Saturday, January 20, 2007

Is TAMPOA Actually Lowering Property Values?

TAMPOA Board President, Tom Tukey, says that TAMPOA must not lose its fight with the City over Southard because that will cause property values in the Annex to fall, and the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to the Annex residents to prevent this. Tukey also argues that the TAMPOA Board can be sued by Annex residents if it fails to vindicate that it owns Southard Street. He also argues that property values will fall and residents may blame the Board if the Board does not erect a gate at Southard Street. Whatever one thinks of how these positions may play out in the courts, a legitimate question to ask is whether these positions are already having the very effect on property values the Board fears? The answer is just possibly.

TAMPOA has more than doubled the assessments to Annex residents over the last year to pay for the exorbitant legal fees it has run up with the Andersen Firm, much of which TAMPOA still owes. The intransigence and foolhardiness of the TAMPOA Board in handling the whole matter has disgraced many Annex residents with their friends and colleagues in the rest of the City, a fact that Tukey tacitly acknowledges in his current newsletter to Annex residents appearing on TAMPOA's website. In a nice bit of spin he then goes on to claim that because those outside the Annex just don't have the facts, Annex residents really haven't actually been embarrassed by the Board's actions even if they feel that way.

Many Annex residents see no end in sight to the financial and social madness of the Board and are throwing in the towel. Their houses are for sale, lots of them. The problem is that no one is buying. As a result, prices are falling. Houses that once could be sold for more than a million one are now being listed in the 900,000 range, almost 200,000 less, in just a year.

It's a buyers' market now, and in the Annex that can't all be chalked up to a national trend. Much of it has to be chalked up to the TAMPOA Board and its litigation financial excesses. One realtor, we spoke with noted that unless someone gets a heck of a deal, no one who knows anything about what's going on in the Annex would buy here now. Referring to the litigation and the dramatic rise in TAMPOA Board assessments, he went on to indicate that things are too uncertain. One seller we spoke with asked, rhetorically, what he was going to say when a prospective buyer inquired about the TAMPOA assessments and how much they are likely to go up.

The bottom line is that home prices in Truman Annex are falling. The TAMPOA Board has succeeded in doing what it didn't want to happen, and this one reality of its failed policies has not yet sunk in.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your can thank the City of Key West for this problem since they abrogated a valid agreement signed by the commission, the DCA, and the Navy. This reason for the court process lies at the feet of the commission and your attempt to deflect blame to the victims of this deceit just exposes your bias, illogical thinking, and your political correctness. I suppose that you would just give away our property and that would preserve our property value (NOT!).
Your position is that of an appologist. You would rather place the blame on the victim rather than the instigator. Go figure that reasoning.

1/20/2007 06:45:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Tampoa Board is lowering property values. They use the excuse "we're raising property values" to sue the City and raise assessments. People do not want to buy homes in a community where the Board shows poor sense, especially in Key West.

1/31/2007 11:58:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home