Who says Florida real estate isn't growing?
Barely was there time to adjust to the idea of people abandoning Florida homes, making the homes sort of homeless as well, when we chanced upon a few code enforcement officers on the Gulf Coast.
They have stories.
Apparently it's not just the mid-range houses that are suddenly without owners, it's some very high end housing stock as well. Brand new homes, some not even completed, are being turned over to the bank. And in one brand new subdivision on the water, several new or recently completed homes have been abandoned by builders or buyers.
Then there are the ones that suddenly get rented. One group of unoccupied high-end houses all got rented at once, the officials were saying. They're still unoccupied, technically. Called "grow houses," they have no furnishings except the tables, drip irrigation systems and controlled lighting to conduce to fine cannabis. The lawns get tended, and inside it's so quiet you can hear the grass grow.
Is it not possible that in the future, entire subdivisions of the Sunshine state will purr away like this? Migrant tent camps for the collection agency dodgers, fine-lawned McMansions for healthy weed.
This too is a form of gated community, pragmatically calibrated to the viable economics of Bush's final days.
They have stories.
Apparently it's not just the mid-range houses that are suddenly without owners, it's some very high end housing stock as well. Brand new homes, some not even completed, are being turned over to the bank. And in one brand new subdivision on the water, several new or recently completed homes have been abandoned by builders or buyers.
Then there are the ones that suddenly get rented. One group of unoccupied high-end houses all got rented at once, the officials were saying. They're still unoccupied, technically. Called "grow houses," they have no furnishings except the tables, drip irrigation systems and controlled lighting to conduce to fine cannabis. The lawns get tended, and inside it's so quiet you can hear the grass grow.
Is it not possible that in the future, entire subdivisions of the Sunshine state will purr away like this? Migrant tent camps for the collection agency dodgers, fine-lawned McMansions for healthy weed.
This too is a form of gated community, pragmatically calibrated to the viable economics of Bush's final days.
Labels: bush economics, florida, gathering darkness of all USian culture, marijuana, pragmatics, real estate
posted by Tom Matrullo at Saturday, July 28, 2007
5 Comments:
According to the United Nations, cannabis can fetch as much as $4,000 per kilo in the USA. I have no idea how much a MacMansion converted into a greenhouse could produce. Perhpas this offers hope to real estate speculators looking for an honest living.
Don't know if you fellers are aware of this, in it's third season. The L.A. suburb is called Agrestic, opening theme, Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds.
It'll be interesting to see if the housing trend Tom points out will be worked into the plot.
Here's the whole song, two more verses (close your eyes...)
Safe, quiet neighborhoods - what's the problem? Strange odors?
... hungry neighbours too lazy to go to the store and too friendly to leave you alone ...
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