(386) Area Community Blog

Remember Those Who Have Served

You have to stand tall and be proud to be an American.  Memorial Day is one of those days that you have to just stop, offer a moment of silence and thank all of the people who are or were out there fighting for us and those who have lost their lives fighting for this country.  War is always a heated debate and there will always be two sides.  You have to have experienced war or know someone who has to understand the loyalty and dedication to fight for our people and how proud our soldiers are to be able to fight for America.  Issues and opinions aside, we have to pay respect for the people in the military, their families loved ones and all of the people supporting the people of the military who are fighting and have fought for our freedom.  Let's just take a moment and say thanks.

There are a few local Memorial Day events:

Memorial Service: Monday May 28th 9:00 am at the Ormond Beach City Hall

Memorial Service: Monday May 28th 11:00 am at the Daytona Memorial Park, 1423 Bellevue Ave., Daytona Beach

Military Vehicle Display: Monday May 28th 1-3 pm at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4250, 2350 Sunset Drive, New Smyrna Beach

Governor Christ Signs The Budget

Governor Christ signed the state's $71.5 billion state budget but.....he vetoed almost $460 million.  He is making a statement by making our government live within out means.  I know that there are some local projects that weren't approved but there were also a great number of projects that were approved.  He approved a $1.2 billion increase in the day to day spending of public schools.  Read more of this News Journal article.

There was a great concern with the local property tax issues that there would be cutbacks in the school system.  I have two children in school and the last thing I want cut are programs in our school system.  Children are our future and we need to provide all of the resources we can.  It is good to see that they are trying to stay away from school cutbacks.

I have been a strong supporter of VTR who is fighting for our tax reform.  The city governments are trying to use scare tactics making people believe that if we do get tax cuts that everybody is going to suffer.  There is a threat that city workers are going to lose their jobs if they are forced to make the required cutbacks.  I wouldn't want to see anyone lose their job but what about all the construction trades people, builders, mortgage brokers, Realtors, title companies, attorneys, decorators, painters, roofers, masons, and all the retail stores that support the housing industry, and on and on that have lost their jobs or where forced to cut back.  The cities aren't even acknowledging what the current tax system has done outside of their world. 

I don't believe that we will notice much of a change at all.  They just have to trim the fat.  As a local Realtor my budget has been cut drastically with the real estate market being what it is.  You have to deal with what you are dealt.  It is beyond my control so I am forced to reduce my spending.  Local governments have received such an increase in their tax revenues over the last five years that they had better saved for a rainy day because you would have to be ignorant to believe that the market would continue at the rate it was forever.

Life will go on as it did before the real estate boom.  People weren't complaining about life before 2004.  It is what it is and we will survive.

Florida Ranks 2nd In Nation For Tech Jobs

I was shocked to hear that Florida is second in the nation for tech jobs.  You wouldn't think of Florida as a state with such a large high tech job market.  Why aren't we attracting more of these employers to our area?  We need to draw more business to the area to build our local economy and provide higher paying jobs in the area.  The rapid appreciation of real estate in the area has pushed home prices up into the middle to upper-middle income ranges.  We need to bring jobs to the area to support those prices.

Take a look at these stats. "On a state-by-state basis, Cyberstates 2007 shows that tech employment gains occurred in 40 cyberstates in 2005, the most recent data available.  The last year that so many states saw this much tech job growth was in 2000.  While it is no surprise that California led the nation in net job creation, Florida saw the second largest gain, adding 10,900 tech jobs in 2005.  This is the second year in a row that Florida was among the top five states by tech employment creation."  Read the full article by AeA here.

Are the community leaders involved with economic development paying attention to this?  Let's draw some of these jobs here. 

Ian Anderson

Supercalifragilistic...

With all the talk that our local schools aren't making the grades, I have to challenge that.  My daughter just had a bonus word for her spelling test, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  She is in first grade!  There aren't too many people that can say it let alone spell it.  I have to tell you that she spelled it correctly. 

I think that kids today are expected to do so much more.  As technology advances, so do their expectations.  We are able to do so much more in less time with technology.  Children start using computers in school in pre-school sometimes.  I didn't learn how to use a computer until I was in high school.  Children are so much smarter and exposed to so much more than we were in the past. 

There was just an article this week in the News Journal stating that our scores were up in Volusia County.   Read more.....

This has even sparked a new TV show, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?  What a great idea for entertainment, demoralize adults in front of millions of people.  I love it!  It is amazing how much you forget when you don't use it. 

The beginning....

Here is where it all begins.  I finally entered into the world of blogging.  I have been talking about putting together a community blog that would be a website available to everyone in the Daytona Beach area to post community events, news and what is happening in the area.  Being in real estate I always have people coming to me for all kinds of local information.  I wanted to make this a one stop website for people to access that information.  My goal is to have local professionals offer their knowledge and insight on what is happening on their side of the world.  As a local real estate expert with The Dream Homes Team, I will keep you informed of what is happening in the local real estate market.  I hope you enjoy.