Just in time.

Well, the Supreme Court has really let me down.

Right at the point that I am buying my first home, in an area of the beach that is being cannibalized daily by large multi-million dollar condo developers and shark-like out of state investors who are tearing down houses to build duplex apartments, precedent is established even more directly that local governments can blight an area, just to sell it off to a developer who can build something bigger that will generate more taxes.

Do I have any faith in the county government here to leave my small neighborhood alone?
OH absolutely not.
The fact of the matter is that North Lagoon drive is nearly full. There is little land available that is not already developed, and what remains un-developed is insanely overpriced.
We are talking 100 thousand dollars or more for empty lots that are no more than 80x100 or so.
And to make matters worse, the neighborhood I am buying in is right next to an elementary school and near the bay and surrounded by higher end homes. North Lagoon Oaks is about 80% mobile homes, nice and neatly maintained, but still mobile homes in a choice area that already has water and roads.
Two years ago PCB banned any new mobile homes and basicly grandfathered in most existing ones that were in specificly maintained communities, but they still have a time limit. No new mobiles can be moved in so once the current ones fall out of livable status they will get moved off.

I actually think the chances of my land getting grabbed to develop a large apartment complex is pretty high right now. There are 4 large apartment complexes on the beach and all of them have waiting lists of 10 or more people per "type" of apartment. 1 bed 2 bed 3 and so on.

So if a developer goes to the county and says,"Hey there are 52 homeowners in North Lagoon Oaks, 80% of them Mobile Homes, which are already considred a blight, and enough land to develop 2 apartment complexes with 200 units each.
Each unit will cost between 600 to 1200 a month and 3 percent of that goes directly to profit tax and then the investment property tax alone for those two complexes will be significantly more per year than all 52 home taxes combined so we are increasing the bay county tax revenue for that hectare by 4-5% simply by using eminent domain to get rid of a bunch of trailer trash".

Well if all you are interested in is money, that sounds like a damn fine deal. I have to agree.

The problem is that they are going to generate a mean fair market value for my property based on the most recent sales of comparable properties so since I didn't buy this house 15 years ago there is a high probability that I will lose my house that I am sinking 100 grand into buying and 10 grand into renovating with a just compensation of around 96 thousand dollars, leaving me IN DEBT for 4 thousand dollars and completely OUT the 10 thousand I will have spent on renovations AND NOWHERE TO LIVE.

How does that work you ask?

It is clearly stated that any "victim" of eminent domain receive "just compensaiton", yes. NOT FAIR MARKET VALUE. Just Compensation
Just compensation is open to interpretation.
See if the developers had to pay for each property as if they were buying each individual piece, they would be shelling out much much more money, because they would be paying the fair market value, or supply and demand value.
Just compensation means that they take a mean index of the area your house is located up to 2 miles away or until they find a comparable structure.
Cause two miles away from me are about 13 homes that start at 1.5 million up. So they can't very well average. So they would mean index 3 bed 2 bath mobile homes, with comparable features, and the most recent sales prices then they would apply a depreciation value for the fact that the land is now deemed blighted and condemned.
AHA! see that. They depreciate it on you by blighting and condemning it. See with my lot, and neighborhood if you wanted to buy me out within the next two years, I would set the sale price at what I expect to be able to make if my current plans don't change.
My current plan is to pay on the house for two years on a 15 year mortgage, getting the most equity I can out of 2 years, then refinance for a 30 year mortgage, and save money while also making double payments on my mortgage. Since the fifteen years mortgage payments are triple what my 30 year payment would be.
After two more years of making double payments and saving around 5% of my income, I would refinance for a construction loan and build a new house on the lot, with a roll over to a 30 year fixed mortgage.

Well as of today a 3 bed 2 bath home on my lot of good construction quality is worth about 300K.
In five years with current real estate demand trends continuing, my house would be worth roughly 350K. So if you walked up to me today and said I want to buy your ugly little house, how much do you want, I would say $350,000.00. But after depreciation of a mean calculation my "just compensation" could literaly be less than what I owe for it. Cause when I got a mean calculation of the 3 properties nearest to mine is size and features I got a mean price of 94k and some change. From Domania.com.

And I don't know what the average depreciation of a blighted area is, but they apply it.
Just for laughs lets say it is as low as 2 percent. That still takes $1,881.00 off of what they have to pay me for my property leaving me over $5000.00 dollars in debt for a house I can't live in.
PLUS whatever it costs me to get the mobile home moved off the land if I decide I even want to keep the damned thing.

Yeah.

It's all my fault though when you really think about it.
See I wasn't smart enough when my "new baby soul" was still in heaven to be born to a family who was wealthy and either well connected to government, or was in the government.
So I shouldn't cry and whine if some company tells the county they deserve to own my property more than I do cause they will generate more tax revenue than I will.

I did it to myself.

So far this is my favorite eminent domain story.

Peoples homes, and businesses were deemed blighted and torn down (some people losing 15-20% of the investment they had made in the properties they owned) in the downtown of a large city in the southwest because a baseball team wanted a new stadium and it persuaded the city government to condemn the land.
And not just stadium land, but a few blocks next to it that would increase in value as a result of stadium construction. After that, the team owners sold out for a handsome profit on account of the fine new stadium - one of those owners, a Texan named G.W. Bush, thereby parlayed a $600,000 investment into a $15 million profit and a political career.

See, his "new baby soul" was SOOOO much smarter than mine.

Oh yes, this is still hypothetical of course.

It is just