Answer to Wes--
Some townhouse units and a unit in the Lucerne sold. Yes, and some are in foreclosure! It's interesting that the cry from those against townhouses at the time they were approved were that they weren't affordable housing. Whose cry? We have never advocated for affordable housing in Lake Osborne Heights. That was not our beef. 99% of everything for sale in Lake Worth is "affordable." The market has a way for correcting that as these sales attest. Excess supply and less demand leads to falling prices. Eventually the market will find its equilibrium where currently vacant units are occupied at a new market price. True and in the meantime, those paying on the mortgages end up in bankruptcy. And the City of Lake Worth gets LESS in ad valorem because people can not pay. Foreclosures and our economic slow down affects most, if not all, components of our City revenue. Ask Mark Bates.
That is the trouble with the thinking of people who complain about vacant units in townhouses. First of all, these buildings are on the tax rolls only if people can afford to pay the taxes will it mean anything here and property taxes have to be paid whether vacant or not. Not true. That is why we have more and more bankruptcies and foreclosures. Second, as noted above, it is a temporary situation that will resolve itself with the market You won’t see a recovery of the housing market until the big inventory of unsold houses has worked its way through the system. And no one knows how long that will take. No one can say whether it will be “temporary” or not. What is “temporary? Most things recover but not all.
