Building boom dooms Manatee home values
Your home value decreases for each new house built. Manatee County’s booming home construction causes the destruction of your most important investment, your home.
Five years ago the average Bradenton home value was $283,800. Now it’s $157,700, a decrease of $126,100. Existing homes sales are down 50 percent from five years ago, and foreclosures are rising beyond 10,359. There are 300,000 vacant homes in Florida.
Manatee County and our five neighboring counties are the six worst real estate markets in the nation, according to The Wall Street Journal. But developers keep on building, ignoring the economic law of supply and demand by constructing massive housing complexes, threatening to double Manatee County’s population of 315,000.
This reckless construction spree is approved by Manatee County commissioners, who are richly financed by developers’ exotic political action committees. The deceit will only stop when Amendment 4 receives 60 percent of voters’ approval on Nov. 2.
Hometown Democracy will require voters in the next upcoming election to approve all changes to comprehensive plans. Developers won’t be able to buy a majority commission vote on their pet projects, but rather they will need to seek approval from their bosses, the voters.
With the passage of Amendment 4, no longer will it be Downtown Democracy, made up of developers who are now prepared to spend $50 million to defeat Amendment 4, it will be Hometown Democracy, made up of homeowners protecting their nest egg.
Elected officials think we’re not smart enough or just too lazy to make intelligent decisions. Let’s return their cynicism by not trusting these elected officials. Vote yes for Amendment 4 on Nov. 2.
Joe Kane
Cortez
Please remember Amendment 4 matters to every Florida citizen, it does not matter if you live on the island or on the mainland, this is an important issue to protect the Florida and city we have come to love.
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