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Homesteaded homeowner concerned with big tax increase

Mr. Feichthaler: I bought my home last year and immediately applied for homestead. I received my TRIM notice in the mail and it shows my assessed value going up double! I thought we were capped at 3% increases with homestead? Now, my tax bill appears set to nearly double from last year. This can’t be right! —Mike S. Dear Mike, Over the past week, hundreds of thousands of TRIM (Truth in Millage) notices were sent to property owners throughout Lee County. This required notice is designed to give taxpayers a “heads-up” on valuation, proposed tax rates from the many taxing ...

One of my favorite plants

A number of years ago, a very good friend of mine was writing these articles for the Breeze. One of the feature plants that she wrote about was the plant “Thryallis.” Because of her article, I went out and purchased it and I am forever happy that I did. It flowers all year long, needs ...

Home sales in July decline, inventory up, as sellers ‘HODL’

Our real estate market has shifted like a slow motion trainwreck from the white hot, “name your price,” multiple offer sellers' market frenzy of four to six months ago to a supercooled transitory phase neutral market that seems determined to race its way into what appears to be a much ...

Gardening with fragrance

Gardens provide our senses with an abundance of treasures. We can enjoy all our senses in the garden: the sound of palm fronds gently rustling in the breeze; the vibrant colors of tropical plants; the touch of soft ferns against our fingers; the amazing taste of fruits, vegetables and herbs; and the scents of beautiful flowering plants. Because of our brains’ anatomy, scent is the strongest human sense; smell, memory and emotion are closely linked in our neural pathways. This explains why scents can immediately trigger intense memories and emotions. We can use these strong ...

Decelerating price appreciation or a looming market crash?

Continuing with our “something’s happening here” theme from the past two weeks, today we are going to focus on what may be next for the housing market. There is a raging debate going on about the direction of the real estate market from this point forward, both within the industry itself, and also with various economists, market analysts and the media, all of whom have a wide variety of “expert” opinions. We tend to think that no one really knows how this will ultimately play out over the next year or so, in large part because of the unprecedented level of outside economic ...

Interest rate hike puts house purchase in jeopardy

Dear Mr. Feichthaler: I made an offer on a house back in March and it was accepted. The closing date is scheduled for Sept. 2. I did not have a rate lock so the interest rate is much, much higher, making it impossible for us to proceed financially. Can we get out of the contract? —Audrey A. Dear Audrey: The Federal Reserve decisions on tightening money supply to control inflation has led to a substantial increase in interest rates in a short period of time. We were still handling refinance transactions under 3% this year at the firm, where the typical rate now is approaching 6%. ...