Declining home sales?what about declining land around?!

[ThomasL]

I know this is a gripe topic but i keep reading about the slump in home sales but i still see d**n housing developments popping up left and right,aren't we concerned about the declining land and woods that keeps being gobbled up by subdivisions?If the housing market is in that bad of shape why are they still building homes!Has the world got like they do with used cars not buying them thinking they have to buy new and do the same on homes now!Look people if we keep it up there will be no more farms,woods to hunt and it will be nothing but one BIG CROWDED mess and a eyesore,thank you for my gripe post... > ;D  

[rondef]

The new home building in Northern Virginia is slowing down.  The existing home values are also dropping pretty quickly.

[FishingBuds]

I'll tell ya what I've noticed since the suburban boom, is the area flooding.

So many new places in the past 7 years around my neck of the woods that flood now

[Fisher of Men]

No doubt that paving the surface of the earth effects runoff. My problem with development (along with taking up land and habitat) is that every new home built is installed with an extensive landscape full of sod and thirsty plants. To meet this need, an automatic sprinkler system is installed. One problem in our area in North Texas is that many of the wells that supply many city's water are beginning to dry up (or drop levels tremendously). If we have any great length of drought (multiple years), I fear that they might dry up completely.

[ThomasL]

One thing to add but may not be so nice,when i was in school our history teacher told us one thing good about wars that doesn't effect us like it has in years past,he stated that wars were useful in controlling populations,not to say thats the reason for them but it did help the population stay in check,now there is no diseses or anything else to control this and in time we will overpopulate this planet .

[Dan:]

I don't think land shortage is as realistic of a problem as water shortage. There is still a ton of unoccupied land, I don't see the majority of that land being threatened any time remotely soon. However, Fisher of Men is right about water shortages. Lots of people believe that the water shortages will be a major source of conflict in the near future because shortages will cause competition for water. It's not just America, water supplies are getting lower all over the world.

[roadwarrior]

"Delivering" water at an "economically viable" price is the issue.

The world is mostly water! We will never run out.

8-)

[Alpster]

There is always another point of view..............

You study hard in school, make good grades, go to college and work hard to excell. You start at the bottom and work your way up. One day you meet the girl of your dreams. You save and work harder until one day you can finally afford a little house outside of town with a white picket fence and a dog, but WHOA! You can't build your dream house and raise your kids in it, because it gripes someone else. I always wonder when someone gripes about urban sprawl, if they ever stop to consider that trees were also cut down to build the house THEY live in. Do we really believe that we have MORE of a right to be HERE than the next guy? It's seems a pretty selfish notion that everyone else should just disappear so they won't encroach on my prosperity.

Not picking a fight here, just looking at it from a different angle.  

BTW - I live in New Jersey which is the most densely populated state in the US. The 1st and only state to be declared 100% urban. I still fish,  hunt and spend a lot of time in the woods.

Ronnie

[Dan:]

"Delivering" water at an "economically viable" price is the issue.

The world is mostly water! We will never run out.

8-)

Sure, maybe for those who can afford it, but it becomes a problem for the world's majority of people who are poor and cannot afford the delivery of water without it becoming more economically viable.

[ThomasL]

The angle i see is my familys have lived here(NC)  and never moved out of state,everyone else coming here is causing our problems,we are the natives of this state and built it.

[FishingBuds]

I don't think land shortage is as realistic of a problem as water shortage. There is still a ton of unoccupied land, I don't see the majority of that land being threatened any time remotely soon. However, Fisher of Men is right about water shortages. Lots of people believe that the water shortages will be a major source of conflict in the near future because shortages will cause competition for water. It's not just America, water supplies are getting lower all over the world.

nah

waters are fine, now maybe building somewhere and water is not there is another topic.

Fisher of man now, he's got a simple good point, I'll paraphrase it.  why tear down nature to build and then end up putting it back again for looks? most of that mother nature had worked out to keep watered.

now I'm from the backwoods and know several loggers that will refuse to strip woods down for certain reasons and this is one of them, talk about recycle, lets use some sense here and keep nature and build your house into it, instead of tear down nature build house and build nature around it, Ronnie's point I agree with let the man build for his family and have at it. But the way they stripped and then built is ridicules. Then have to come up with a man made way to keep new nature watered

Theres one area I know of that kept most of all trees and some hills, then built the houses around the natural landscape, just beautiful, looks like they was there for thousand of years

[Alpster]

The angle i see is my familys have lived here(NC)  and never moved out of state,everyone else coming here is causing our problems,we are the natives of this state and built it.

If you & your family have been in NC for as long as you say, I am betting there are some native American Indians somewhere that would say the same about you and yours. Just another angle to see it from.  

Ronnie

[ThomasL]

Well said alpster! since my greatgrandmother was 100% cherokee and my grandmother 1/2 cherokee.glad i have some of there bloodline one lived to 98 grandma to 87!

[Zel]

Boy, I think I could write a book about my battles with my township.  There is development and then there is smart development.  Our planning commission was smart enough to section off the township into specific areas for all types of development, including high density housing, upscale, trailer, open spaces, etc.  The problem is builders in my area always want high density housing, but don't want to build in the areas designated for it.  They are buying farmland in areas that are zoned for a minimum of 1 acre to build (the really nice areas).  And the new private golf course, and close proximity to a ski resort is a lure for density housing.  The builders have successfully put some of their own members on the planning commission.  Now the builders are willing to run water and sewer lines for miles in order to get waivers so they can build their density housing.  Unfortunately, everyone along the water and sewer lines would have to tie into it (houses less than 150 feet from water/sewer line), at a cost of about $8,000, and pay almost $100 per month for the privilege of having water and sewer (which costs me almost nothing per month because I have a septic tank and well).  They don't care much for me at the planning commission meetings and board of supervisors meetings, and I have been quoted numerous times in the paper for sticking to my guns about just keeping new development in the township as it was planned from the start.  Some want me to run for the board of supervisors, but I always tell them I like fighting my battles in my own way.  My last suggestion was to have the developers pay the hook up costs and 5 years of water and sewer bills for everyone having to tie in, if they wanted to put lines in areas zoned against it.  The board said they couldn't do that.  I replied that if there were no zoning plans to account for the different types of development, then they were correct, but since there are, the developers should pay the price of getting the zoning waivers they so desire.  It got cheers from the crowd, and glares from some of the board.  

[Dan:]

I don't think land shortage is as realistic of a problem as water shortage. There is still a ton of unoccupied land, I don't see the majority of that land being threatened any time remotely soon. However, Fisher of Men is right about water shortages. Lots of people believe that the water shortages will be a major source of conflict in the near future because shortages will cause competition for water. It's not just America, water supplies are getting lower all over the world.

nah

waters are fine, now maybe building somewhere and water is not there is another topic.

There is plenty of research and scholarship that would beg to disagree.

[Fish Man]

you havent seen anything until youve been on the Delmarva penninsula. from stories ive heard and old pictures this place used to be beautiful (still is, in the right places) but now it seems a new development is popping up every other week and flooding the area with houses that they cant even sell now

[jemackinnon83]

The home builders/developers wouldn't continue building new if they had a doubt that us and everyone else would buy it.  I build apartments/condos and most are built on land that wasn't previously developed, however some are built on a site where previous construction had been demolished.  Many times they are all sold or leased before construction is even complete.

[=Matt 5.0=]

You guys should come visit Rhode Island. Smallest State in the Union with the highest population density. Some of the highest taxes in the country too. And people want to know why we're so miserable up here.... :

[Alpster]

You guys should come visit Rhode Island. Smallest State in the Union with the highest population density. Some of the highest taxes in the country too. And people want to know why we're so miserable up here.... :

Matt,

Jersey has you beat on both population density and property taxes. We are still #1  

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/populations/usadensityh.htm

Ronnie

[FishingBuds]

Zel, I could use you over here on septic systems, had an issue last five years on a septic installer, wasn't hard to prove but he was teaming up with one of our soil surveyors around here and getting results in his favor, there for he had to install the most expensive septic system, the above ground(mound) kind $10,000 plus. That is dishonesty by the buck load, but theres way more that goes on besides this. >

[=Matt 5.0=]

You guys should come visit Rhode Island. Smallest State in the Union with the highest population density. Some of the highest taxes in the country too. And people want to know why we're so miserable up here.... :

Matt,

Jersey has you beat on both population density and property taxes. We are still #1

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/populations/usadensityh.htm

Ronnie

Ouch.... thanx for the link...good info there.