water fee makes splash
Both the Trib and the Times carry stories today about water fees that Mayor Pam and the city are slapping developers with. I’m trying to imagine a stunned look on a developers face and to be honest it is pretty funny. I have a hard time feeling bad for people that are going to sell their smallest condo for $300k (pre-construction, mind you). None of these places are even under contract yet so the cost will be passed along to the buyer.
“To pop it out with no notice is totally absurd. It’s poor government,” said Joseph Narkiewicz, executive vice president of the Tampa Bay Builders Association.
“When such things occur, the building industry is usually involved in the front end of the process.”
Yeah, involved to try and push the cost onto the back of existing taxpayers.
Residents will not see increased water bills, but developers could pass on their increased costs to home buyers.
Ron Weaver, a lawyer who represents developers, said his clients certainly will try to pass along those costs.
“The good news is the new development will pay for itself,” said [Councilman John] Dingfelder, chairman of the public works committee. “The big price tag will not be passed on to our current taxpayers and water customers.”
Average income of Tampa households, according to CNN/Money data from last year is $43k and the average sales price for homes was $150k. Should these people be responsible for paying increased water cost due to new homes they cannot afford?
I am kind of suspicious of the CNN numbers. Even though they are for last year, I did a search this morning on realtor.com and only find 47 out of 3900 homes currently listed for under $150,000, and another search page shows only 35. The CNN figures may include sales between family members that are recorded with the tax appraiser. These sales are typically far below market value.
Tags: city, development, tampa, tax waste, utilities
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January 9th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I agree, that $150k figure is way low. I’m currently in the market for a house, and have been unable to find anything even slightly acceptable for less than $160k.
January 9th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
yeah well also keep in mind “median” prices are driven down by trailer park sales and apartment conversions. Also depending on the criteria they use to determine sales it may include land sales as well. If you are looking at that price range and want something move in ready you may want to focus on condos or townhomes. Let me know if you have questions.
January 9th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
The realtor.com numbers are skewed, of course, to those who list their homes in MLs - in other words, with realtors. As a previous commenter noted, mobile homes won’t be on that list, nor For Sale By Owner transactions, nor family sales. The CNN numbers probably include data from the public records which would include those sales.
January 10th, 2006 at 1:25 am
What blows my mind is that none of these developers are using green ’sustainable’ ways of architecture in terms of supply and waste. We do get one the highest rainfall rates in the nation to capture and plus with a ’standard package (no upgrade)’ of suitable fixture/plumbling equipment we can reduce water consumption (still within comfortable levels of living) relatively low. So I think the rule should be for every new condo tower that is not sustainable then the developers should be slapped with a heavy impact fees.
In addition, I would like to charge the city for everytime Bayshore’s irrigation system runs after a rainy day:)
January 10th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Re: median prices. There is an incredible lag time between a sale and reporting. We closed on our home months ago and the figures are still not available in public records. Since then the builder has increased the listing price for the exact same model, on the same block, by $130K. Great for us since we will be moving in 2-3 years but terrible for our neighbor who has lived in the same Port Tampa home since 1942, or anyone looking for a home commensurate with Florida’s astonishingly low wages. (sorry, “where we used to live” bias showing)
January 11th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
[...] There is a little more to the increase in fees developers will pay the city of Tampa to cover the cost of new water pipes. In a St. Pete Times article, Kathy Castor uses the subject to dig at her fellow officials: Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor, who represents South Tampa, has tried without success to get commissioners to raise impact fees on new homes that would help pay for new schools. [...]