Opinion

By Dave Scott, 9-13-24

Increasingly escalating property values, high mortgage rates and home owners reluctant to give up low interest mortgages have dramatically slowed the Nassau County’s real estate sector according to statistics compiled by the Amelia Island Nassau County Association of realtors.

Numbers posted in the online Neighbor site (13) News Feed — Nextdoor displayed Amelia Island Nassau County Realtor Association statistics showing the following:

• For condos, closed sales were down by 31.8% Year Over Year [YoY}] median sales price decreased by 4.9% and condominiums sat a shorter time on the market.
• For single family homes, closed sales were down by 13.5% YoY, median sales price went up by 12.9% and homes sat longer on the market.
• For manufactured homes, closed sales were down by 46.2% YoY, median sales price decreased by 16.3% and the manufactured home sat on the market for a long time.

We’re not alone. Floridians across the state are also being financially battered by consistently rising home insurance rates. Renters experience it too as owners are hiking rents to cover their escalating costs.

The National Association of Realtors finds that across the country the average payment on a new mortgage is nearly double what it was five years ago.

The Wall Street Journal says: “Because the supply of housing can only be increased slowly the market can respond to heightened demand only with higher  prices.”

If Kamala Harris is elected it’ll get worse. Economists are pushing back on her proposal to give first-time home buyers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance, warning that the housing credit will just add to the cost of homes throughout the U.S. as it increases demand, which drives prices up.

Former HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, John Gibbs, says: “It’s like trying to empty a pool with a bucket while filling it up with a fire hose.”

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Speaking Of Things That Don’t Add Up: Not once during conversations with friends, relatives and acquaintances have I ever heard anyone say: “What the country  needs are higher taxes” or “The government should give arms and money to the Taliban, Iran and Palestine.” Nor have I ever heard them say: “I don’t mind paying 40-50 percent more for gasoline or 20 to 30 percent more for my electric bill and groceries” or “Sure, I’d be delighted to pay for my neighbor’s kids college and medical care, housing, education and food for illegal immigrants.”

Or how about “It’s a protestor’s right to made a statement by shouting antisemitic slurs, attacking Jewish students,  defacing statues and destroying public and private property.”

Also, I’ve never had a pal confide to me that he’s worried he may be pregnant because he missed his period. Maybe Tim (Tampon Tim) Walz’s, delusional buddies have, but none of mine.

I’ve never heard any of that rubbish, except from a handful of the most rabid progressives hereabouts. The only other places I consistently hear this kind of drivel is from an MSNBC panel, the Democrat party squad members, the View, the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren fan club, and the Democrat party’s candidate for President, Kamala Harris and her creepy sidekick, Tim Walz.

Locally columnist Chuck Oliva and Editor Tracey Dishman of the Fernandina News Leader and Black Lives Matter activist and the online Observer’s Mike Lednovich are prone to incoherent outbreaks of radical twaddle. Far left activist and former Democrat Executive Committee head, Sheila Cocchi, also suffers frequent bouts of senseless rants.

I can’t think of a single thing that is better now than when Trump was president. Can you? Kamala Harris couldn’t either so she ignored that question when asked.

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Debating The Debate: During the presidential debate Tuesday evening Harris distanced herself from her previous radical far left statements and wasn’t called out on them by Trump or the biased ABC moderators.

The word “moderator” trended all night Tuesday on X with over a million comments, with the phrase “worst debate moderators ever” repeated frequently. Trump said prior to the debate that ABC was the worst network to be hosting the event and Media Research Center pointed out ahead of it that ABC was “100%” pro-Harris.

The debate moderators, ABC’s propagandists David Muir and Linsey Davis, called Trump out to his face five times, and said nothing about Harris’ non-answer answers.

Former network newscaster and talk show host Megyn Kelly agreed saying on her popular podcast: “I’m disgusted. I’m ashamed of those moderators at ABC News. They did exactly what their bosses wanted them to do. The person who runs ABC News is a close personal friend of Kamala Harris, who is responsible for Kamala Harris and her husband meeting, and they did [Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman] Dana Walden’s bidding tonight.”

“It was three against one on that debate stage this evening,” the former television personality insisted. “It was three against one. It’s very easy to look like you know what you’re doing when both moderators are entirely on your side. Trump did the best he could under the circumstances, but it really was like three fighters in the ring pummeling one opponent and Trump tried to take them all on.”

    ***

Meanwhile In Springfield, Ohio: While the media is dismissive of the rumors of Haitian immigrants dining on local cats and dogs, the suffering Springfield, Ohio residents are fed up.

They’re now getting some relief from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. He’s sending in state troopers and $2.5 million to the beleaguered city of 58,000 to help deal with the more than 15,000 Haitians who have been relocated there by the Harris-Biden administration directly from Haiti.

Imagine what the locals are experiencing! An almost overnight 26 percent increase in that city’s population is having a devastating impact throughout that community – schools, hospitals, housing, police, etc. Most of these people don’t speak English, many have illnesses, and they are reluctant to assimilate.

Imagine suddenly having 26 percent more residents (3,500) plopped down overnight in Fernandina Beach with its population of 13,400. As I reported earlier housing hereabouts is scarce and expensive, schools are already strained, and hospitals aren’t exactly soliciting for new patients.

Despite what ABC and Harris say things are so bad in Springfield that the beleaguered residents there have launched a petition to recall the entire city commission over their poor handling of the Haitian migrant crisis.

Earlier in the week Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal means — including a potential lawsuit — to stop the Biden-Harris administration from sending “an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities.”

What’s to stop the Harris-Biden wrecking ball from doing the same thing here?

   ***

Did Someone Say, “High Prices”: It’s understandable why Kamala Harris didn’t attempt to answer the first question she was asked during the debate.

When asked whether Americans are better off economically today than they were under former President Donald Trump, she went off on a wild tangent about her past. She can’t point to a single positive. Even CNN’s Jake Tapper wasn’t impressed and said so.

For example, during the Harris-Biden years either my car’s gas tank has dramatically increased in size or prices have skyrocketed as three and a half years ago I  filled up for $40, sometimes less, while today I pull away from the pump with a tab of $65-$70. At local grocery stores the “good ‘ole days” of the $5.00 or even $4.00 special for rotisserie chickens are as long gone as the 99 cent baguette, both items now selling for $7.00 and $2-3 respectively. The only items left in the produce department that are still reasonably priced are bananas. In the bakery a container of four large cookies sell for $7. Forget sirloin steaks and rib roasts. And like my neighbors, my car and home insurance premiums go up each year.

After getting a glimpse of grocery prices I can understand why Springfield’s Haitian immigrants are hungrily eyeballing Fido and Fluffy for their traditional pot of soup joumou.

And no, I don’t want an electric car. They’re too expensive and parts and labor to repair and maintain them are astronomical. And even if you can find a recharging station it takes too long to fill ‘er up. Oh, and a new battery costs between $14,000 – $20,000. That puts a whole new blush on “sticker shock.”

Under Harris and Biden all electricity prices are increasing everywhere because of EPA regulations, unnecessary subsidies for green sources of electricity, restrictions of drilling and social and governance (ESG) pressure. If elected Harris and Walz said they plan to phase out gasoline-powered cars.

Harris is hostile to corporate profit, which she sees as price gouging and exploiting workers and consumers. Walz is even worse saying, “socialism is neighborly.”

Voting for this duo is economic suicide.

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Speaking Of  The High Price of Government: Fernandina Beach’s 13,400 residents are governed locally by 350 city employee including the five elected City Commissioner and 47 part timers. That works out to one city employee for every 38 residents.

These city employees are well paid with 27 of them earning significantly more than $100,000 annually plus generous benefits. I have a  list of every employee, titles, and salaries. It indicates the highest paid is City Attorney Tammi Bach pulling down $182,344.23 a year. The new city manager’s salary hasn’t been disclosed yet. The lowest paid are the commissioners who receive $18,000 per year plus a generous dose of public abuse. But they knew that going in.

Maybe it’s about time that at one of these interminable budget workshops they make the only topic to be discussed “Budget and Staff Cuts.”

Locals who want more spending to buy more shiny new stuff for the bloated staff at city hall will get it and more if they vote for the two far-left, extremists and deceits, Genece Minshew and Joyce Tuten. Ask them why they switched from the Democrat party to Republican and “No Party Affiliation” respectively right after they qualified to run for office. Did they think the 73 percent of  Republican voters hereabouts wouldn’t notice?

More about all this later.

Republished with the author’s permission. Read The Dave Scott Blog– subscribe Free

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.