5 comments:

• Doug Chaney posted at 8:09 pm on Wed, Jan 19, 2011.

  Posts: 1232

  Mr. Scott, I don't think there are many $400K homes left in Lodi? Homes here seem to be foreclosing faster than they're being sold, so the inventory should surely be rising. How many of these homes are real estate owned by local realtors? And how about the local banks like F&M? Do these local entities have fear of releasing these foreclosures and embarrass themselves by revealing the large number of properties they've hoarded hoping to make thay fast buck in the real estate boom or buy them for flippers to make a quick sale and nifty profit? It's pretty well known who the greedy local realtors and investors are, many who are upside down on their own homes and loans and are on the verge of ruin themselves.

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• Jackson Scott posted at 5:20 pm on Wed, Jan 19, 2011.

  Posts: 366

  Doug, the school & residential housing portions of RR were dropped due to the plunging economy. First, enrollment at nearby Lois Borchardt Elementary was already dropping due to foreclosures in the neighborhood, along with families moving out of the newer houses for rent to less expensive rentals in other parts of the city. Second, as you've already mentioned, Lodi has a huge inventory of homes for sale on the market, and plenty of people waiting for the market to rebound before they put their house up for sale. A new development in RR would only add to the inventory and would tank. Just look at the subdivision on the SW corner of Lower Sac & 8-Mile. Maybe 20% of those lots have homes built on them.

  I have a problem with the numbers given: a $400K house is now only worth $180K? Where is that, south of Kettleman? I read in the newspaper the streets of the foreclosures and Jayhawk is must have a ton. I cruised that area recently and it sure has went down hill.

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• Doug Chaney posted at 9:28 am on Wed, Jan 19, 2011.

  Posts: 1232

  And as far as lowering impact fees, won't that create competition from the outside? That's what the local developers fear. Remember the recent Social Security building move fiasco? Local Lodi developer interests were the same ones who filed certain complaints about this southern CA developer who "jumped" into their territory, weren't they? Our local developers have nice unwritten deals with officials who use dirrty tactics to reduce the burden of the fees they actually are said to pay. These local developers don't want any competition at all because they don't have the means to advance their LLC's anywhere else outside of the Lodi area in this new financially dominated world of today. Outside competition from an honest outside developer would bring ugly questions concerning some of the deals rendered by council to the local developers they pander to. Reynolds Ranch was one of those projects that changed drastically from the presentation at council and the time it was brought to council for approval. Even council reps Mounce and Hitchcock questioned who, what and why these major changes were made, then Manager King, the great spinner he is, talked around everything but the answers, while the project was brought to council for vote without a valid explanation, reps Hansen, Johnson and Beckman approved it, again with the original 3 amigos voting yes. The school suddenly disappeare from the original project, the commercial sf was drastically increased and the densities of residential was changed to reflect more higher density housing and lowering the lower density to allow for extra substantial profits. As far as I research, I can find no evidence of any additional council or public notification of these changes in the time frame between the council presentation and the subsequent major changes to this project profiting the developer immensely. An outside disgruntled developer could upset the apple cart quickly. Just my opinion on the good old boys system.

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• Doug Chaney posted at 8:57 am on Wed, Jan 19, 2011.

  Posts: 1232

  Mr. Hood, there are currently three large projects approved by council, Reynolds Ranch and the two SW projects off of Lower Sac road. Reynolds Ranch continues to build the Super High
  way 99 Lodi strip mall, yet no talk of any housing there. When the local banks and lenders, real estate brokers, agents and their families and local investors release their hoarded and huge inventory and move it, there won't be any significant rise in home construction. The indexes last month indicated home prices dropped another .05% won't help the matter, either. And as long as Lodi has retired part-time real estate appraisers with thei suspected highball appraisals, such as councilman Johnson, I doubt that will help spur home construction either, as well as existing home sales. And, IMO, home prices in Lodi are still overvalued in the Lodi area, with only agriculture, mainly the winegrape industry sustaining the local economy and very few living wage jobs available here.

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• Darrell Baumbach posted at 3:58 am on Wed, Jan 19, 2011.

  Posts: 9403

  The city of Lodi has no plans to adjust its impact fees, said city spokesperson Jeff Hood.“By reducing impact fees, you are essentially asking the community to subsidize the impacts,” Hood said.

  Can cost up to $50,000 in fees to build one house... no one is building, the economy is suffering, people are out of work…but we cannot reduce fees to attract permanent residents who would pay taxes, buy products and services locally... support workers that put the food on the table... if ever there was short sighted, backwards thinking, asinine statement, Jeff Hood made it here, and should be in the hall of fame , in my opinion.
  
  

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