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Re: Florida Home Lost to Hurricane? No, FIRE
Neither schooled in economics (I'm playing catch up late in life) nor particularly savvy in finance (don't think I'll ever understand--or enjoy-- the fine art of what I perceive as educated gambling, but I'm trying), unaware then of bubbles and raised to think real estate a conservative place to store weath--not unlike many of my cohorts--and having lived long term in Florida where the pretty darned good quality of life (beach, boating, decent downtowns) seemed to come fairly cheaply, home-price-wise, for so many years, all at a time when population was exploding (each of the three south Florida counties enrolling more than 700 new students every month such that construction could hardly keep up with warehousing them) and land was becoming scarce as had never been seen there before (Broward County in particular was reaching buildout of virgin land), maybe it would not be inappropriate to contexualize any got what deserved explanation with one resident's point of view: at the time, it looked like supply and demand was raising prices long overdue to climb. Yes, we did have all the co-conspirators mentioned in posts above, including, sad for me to now realize, my own government lying to us for which I am considering bringing suit to pay therapy for trust issues I've since developed.
But it wasn't just the conspiracy. A lot of people were--what seemed then legitimately--scared by what looked (and for practical purposes at the time were) real. Rents were rising, houses were selling before sale signs were posted and people were afraid they'd be locked out of real estate forever if they didn't buy now. I remember newspaper articles of schools trying to figure out how to construct housing their employees could afford. News articles about busing down daytime workers to the Keys from up in Florida City not just because they couldn't afford to live there, but because there were no places there to live. Looking back, it was all pretty insane. But at the time, it was our reality. We were living in that bubble squeezed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades. Ooops, reality popped.
Neither schooled in economics (I'm playing catch up late in life) nor particularly savvy in finance (don't think I'll ever understand--or enjoy-- the fine art of what I perceive as educated gambling, but I'm trying), unaware then of bubbles and raised to think real estate a conservative place to store weath--not unlike many of my cohorts--and having lived long term in Florida where the pretty darned good quality of life (beach, boating, decent downtowns) seemed to come fairly cheaply, home-price-wise, for so many years, all at a time when population was exploding (each of the three south Florida counties enrolling more than 700 new students every month such that construction could hardly keep up with warehousing them) and land was becoming scarce as had never been seen there before (Broward County in particular was reaching buildout of virgin land), maybe it would not be inappropriate to contexualize any got what deserved explanation with one resident's point of view: at the time, it looked like supply and demand was raising prices long overdue to climb. Yes, we did have all the co-conspirators mentioned in posts above, including, sad for me to now realize, my own government lying to us for which I am considering bringing suit to pay therapy for trust issues I've since developed.
But it wasn't just the conspiracy. A lot of people were--what seemed then legitimately--scared by what looked (and for practical purposes at the time were) real. Rents were rising, houses were selling before sale signs were posted and people were afraid they'd be locked out of real estate forever if they didn't buy now. I remember newspaper articles of schools trying to figure out how to construct housing their employees could afford. News articles about busing down daytime workers to the Keys from up in Florida City not just because they couldn't afford to live there, but because there were no places there to live. Looking back, it was all pretty insane. But at the time, it was our reality. We were living in that bubble squeezed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades. Ooops, reality popped.
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