There Are Factors Bigger Than Impact Fees

It's become a familiar drumbeat among some Highlands County residents every time there is a mention of the downturn in the local real-estate market.

Blame impact fees.

Sure, impact fees add to the cost of a new home but what about hundreds of existing homes for sale. There is no impact fee weighing those houses down.

The real-estate market in Highlands County is suffering for the same reasons that plague it nationwide. Buyers are waiting for prices to fall down further, the state's insurance premiums and property taxes are keeping homes out of the reach of average homeowners, and lenders have become extra wary of who they want to lend to.

A few years back, Highlands County got caught in the real-estate bubble that enveloped the rest of the country. Home prices skyrocketed, partially fueled by mindless speculation and easy credit. Now the bubble's burst, and like everyone else, we are suffering, too.

Nobody knows for sure when the market will repair itself. Some experts see it bouncing back somewhat late this year and even next year. During the last two major housing slumps - in the early 1980s and the early 1990s - it took several years before prices and sales recovered.

But here's the good news. The housing market did pick up. You can't change the fact that people need homes to live in. To think that repealing or scaling down impact fees in Highlands County will expedite the recovery may be wishful thinking. It might give a psychological boost to the local market but that's not a given.

What will happen should impact fees be revised downward, though, is that when the market does recover and more people move in the area, we might not have enough revenue from impact fees to expand our infrastructure and meet state mandates. That would leave existing property owners to foot the bill for growing pains caused by someone else.

If commissioners feel there is a need to have a conversation about making homes affordable, they could start with lowering the tax rate so that people have less property taxes to pay. That's also easier to do than assessing the impact of impact fees.