Posted on 01/13/2019 6:34:45 AM PST by dennisw
When Mitch Steller first moved into his house on a lush 117-acre golf course in Southern California, “this was like the Garden of Eden, having a golf course in my backyard,” he said.
Today, his Poway, Calif., home overlooks dry, dead grass in place of a once-verdant fairway. The golf club closed in 2017. “The fairways are brown, the greens are gone, the buildings are being vandalized,” says Mr. Steller, a 70-year-old maritime-management consultant.
Forty years after developers started blanketing the Sunbelt with housing developments built around golf, many courses are closing amid a decline in golf participation, leaving homeowners to grapple with the consequences. People often believe a course will bolster their property values. But many are discovering the opposite can now be true—and legal disputes are erupting as communities fight over how to handle the struggling courses.
“There are hundreds of other communities in this situation, and they’re trapped and they don’t know what to do,” says Peter Nanula, chief executive of Concert Golf Partners, a golf club owner-operator that owns about 20 private clubs across the U.S. One of his current projects is the rehabilitation of a recently acquired club in Florida that had shut one of its three golf courses and sued residents who had stopped paying membership fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at outline.com ...
A number of communities in our area are facing this problem including the community that I live in. Some are finding they must buy their golf course and are finding their home owner’s fees increase from $150 per quarter to over $300 a month. There are a few communities where their home owner’s fees are over $1000 a month (but that includes trash pickup). It is almost impossible to sell one of these homes. In our community the golf course is privately owned and the HOA voted NOT to even touch this. Fortunately they’ve found a buyer who is going to reopen the course.
Ten years ago most of the residents did not think this would be a problem.
Yes virtual reality sports games played on LED screens are much much safer.
It’s now! and the future! and the future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.
Oh the horror. Turn it into a park or woods.
I had to laugh when I read your post. You make a great point.
Do you an opinion on the Ozarks TV show? It goes wild into fantasy land but I like it. I have watched all of it.
I wonder if the developer retained ownership of the golf course with the homeowners' association having responsibility for it but no rights.
Yet another reason not to buy in an area with a homeowners' association.
Golf spelled backwards is flog. You put a ball on a tee and flog at it all day long. Never could see the point.
Fairway homes often have chain link on their windows.
Everybody knows never buy a house on a golf course. Well maybe not everybody.
The only thing the TV show has in common is the name “Ozark.”
I think it was shot in Georgia or Alabama...
Yes, we have hill people here abouts but none approach the TV show’s character.
My in-laws went to Table Rock Lake. Pretty Area.
Good enough VR and maybe I’d participate.
Then again, I hate sports so probably not.
Much of the value in having a home on a golf course is the visual appeal of the open, park-like space of the golf course itself. Selling off the land for development diminishes the worth of the adjoining homes.
Much of the value in having a home on a golf course is the visual appeal of the open, park-like space of the golf course itself. Selling off the land for development diminishes the worth of the adjoining homes.
I agree. Perhaps by developing houses on large lots and gate the community?
I’m pretty sure that this is the epitome of a first world problem.
Not so easy to re-use that land for other purposes, than perhaps a park.
Most golf courses, due to their high percolation rates and watering schedules are designed as part of the storm water drainage plan for the subdivision. Their water hazards are used as sedimentation and filtration basins for the recycled irrigation water used on the fairways.
Even if used as a swap meet, the non-potable irrigation systems would have to be more prolifically posted if opened to the general public. Golfers generally sign waivers in the fine print when they get their golf tee times paid.
developed attractive neighborhoods in gated community has its own appeal. Large lots, lots of landscape and privacey
Golf?
I’d rather rebuild a 289 HiPo.
Choices, choices, choices . . .
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