Quote:
Originally Posted by biker1
I will admit that I do not know the Developer's pricing model but I would guess that it may be similar to several companies I worked for. We typically had a gross margin target we were trying to hit. If the cost went up, the price went up. We dropped products when we could not compete at the gross margins we needed. The average price of new homes is probably about $300K. If we assume, for the moment because of the lack of any real data, the impact fee needed to go to $10K. That is an average increase of about 3%. I can't speak for everyone but that would not have been an impediment to us when deciding to buy a new home in The Villages. Can we agree that without any real numbers this thread is just a bunch of speculative nonsense?
|
No, we cannot agree on that. I think you (and others who expect exact numbers at this point) are completely missing the point.
The issue here is a policy one: Does the Developer (through a reasonable impact fee) or do the current residents (through a 25% tax hike) pay for county infrastructure costs necessitated by the Developer's massive expansion of The Villages?
That question was resoundingly answered by the voters this year by roughly a two to one margin when they elected to EMS Team (despite the Developer's massive spending and perhaps illegal use of fake candidates to disenfranchise voters). The decision was: THE DEVELOPER, NOT US, MUST PAY! You need to understand that that is no longer open for discussion; only the details need to be worked out.
As explained by an earlier poster, the exact numbers will have to be determined by an impact study, but the Developer, not us, the current residents, MUST pay for the Developer's infrastructure. How much of that cost the Developer can pass on to new home buyers and commercial renters will be determined by market forces and shouldn't really matter to current residents.