Property Tax in Florida

Property Tax reform

Jan 29th, we will vote on the proposed tax amendment that will benefit the long time property owners in Florida. It will not do anything for the people moving to our state or the 1st time home buyers.

I will probably vote for the amendment as a start. We rank 38th in the nation at the present time on Property Tax rates with no state income tax which is the good thing. What I would like to see is the county governments and the municipalities being held to a responsible budget. When the property values were soaring and the economy was roaring just what did the local governments do with all the money received from the increased tax dollars. It would seem they spent or allocated every dime with no thought of what would come when the market would turn and the market always turns. Our education system has made significant strides upward which is a very good thing. I feel with our diverse culture in Florida we should be at the top or near the top in education. Our teachers are still underpaid along with law enforcement agents & fire fighters and this I believe falls again on local government. The voting process is the only way to make significant change.

Insurance
I was very pleased to see the State suspend Allstate from writing new auto policies until they turn over their records that the State has requested for the last decade. The insurance lobby is one of the largest and well funded lobbies in the world so again look at your candidate and see if they are in the pocket of the insurance industry. Since this post the courts have overturned the State's decision to suspend Allstate from writing policies.

The Real Estate Market
The 1st month of 2008 has been rather positive for our little company. We are seeing more calls, more hits on the web and more people looking to buy. Some complexes are seeing realistic sellers who have lowered the prices of condos and individual sellers of homes. The weekly rental condos are still very popular with the investor.

There was very recently a home hit the market on a Cocoa Beach canal. Less than 3 years ago it was purchased for $1,000,000 it hit as a bank owned property listed at $534,900. It is now in negotiations with 3 offers. It needed a lot of work but the value was there. This just goes to show there are deals to be had when you are ready to buy.