SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017
Housing
Holiday
Open House
Friday, December 1st 9am-5pm
Saturday, December 2nd 10am-1pm
Drawings & Refreshments
Florence in Bloom
1234 Rhododendron Drive
Florence, OR
from 1A
Along with tourism, Florence
was now a retirement community,
and in 2004, the moniker paid off.
In 2004, the City of Florence
was awarded the “Best Place to
Retire” from Frommer’s Travel
Guide. The ranking made national
news, including publication of the
list in the online version of USA
Today.
Retirees came to the town in
droves.
“I think this town is still touted
as an excellent retirement commu-
nity, and it is,” Nivilinszky said. “I
came here from Chicago. Just the
very word Oregon wouldn’t even
roll off my tongue. What the heck
is in Oregon? But my wife grew
up here. And I just knew that’s
where I wanted to be. There are a
lot of different coastal towns, but
Florence seems to have more of a
charm. The pace of the town is
very relaxed, and you think ‘Wow,
I could get used to this.’ It’s still
an excellent retirement communi-
ty, and that’s what I see. A lot of
retirees.”
People came for various rea-
sons. Some came here to actually
retire, but others came just to flip
homes. What better investment
than the best place to retire?
Looking to supplement their
income, retirees began building
and buying properties left and
right.
“They thought, ‘Oh, this is
quick
and
fast
money,’”
Nivilinszky said. “Buy it for a
year and make $20,000. That was
the mindset back in 2007.”
The biggest construction came
in single-family homes for the
retirees, but the City of Florence
also began building infrastructure,
including plans for the Pacific
View Business Park.
“I have a long list of projects
that were completed and the city
was growing and expanding,”
Reynolds said. “We added a lot of
housing units. We added all the
condos, multiple duplexes and
quads. We had the Habitat for
Humanity project. The Northwood
Apartments were built. The city
was just seeing the importance for
workforce housing.”
Investors bet on Florence,
except the market wasn’t as
healthy as they thought. At the
time, nobody knew about sub-
prime mortgages, false AAA-rated
bonds and a lack of government
oversight on the shadow banking
system.
“When they overextended
themselves back in 2008, they
were borrowing from Peter to pay
Paul to get that next project going
because everything was going
very fast,” Nivilinszky said.
“And then it all imploded.”
“These goals were not
followed through”
When the housing bubble burst
in 2008, it laid waste to the hous-
ing market and economy, plunging
the U.S. into one of the worst eco-
nomic crises the world had ever
seen.
“People got stuck with proper-
ties that quickly depreciated. They
paid $230,000 in the mid-2000s
and the prices dropped to
$180,000 after the crash,”
Nivilinszky said.
The booming construction
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The Florence Area Chamber of Commerce would like to
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Jolene Medeiros of
Florence Tech Solutions (FTS)
will help you distinguish a twit from
a tweet and teach you how to amplify all of your
business and marketing efforts.
Join us December 14 at the Best Wester Pier Point Inn.
Lunch is available for $14.
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Florenoe
4480 Highway 101 Building G
Mon/Tues (541) 997-2319
BJ’s
Eugene
1680 Chambers St.
(541) 683-3351
Christmas
Trees
industry also took a major hit,
which drained the local economy.
Dana Rodet, owner of Rodet
Construction Co., Inc., saw this
first hand.
“Back when the economy went
south, a lot of guys left,” Rodet
said. “There were a lot of contrac-
tors who were building new
homes and, when the new home
market went south, some of them
tried to get into remodel or repair.
There just wasn’t enough of that
going around either. Some of us
managed to stay busy and some
didn’t. Some just left town. They
couldn’t do anything.”
As people left and home prices
depreciated, the City of Florence
ran into financial hardships. With
low-valued homes and high-wage
jobs disappearing, taxes tanked.
“With the recession hitting the
country and local economy, the
City of Florence began to take a
much harder look at its finances
beginning in 2009,” Reynolds’
report read. “These tough conver-
sations led to a reduction in work-
force in the years following 2009.
Although the City Council set
goals for economic development
initiatives, these goals were not
followed through with resources
for adoption due to the city plac-
ing a high priority on building its
financial reserves.”
About the period, Reynolds
said, “You cannot stress enough
that in 2008 we had a major finan-
cial market bust that was primari-
ly related to housing and mort-
gages. And we were definitely not
immune to it. We as a city had to
be good stewards of the money we
had during that time as well.”
Many of the city’s development
projects fell through. For example,
a planned development on a 17-
acre lot on Highway 101 was
planned that would have provided
scores of rental units to the area.
But after the crash, the company
went bankrupt. Rumors spread
about its demise, with residents
thinking it, along with other big
projects, were stopped because the
city wanted to halt growth and
keep the “small town feel”
Florence had cultivated.
Reynolds said that couldn’t be
further from the truth.
“There’s sometimes the feeling
that the city made it so the com-
munity won’t grow,” she said.
“The issue is so much broader
than putting a kibosh on projects
or not allowing it to happen. There
were many things in the works
that just ended up not working
financially for people due to the
9 A
bust. I could see that the rumors
started to spin.”
While projects like the Pacific
View Business Park were com-
pleted, many others were not.
Growth came to a standstill.
However, depending on one’s
point of view, there was a silver
lining to all of the city’s troubles.
Because of the crash, living in
Florence suddenly became afford-
able for low-income earners.
“The homeowners said, ‘Well,
crud, I’ve got to hang on to the
home until we recover,’”
Nivilinszky said. “I’m just going
to rent it.’ And so, it flooded the
market with all of these rentals.”
This is how the young families
who work at seasonal stores and
businesses were able to survive in
Florence.
“It takes a middle-income com-
munity to support the retirement
community,” Nivilinszky said. “It
does. There’s just no way around
it. If we’re not doing things to pro-
vide for the mid-income services,
we’re shooting ourselves in the
foot. Retirees aren’t looking for
jobs. They’re already situated.”
Because of the overabundance
of rentals and the low rents that
accompanied them, these low-
wage workers were able to live in
Florence and help bolster the
tourist economy.
But that doesn’t mean there was
equilibrium between the low-
income workers and the retirees.
The retirees were losing money.
“The money they were getting
in rent was not even paying the
mortgage,” Nivilinszky said.
“And they would be subsidizing
every month for that mortgage
payment because rents just did not
cover the mortgage — because
they bought at the peak.”
In the eight years prior to the
current rental crisis, Nivilinszky
only raised rents three times for
three different properties.
“I’ve kept rents flat, or lowered
rents to keep tenants,” Nivilinszky
said. “I saw signs in the market
that said, ‘If we have someone
capable and taking care of the
property, I would rather make it
affordable for them so they can
stay, than keep nickel and diming
them and make them want to
leave.’
While the tenants weren’t get-
ting “nickeled and dimed,” the
homeowners were. That is, until
the economy recovered.
This is when Florence’s current
housing crisis began.
See
HOUSING 10A
Fresh Cut Christmas Trees
have arrived!
(while supplies last)
Lunch & Learn
Happy Holidays from
Bj’s Christmas Trees
29th & Hwy. 101
ENTER YOUR PET NOW!
Until December 4th
Siuslaw News
148 Maple • P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
We’re looking for the cutest critters to
compete in our photo contest!
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Take a Shot at Our Petacular Grand Prize:
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PLEASE INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE WITH YOUR ENTRY.
Contest sponsored by these businesses:
Here’s the Scoop on How to Enter…
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processing fee, we will call you for payment.
2. The most photogenic pet will be selected by our
panel of judges.
3. All pets and the grand prize winner will be
featured in the December 6th issue.
4. You may also enter by mail. Simply fi ll out this
contest form, and send it and payment along with
a labeled photo of your pet to:
Booking Appointments for the Holiday Season!
1751 12th Street, Florence
Open Tuesday -Friday , 9am-5pm
Next to Papa Murphy’s
541-997-2726
(541) 902-7622
4456 Hwy. 101 • Florence, OR 97439
35 years experience