A Hint For The Housing Industry
Everyone is now aware of the meltdown in the housing market and the associated slump in the stock market as the number of foreclosures soar and the mortgage lenders experience the Coriolis effect associated with sanitary drains.
According to Southwest Florida’s Herald Tribune people think Sarasota is the drain:
SARASOTA — Readers of the famously salmon-sheeted Financial Times woke up Friday morning to a story linking the global credit crunch and stock market dip to the sandy shores of Southwest Florida.
“Like the proverbial butterfly that flaps its wings and sets off a tidal wave on the other side of the world, Sarasota, Florida is the centre of the U.S. housing bust that sent shockwaves through global markets,” said the London-based newspaper’s story by Eoin Callan.
The problem is that the building industry went for the big unit profits rather than smaller, but steady income, and over-built luxury homes and condos that only a few people could afford, and very few people needed.
Because I try to help out capitalism when I can, I thought I ought to point out that if the builders would like to actually make some money, not big bucks, but steady income, they might start rebuilding the lost housing stock along the Gulf Coast. That’s where the need is, and no one is meeting it.
Get over it. The middle class is melting before our eyes, so you had better start looking at fulfilling the needs down-market if you want to survive. Whipping out Katrina cottages may not be as profitable as McMansions, but it’s a paycheck.
4 comments
i’d much rather have a katrina cottage than a mcmansion.
So would I. They are designed to be moved if you get a better piece of land, and some of them can be built off site and then moved to your location on a flat bed. They have some nice traditional designs.
Hell, you could install pontoons on both sides and run an anchor from the front porch if there’s a major storm surge coming.
cool! i’ve always wanted a houseboat.
my newest want, though: container houses
Actually they design floating houses in the Netherlands with posts at the corner that the house can rise up if there’s a flood.
A “shotgun” like the Katrina cottage is essentially a container, but it has better insulation properties. Steel is a problem down here in the salt winds and water.