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Highlands Today

Will builders be lining up for construction permits? Important lessons to be learned by economic crisis

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 1, 2009

We hope today starts off well with plenty of construction projects getting filed with the county. With impact fees postponed for a year starting July 1, perhaps today will get some people back to work.

Most of us figure there won't be a huge rush to build, but every little bit helps. More importantly, perhaps, it will feed the engine and get more projects under way.

It's difficult to imagine many news houses being built, considering the large inventory of existing homes on the market. We'd love to see Realtors get a shot in the arm as well, with buyers feeling more confident to take the plunge into owning a home.

For many of us, we'd love to buy a home with the prices so low, but if we already own something, it's too hard to sell. We've also heard of people bailing out of their homes and renting instead. These hard times are tough on everyone. There also are some folks who are abusing the system, but that's always the case.

Local builders wanted the impact fees to go away to help spark business, and they got their wish.

A lot of "experts" are saying that the recession has hit bottom and we should see progress by the end of the year. Most of them are saying improvements will be slow, though, so no overnight boom is going to happen. That's fine, because we don't want another boom.

Economic booms - especially real estate booms - make a few people a lot of money, but when it's over, the pain is wide spread. We need a steady, sustainable expanding economy. And we need people to fight greed - which is next to impossible.

When we finally do climb out of this hole, it's our hope that people learned a valuable lesson about extending themselves with credit, living above their means and not saving money. Many of us are reeling from the last boom.

Memory is short, though, when money's to be made. The same bad habits will creep in with some folks, regardless of how much pain they felt during the bust. The rest of us will spend most of our time trying to get back on our feet.

If nothing else, it will be a good lesson for our children to learn, just like Great Depression-era folks learned: Don't spend money you don't have.

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