Word: florida
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Keep the cell phone on, Paul. In some Miami high-rises, the foreclosure rate is as high as 1 in 4, and owners who still own are getting nailed with huge condo fees to make up for the lost revenue. Florida banks repossessed 620% more property last year than in 2006, and they're starting to unload nonperforming real estate loans for as low as 30¢ on the dollar. Miami topped a recent list of America's worst housing markets, just ahead of Orlando, with Tampa fourth. From 20% to 40% of the speculators who waited on lines...
That's also true in Florida's exurban boomtowns, communities like Homestead, Port St. Lucie and Kissimmee, that subprime borrowers flocked to for cheaper land and better deals. Now their homes are going back to the bank, and their neighborhoods are dotted with unmowed lawns and mosquito-infested pools. "Those lower-priced options are the places that are going to hurt for a long time," says Wayne Archer, head of the University of Florida's real estate program...
...problem is, even those lower-priced options aren't cheap. Florida's prices remain higher than the national average - especially when you count sky-high property taxes and insurance premiums that can be as burdensome as mortgage payments - while its wages are lower. Fitch Ratings warned that when a big hurricane hits, Florida's insurance market "could effectively collapse." That won't jump-start a recovery...
Water, Water, Everywhere Nobody used to worry about the Big One hitting Florida, because it was a waterlogged wilderness. "It is a land of swamps, of quagmires, of frogs and alligators and mosquitoes!" a Congressman scoffed. "A man, sir, would not immigrate into Florida - no, not from hell itself!" In 1880, Florida ranked 34th of 42 states and territories in population, and the census found only 257 residents in most of South Florida. (See pictures of the world's water crisis...
...Florida's leaders believed that if they could just drain the swamp, they could turn a peninsular wasteland into a recreational, agricultural and residential paradise. They failed catastrophically. In 1928, a hurricane blasted Lake Okeechobee, killing some 2,000 pioneers that their promises had drawn to the Everglades...