Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Informed consumer...

Yesterday, an article appeared in the Hernando Times about Blaise Ingoglia's affordable housing initiative. He is promoting this plan to assists teachers and local law enforcement qualify for home ownership. A similar article about Mr. Ingoglia's plan ran in the Hernando Today several weeks ago.

In the Hernando Times article, Stan Fitterman, a senior technical advisor for the Florida Housing Coalition pointed out some of the risks associated with Mr. Ingoglia's initiative. He pointed out that the potential homeowner should understand the risk of facing a balloon at the end of the ten year term and have alternate ways to refinance this debt. Mr. Fitterman pointed out that homeowners sometimes become mired in debt and may find it difficult to repay the balloon note suggested in Mr. Ingogolia's intitiative.
The wide media blitz of Blaise Ingoglia's "affordable housing" initiative has not included pertinent public record data for Hartland Homes. The informed consumer needs to look no further than the Hernando County website to review the land holdings of Hartland Homes. As of yesterday, the Hernando County Property Appraiser listed
Mr. Ingoglia's company owning 17 properties. The property appraiser listed Hartland Homes as being delinquent for the 2005 and 2006 tax years in the amount of $11,198.14. By adding the current 2007 tax bill of $17,280.63 for Hartland Homes to their prior year(s) delinquent taxes the amount is $28,524.10. Hartland Homes is also listed as being delinquent on the Citrus County Property Appraiser's website for 2005 and 2006 in the amount of $5,857.59, in addition to their current 2007 tax bill of $11,576.47. The combined total of Ad Valorem taxes dues on the Hartland Homes properties for Citrus and Hernando Counties is $45,687.00.
It will be interesting to hear if Mr. Ingoglia's company plans to absorb the delinquent taxes due on his properties in his proposed affordable housing initiative or if this will become a cost the consumer will be expected to absorb in their mortgage.


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