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Flagler, Florida and Beyond
FlaglerLive | December 20, 2011
The Flagler County Commission closed the books on the 28-year-old Hammock Dunes “development of regional impact,” angering Palm Coast over developer dollars the city contends should still be paid for widening Palm Harbor Parkway.
FlaglerLive | December 6, 2011
Strathmore Deli, renamed Best Bagels & Deli, was the high-traffic anchor for the Parkway Plaza strip between Plam Coast Parkway and Cypress Point. Its abrupt closure four years after it opened is rippling with consequences.
FlaglerLive | November 3, 2011
Palm Coast Manager Jim Landon told opponents of the Sawgrass Villas project that the city might entice the bank that owns the land to open a branch on SR100, buying city land and enabling the city to buy the Matanzas Woods property.
FlaglerLive | October 27, 2011
Palm Coast’s Genis family–mother, father, six children–was duly paying rent on its Smith Trail home when it was sold by the court and the family was given 10 days to clear out, even though it never saw an eviction notice.
FlaglerLive | October 20, 2011
Existing-home sales were down in September on the heels of a strong gain in August, but remain well above a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.
FlaglerLive | October 19, 2011
The rise and fall of U.S. Century, whose leaders used it as their own corporate ATM, exemplifies the failure to regulate banking during the boom years and the slipshod approach to the bailout. Losers are taxpayers and Florida residents grappling with ill effects of sprawl.
FlaglerLive | August 15, 2011
The University of Florida’s quarterly Survey of Emerging Market Conditions concludes that economic and political worries are holding back spending, except by foreigners. Tourism is the state’s strongest bright sport.
FlaglerLive | August 13, 2011
Government-owned foreclosures as rental property investments: The government is looking for win-win solutions for taxpayers, renters, investors and neighborhoods, but there’s plenty of skepticism about the foreclosure-to-rental concept.
FlaglerLive | August 2, 2011
In a victory for Flagler County, the Florida Cabinet unanimously approved a judge’s order that blocks Ginn-Lubert Adler’s plan to build an oceanfront condominium and hotel at Hammock Dunes, near the 16th Road public park and beach.
FlaglerLive | August 2, 2011
Ginn-Lubert Adler and investors want to build a 77-foot hotel and significantly increase the residential density in an area adjoining the public beach by 16th Rd. in the Hammock. Flagler County is opposed. The two sides are arguing their case before the Florida Cabinet today.
FlaglerLive | July 30, 2011
When GMAC, one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, sought to foreclose on a homeowner last year and lacked a crucial document, the company just made one up, pointing to a pattern of deceptive filings to foreclose on homeowners.
FlaglerLive | July 27, 2011
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi fired two assistant attorneys general who were heavily involved in investigating alleged mortgage fraud, including focusing on one firm that had contributed to Bondi’s campaign. Bondi says they had “shortcomings.”
FlaglerLive | July 18, 2011
Sales are increasing somewhat by volume but more than half the transactions are for cash, prices keep falling, foreclosures are increasing, and the overall economy shows little sign of improvement.
FlaglerLive | July 8, 2011
City Market Place, where Palm Coast has its municipal offices, has been mired in foreclosure proceedings since 2009. The changes aren’t expected to affect tenants except, perhaps, for the better.
FlaglerLive | June 20, 2011
If a proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage Rule (QRM) of 20% down and spending less than 28% of monthly gross income on the mortgage takes effect, Marc Morial of the National Urban League argues, middle class home ownership will be a thing of the past.
FlaglerLive | June 15, 2011
The Florida Department of Community Affairs, created in 1969 to manager growth, is being diluted into other agencies, leaving local governments much freer to develop as they choose.
FlaglerLive | June 8, 2011
The Coquina Coast Seawater Desalination project unveiled 14 general sites where the plant might be located in Palm Coast, but it may be a moot discussion as the city’s financial partners are quitting, and Palm Coast can’t afford it on its own.
FlaglerLive | June 8, 2011
Expanding Old Kings Road was to guarantee Walmart’s opening by 2011, with 400 to 500 jobs. Instead, the city is left holding a bag-full of empty promises–and a $6.3 million loan from its utility fund.
FlaglerLive | June 2, 2011
Local governments will get to decide how and where to grwo with little or no interference from the state growth-management regulators, whose role is now severely limited.
FlaglerLive | May 31, 2011
Housing prices fell to levels not seen since 2002 as double-dipping prices hit new recession lows. Meanwhile, the Palm Coast City Council discussed approval of a plan that would add 12,000 housing units to the local hosing stock.
FlaglerLive | May 23, 2011
Old Brick Township to Palm Coast’s northwest is just one of several planned developments and existing lots that would add 40,000 new homes and 9 million square feet of commercial and industrial zones, more than doubling Flagler’s and Palm Coast’s populations.
FlaglerLive | May 13, 2011
Developers gained more power in environmental disputes, state regulation of development was scaled back, the Department of Community Affairs is all but history as the Florida Legislature diminished the state’s growth management role in favor of development.
FlaglerLive | May 12, 2011
What you can expect at Friday’s economic-development summit: Demands for more tax dollars, speculative promises of thousands of jobs from executives, skepticism and disconnects. In short, a retread of old scenarios.
FlaglerLive | May 11, 2011
From Brad Pitt’s Make It Right program to a broad-based spirit of enterprise, Flagler Beach’s Frank Gromling has been tracking New Orleans’ rebirth every year by attending the city’s annual jazz festival.
FlaglerLive | May 10, 2011
Florida home sales rose 13 percent in the 1st quarter, led by a glut of bank-owned homes on the market, but housing prices continued to fall, dampening hopes that property values have bottomed out.
FlaglerLive | May 10, 2011
Mortgage loan modification scams: Regulators ban the practice, but banks are forcing homeowners struggling to save their home to sign away their right to sue.
FlaglerLive | May 5, 2011
The declines, for the fourth year in a row, will define to what extent local governments must either raise taxes or cut services as they prepare next year’s budgets. Governments have little room to cut anymore, short of vitals services.
FlaglerLive | May 2, 2011
First-time home buyers would get a 50 percent property tax break on the value of their home. Voters would decide whether to cap property tax assessment increases for commercial properties at 5 percent.
FlaglerLive | April 26, 2011
Palm Coast’s business park partnership program would entail spending significant taxpayer resources to develop construction-ready sites in partnership with private property owners, as bait for future commercial activity.
FlaglerLive | April 25, 2011
March new home sales post an 11 percent increase over February, but February had posted a record low, and March’s 300,000 sales volume is still 22 percent below sales in March 2010.
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