Word: boomings
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...Florida's economy could lazily rely on soaring real estate prices - and related taxes - to pour ever more money into government coffers. Now local governments say they're broke, thanks to the housing bust, and many are trying to maintain the lofty property-tax rates levied during the housing boom or even increase them - even though that could exacerbate the housing bust...
...homeowners become eligible for it, caps their assessed property-value increases at 3% a year (part-time residents don't qualify). But when houses are sold, a far higher base assessment usually applies, creating absurd situations in which neighbors with similar properties pay wildly disparate taxes. And during the boom, in expensive markets like South Florida, homeowners who had yet to qualify for the cap often saw their property levies double in just a few years - a big reason half of all South Floridians in a 2007 Zogby International poll said they were considering moving out of the state...
...course, homeowners can appeal to their county's value-adjustment boards to negotiate lower assessments. And real estate experts like Paul say onerous tax bills aren't proving too large a hindrance to foreclosed-home purchases. The bigger concern is that during the boom, many local governments spent their revenue windfalls like sailors, which makes taxpayers less sympathetic to their budget whining. Mayor Alvarez insisted this month that "it's almost impossible that we can achieve an acceptable budget" without a property-tax increase. But because Miami-Dade residents saw so much official profligacy during the housing bubble - county commissioners...
...major problem that led to the crisis was that financial institutions--especially the largest, most complex and important ones--weren't held to a high enough standard. In boom times, that problem wasn't visible, but those firms turned out not to have the capital and liquidity cushions they needed in times of true stress. Our plan fixes that too. There are a whole range of areas--from consumer protection to the establishment of a coordinating council of regulators--where our plan puts in place measures that would have made it more unlikely for things...
...long boom in stock prices from 1982 to 2000 and the shorter one in housing prices from about 1997 to 2006 were fueled by rising debt. Ever easier mortgage terms and falling interest rates provided a brisk tailwind for home prices. In the stock market, higher profits pushed along by bigger consumer and corporate debt loads brought higher stock prices. Start ratcheting the indebtedness down and throw in slower growth, and both of these processes go backward. For the long-term health of the economy, that's good--as we've learned, debt-fueled growth is not indefinitely sustainable...