do. Maybe…I should build one of those “Tiny Houses” on wheels and go live down at the dog pound?
Moo! Boo hoo! Listen to the whining in the Levy Court in Kent County, Delaware! 5-10% of the homeowners are late paying their dues and HOA bigwigs want the Legislature to take action against them.
Perhaps I can shed a little light on why some homeowners stop paying their dues.
My maintenance-provided HOA in Kansas allowed the siding on my townhome to rot to the point the electric meters fell off my house during a rainstorm. Water sprayed out of the breakers in the electrical panel creating a flowing “river” through my basement. When my HOA refused to make the repairs, that constituted a breach of contract. After a two year battle to force this HOA to obey its own covenants, they still do not perform their duties! I can fully sympathize with the stress, financial loss, and the interior damage some homeowners suffer.
Why, oh why do homeowners have to go through years of legal battles trying to get HOAs to live up to their responsibilities? Of course homeowners stop paying their dues! Who is dumb enough to pay $3,000 per year for water, sewer, and trash pick-up?
Kent County Commissioner Eric Buckson doesn’t think it’s a good idea to increase government intervention in non-government affairs. I bet not! That could possibly give HOA members access to their United States Constitutional Rights!
Abused HOA members have been screaming for help “until the cows come home.” Note to Delaware HOA members: Keep those cow bells ringing!
On various patriotic holidays I’ve blogged about my dad, who was one of General George Patton’s tank commanders in WWII. He was critically wounded and taken POW in Kaiserslautern, Germany in March of 1945.
I’ve never blogged about my mother’s first husband who was also a hero of that war. He was killed in the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Eve, 1944, when Nazi forces surrounded Bastogne and St. Vith, Belgium. Many years ago I did record a 4th of July story on him…
We often complain on this blog about the rank corruption in HOA Amerika, the embezzlements, the extortions, the phony fines, the rigged elections, the farming of elderly homeowners who can’t fight back against illegal property seizures. This list goes on endlessly and smacks of the FBI’s formal definition of ‘organized crime’.
But there are signs in many other areas of ‘official America’ that our country is failing AND falling far away from the Constitutional restraints that once made America a beacon of freedom to the world.
Take, for example, the concept of ‘civil seizure of property’. This short video prepared by the Institute for Justice is more than a little disturbing:
