Impact fees controversy settled
 

Now that the impact fees have been settled and increases capped at 12.5% a year do you you suppose the price of new homes in The Villages will go down in price? As I remembered the Village Developer offered a 40% increase.

Have you seen the cost of materials???

Always someone happy to stir a settled pot.

The cost of homebuilding has gone up in the past year. Doubtful the asking price for new homes is going to decrease any time soon.

If it is raised by the 12.5% a year the developer might not have won the war

The state legislature can always tweak it down.

:bigbow:

Prices
 

Price of homes nationwide are being driven by material costs and demand. Demand by far has the most impact.

They will not go down, only up. The cost to build a home today is 30% higher than it was a year ago. Shortage of materials, higher fuel costs etc. etc.

Look at what the new home prices are and you’ll have your answer. :)

State power
 

I agree it appears that in Florida the State has the ability to override the local elected officials decision making process. Self governing at the community level is thus greatly diminished.

Increase of 12.5% is not annual. HB 337

" An impact fee may be increased only pursuant to a plan
for the imposition, collection, and use of the increased impact fees which complies with this section.

An increase to a current impact fee rate of not more than 25 percent of the current rate must be implemented in two equal annual increments beginning with the date on which the increased fee is adopted.

An increase to a current impact fee rate which exceeds 25 percent but is not more than 50 percent of the current rate must be implemented in four equal installments beginning with the date the increased fee is adopted. An impact fee increase may not exceed 50 percent of the current impact fee rate.cAn impact fee may not be increased more than once every 4 years.

A local government, school district, or special district may increase an impact fee rate beyond the phase-in limitations established under paragraph (b), paragraph c),paragraph (d), or paragraph (e) by establishing the need for such increase in full compliance with the requirements of subsection (4), provided the following criteria are met:
1. A demonstrated need study justifying any increase in excess of those
authorized in paragraph (b), paragraph (c), paragraph (d), or paragraph (e) has
been completed within the 12 months before the adoption of the impact fee
increase and expressly demonstrates the extraordinary circumstances
necessitating the need to exceed the phase-in limitations.
2. The local government jurisdiction has held not less than two publicly noticed
workshops dedicated to the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the need
to exceed the phase-in limitations set forth in paragraph (b), paragraph (c),
paragraph (d), or paragraph (e).
3. The impact fee increase ordinance is approved by at least a two-thirds vote of
the governing body.

Depending on the planning and due diligence of the county commission impact fees could be increased beyond the limits of HB 337.

The question remains is the increase in impact fees truly a necessity. The increased revenue from new home property taxes used intelligently by the commission should provided the required funding for infrastructure of all of Sumter County.

No. A rising tide lifts all ships.

The escalating cost of homes is not limited to The Villages, Sumter County or Florida. It is a national situation.

The developer won the war long before the poorly executed proposal took shape. Brett Hage draws a 6 figure salary from the Villages AND a salary in Tallahassee! Knowing that a bill should have been crafted with the 40% increase and double digit increases on the developer going forward !

On the subject of impact fees or big property tax increases, those questions appear to be settled. But the result is there is no apparent source of funding for the road expansion to the south which will permit the Developer’s continued rapid development of houses and shopping centers. He may have to fund the road expansion with higher bonds on new houses, or pay for new roads and infrastructure as he has in the past and ‘repay’ himself from profits on new houses or shopping center operations. Any of those sources place the burden of the costs on those that will actually benefit!

If you think the price of homes will decrease anytime soon, you’re delusional. I’m aware of a pre-owned house in the Lake Sumter area—not on a golf course, no ‘water view’, a 16-year old Lantana—that went to contract last week after two days on the market, for a purchase price over 30% higher than the house sold for only eighteen months ago! There were 11 visits and two all-cash offers on the first day the house was open for viewing.

If you’re looking for a house in The Villages, new or pre-owned, be prepared to open your wallet much wider than you may have expected. And be prepared to act fast, the listings are selling at a lightning pace.

Sorry to ask this question, what is an impact fee?

Impact fee
An impact fee is a fee that is imposed by a local government within the United States on a new or proposed development project to pay for all or a portion of the costs of providing public services to the new development. Impact fees are considered to be a charge on new development to help fund and pay for the construction or needed expansion of offsite capital improvements. These fees are usually implemented to help reduce the economic burden on local jurisdictions that are trying to deal with population growth within the area.Wikipedia

An "impact fee" is called in "The Daily Sun" a "tax increase."

Yes, the price of homes will decrease when the Interest Rate on a new home becomes 6 percent! Things should level out by then! How do people make it this far in life!

Luckily our local paper is objective in their reporting.

If you believe that one have a bridge for sale.

Prices go down?
 

Hahahahaha

Temporary increases
 

Most believe the costs are temporary. Time will tell.

The Supply Chain is ramping back up & prices will drop, but no one is expecting pricing to return to pre_COVID prices.

An impact fee is typically a one-time payment imposed by a local government on a property developer or builder. The fee is used to offset the financial impact a new development places on the public infrastructure. Public infrastructure includes roads, schools, parks, recreational facilities, water and sewerage, expanded police and fire service and maintenance of those types of facilities.

In The Villages the cost of building such infrastructure for use by residential homeowners is typically financed by the issuance of a municipal bond. In TV that bond is then divided equally among the homes built in an area and becomes an obligation of the homeowners to repay and pay interest and fees on their portion of the bond.

To the extent that the proceeds from the bond which is an obligation of the homeowners in an area aren’t sufficient for the construction of required broader non-residential roads and infrastructure, the local government can assess an impact fee on the Developer to pay for the broader “non-residential” infrastructure such as major roads, police and fire stations, schools, public maintenance facilities, etc.

It was an executive of tithe Developer’s company who is also a state representative who sponsored a state-wide bill to set limits on the amount of impact fees local governments can assess against developers. In the current situation, the Sumter County commissioners also rolled back a 25% property tax increase against ALL homeowners in Sumter County that would have paid for the broader infrastructure in the southern end of The Villages required by the Developer to continue to build homes and commercial real estate in that part of the county.

So at this point the property tax rollback and the bill limiting impact fees has resulted in a shortfall of funding for non-residential infrastructure that the Developer says is needed to continue development in the south end of The Villages and Sumter County.

The Developer is trying different ways to get Sumter County to pay for new infrastructure (with funding from increased property taxes on homeowners). The county commissioners have promised the homeowners in the county that they won’t tax them to pay for the infrastructure the Developer says is required.

Stay tuned for who’s going to pay for the unfunded cost of the required roads and infrastructure. The arguments and debate will be interesting. Whatever you do, don’t rely on the descriptions of the alternatives and who should assume increased obligations on what you read in The Daily Sun. The Developer owns the paper so all you’ll get is the Developer’s view of what’s needed and who should pay for it.

You say spaghetti sauce, I say gravy. They are taking money from the citizens to waste as government normally does.

The impact most people are referring to is for roads. It can only be used for roads that are DIRECTLY related to the “impact” of the associated property development. County government can also assess impact fees to pay for parks, schools, water and wastewater, etc. Sumter County only has impact fees for roads!

The problem people have with the property tax increase that is related to roads was designed to support the industrial park and pave the way for other light industry. The roads for the new development in The Villages, ie most of the neighborhood roads, are built by the developer. The so called feeder roads and collector roads are paid for from the impact fee. They do NOT support the development of industrial parks, etc.

Prices in the villages will never go down. They sell over 200 houses a month. No other developer in the nation is even close

Impact fees is what any tax is that is caused by a user in the local area . We have 50+ of them from fire fees to a road tax when a builder starts a new home or commercial building . That is a big one , some are annual , some one time

Thanks to all the folks fleeing high tax States, it’s become a supply vs demand issue; not to mention the increase in costs for building materials.

The Villages Daily Sun scared its readers with the phrase “75% increase in road impact fees” that was to take effect on June 28. The 75% road impact fee increase on a single-family home was a $2000 increase. The impact fee is paid by the home builder when the building permit is issued and is then added to the price of the home. Assuming that the home builder does not make a profit on the $2000 impact fee increase, the price of a $200,000 home increases by 1%. Assuming that the home buyer has a 3% 32-year mortgage, a $2000 increase results in an increase of $5 in monthly payments.

Prices won’t go down due to building materials cost. Crazy that the stubborn 3 new commissioners didn’t take 40%.

The 40% came with conditions which made the offer less attractive.

The homeowners will pay in every case. The debate is if new homeowners should bear the entire cost of expansion which benefits all homeowners in the form of lower taxes and increased property values in the long run.

What the developer wants the developer gets.

Reading the Orlando Sentinel paper this morning and it appears that Orange County is in the same boat as Sumter. Orange County (Orlando area) wanted to raise impact fees for road infrastructure and now the paper is quoted as saying “every dollar developers save on impact fees becomes the taxpayers burden”. The article went on to say the new legislation will make it virtually impossible for local governments to require that new development pays its own way.

This cash flow model illustrates how a $50 million investment will be repaid in less than 6 years via increased tax revenue from new homes. Generating over a billion dollars in incremental revenue over 20 years.

Illustration supports issuing a Bond for the roads.

Will $ 50 million be enough to cover all of the roads and other stuff needed to build 3000 homes per year for 20 years?

The annual incremental tax revenue exceeds $50 million by year 9.