Fraud is Trump’s signature crime.  He has now made it a pattern for other criminals to follow at the state and national levels by removing inspector generals at federal agencies, pardoning fraudsters, and dismantling consumer protection agencies, promoting cryptocurrencies that are being used as a leading medium of tax evasion and fraud, and pushing a libertarian policy at the state and federal levels that will remove fraud enforcement capabilities to protect average citizens.

But why would Trump make fraud the centerpiece of his criminal and sociopathic history?

Fraud is the societal glue that holds commercial and relational structures together.  When people enter business and personal relationships, it is based on a certain degree of trust. The engine behind fraud is deceit and greed.

If you want to destroy a society, you commit fraud on a massive scale to create distrust, fear, and uncertainty, and emotional and financial loss.  This is Trump’s goal.

Academics have identified fraud and the personality defects of those who perpetrate it.  The Journal of Forensic Accounting and Research found that fraudsters are driven by the “Dark Triad,” which consists of three negative traits: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, defined as “a personality trait characterized by interpersonal manipulation, a cynical view of human nature, and a cold disregard for morality to achieve selfish goals.”

The Journal of Corporate Criminality also has an excellent article on corporate psychopaths and people with “toxic and predatory personalities,” who have committed some of the largest frauds in history.

Trump’s Long History of Fraud

For background, here is a list of Trump’s fraud cases and convictions:

As of February 2026, Donald Trump’s fraud-related legal record includes both criminal convictions and civil liabilities, many of which have been significantly updated since his return to the presidency.

Criminal Convictions

“Hush Money” Case (Falsification of Business Records): In May 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels.

Sentence: On January 10, 2025, Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him to an unconditional discharge, meaning the conviction remains on his record as a felony, but he faces no jail time, fines, or probation.

Status: Trump is currently appealing the conviction by arguing he is shielded by presidential immunity

Trump Organization Tax Fraud: In December 2022, the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. were convicted on 17 criminal charges, including conspiracy, tax fraud, and a scheme to defraud. The companies were ordered to pay a maximum fine of $1.6 million.

Civil Fraud Liability

New York Civil Fraud Case: In February 2024, a New York judge found Trump liable for a decade-long scheme to inflate his net worth to obtain better loan terms.

Current Standing: In August 2025, a New York appeals court overturned the $515 million financial penalty, ruling it “excessive” and a violation of the Eighth Amendment. However, the court upheld the finding of liability for fraud.

Restrictions: Other punishments, such as a three-year ban on Trump serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation, remain in place.

Trump University: In 2016, Trump settled three lawsuits for $25 million after he was found to have defrauded students through his real estate seminars.

Election-Related Fraud Allegations: Federal and state (Georgia) cases involving alleged election subversion and fraud were largely dismissed or dropped throughout 2024 and 2025 following his reelection, in accordance with DOJ policy regarding sitting presidents.

Trump’s Pardons of Fellow Convicted Fraudsters

Trump also loves fraudsters and has pardoned other convicted criminals.

Trump has used his executive power to pardon numerous individuals convicted of various types of fraud during his two terms as president.

Prominent Fraud Pardons (2017–2021)

• Paul Manafort: His former campaign chairman was pardoned for crimes, including bank fraud and tax fraud, related to his work in Ukraine.
• Michael Milken: A high-profile financier pardoned for securities fraud, mail fraud, and tax fraud.
• Charles Kushner: The father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was pardoned for tax evasion and making false statements. He is a convicted felon and disbarred attorney.  In 2025, Trump named him the  US ambassador to France and Monaco. Charles Kushner also admitted to hiring a hooker to entrap his brother-in-law to gain an advantage in a business deal. Kushner said he personally recruited the prostitute and instructed that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness, according to the Justice Department.   
• Chris Collins: The first member of Congress to endorse Trump was pardoned for conspiracy to commit securities fraud (insider trading).
• Conrad Black: A former media mogul and Trump biographer pardoned for mail fraud and obstruction of justice.
• Dinesh D’Souza: A conservative commentator pardoned for campaign contribution fraud.
• Alfonso Costa: A former dentist and business partner of Ben Carson, pardoned for health care fraud.
• Steve Bannon: Pardoned for charges related to wire fraud and money laundering in the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign.

Recent Fraud Pardons (2025–2026) 

• Todd and Julie Chrisley: Reality TV stars pardoned in May 2025 for bank fraud and tax evasion involving more than $30 million in false financial statements.
• Trevor Milton: The founder of Nikola Corp., was pardoned in March 2025 for securities fraud and wire fraud after being convicted of lying to investors.
• Michelle Fiore: A former Nevada lawmaker pardoned in April 2025 for wire fraud related to the misuse of funds intended for a police memorial.
• Joseph Schwartz: A nursing home executive pardoned in November 2025 for a $38 million tax fraud scheme.
• Glen Casada & Cade Cothren: Former Tennessee political figures pardoned in November 2025 for honest services fraud and public corruption.
• Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, was pardoned for his role in a $60 million bond-fraud scheme.
• George Santos: Former U.S. Representative whose sentence for wire fraud and other crimes was commuted by Trump in October 2025.
• Joe Klecko: Former NFL player pardoned in February 2026 for perjury related to an insurance fraud investigation.
• Billy Cannon: Former NFL player given a posthumous pardon in February 2026 for a 1980s counterfeiting conviction.

How Trump Perpetuates Frauds

In addition to committing fraud himself and pardoning other fraudsters, Trump seeks to normalize fraud by making it easier for ordinary citizens to avoid paying taxes, launder money, deceive consumers, and undermine everyday commerce.

Just as Trump has literally taken a wrecking ball to the White House West Wing, and is now “remodeling” (aka demolishing) the Kennedy Center, Trump’s dystopian, death wish for the country as we know it includes the libertarian notion that only the strongest should survive, and the rest of the unsuspecting, uninformed population should be viewed as marks for fraudsters.

Trump and his followers have attempted to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Board, the leading federal agency that has taken on global banks for their programs to deceive and defraud customers and borrowers.  He fired 18 Inspector Generals (IGs) at federal agencies as of February 2026, who oversee spending and billing processes to prevent fraud and other abuses. During his first term (2017–2021), Trump also dismissed or replaced at least five IGs in a six-week span in 2020.  IGs are independent, nonpartisan “watchdogs” within federal agencies, overseeing government accountability and protecting taxpayer funds.

Crypto Currency: The Fraudsters Medium of Exchange

Since fraudsters steal money from their targets, they also need a fast, untraceable way to move it into accounts that can be easily accessed and withdrawn.  Enter cryptocurrency.

This deception medium makes it logical that the Trump crime family would have a significant presence in the crypto market.

During his second term, Trump has shifted the U.S. government’s approach to cryptocurrency, moving from his earlier skepticism to a more proactive “pro-crypto” stance. He did this by executive actions to establish a national Bitcoin reserve, the launch of major family-owned crypto ventures, and the overhaul of federal regulatory agencies (the SEC and CFTC) with crypto advocates.

For a quick killing, Trump has also sold wooden nickels, also known as “meme coins” or “branded tokens” to gullible followers, such as $TRUMP and $MELANIA, that brought him hundreds of millions in trading fees for the family.

Recognizing that crypto can be a great way to fund the Trump crime family’s retirement, the gang filed an ETF in February 2026 called the Trump Media and Technology Group.  The group also owns World Swap, a global foreign exchange and remittance platform.

Setting Up An Alternative Financial Reality to Hide Money

To correct the mistaken belief that the Trump crime family is always working for the benefit of taxpayers, the reality is that a number of Trump appointees and friendly billionaires have plenty of time to expand their crypto interests at taxpayer expense.

Here is a list of Trump allies who are very involved in crypto, even as the majority of average Americans would never have a reason to buy crypto, a useless medium of exchange for everyday people.

Eric & Donald Trump Jr.;  Barron Trump; Howard Lutnick, and his son, Zach, (Their family entities have received at least $31 million in upfront payouts from crypto deals); Robert Kennedy Jr.; David Sacks (Trump’s Crypto & AI Czar); Elon Musk; Tyler & Cameron Winklevoss; Brian Armstrong (Coinbase); and Justin Sun (Tron).

Trump has also used his name and access to host a crypto conference in February 2026, which attracted the heads of Goldman Sachs and NASDAQ, to widen the crypto net and eventually catch other unsuspecting investors.

Fraud is Part of Florida’s History

All this should come as no surprise that Trump lives in Palm Beach, Florida, the state with the highest incidence of fraud in the nation.

Florida, under the MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis, has done little to combat fraud.

Florida’s fraud statistics are startling.  The numbers are part of the state’s history, dating back to the famous Miami land scams that lasted from 1924 to 1926, when unsuspecting buyers from up north purchased lots that were underwater.  When the land bubble burst, aided by a large hurricane in 1926, it took down local banks, developers, and speculators.  Almost 100 years later, Florida remains attractive to white-collar thieves because of its wealth, transient population, and lax enforcement.

Florida’s white-collar criminal history has not escaped the notice of its political class.  Everyone, from governors to local elected officials, has benefited from fraud of all sizes. Today, Governor Ron DeSantis has not pulled the welcome mat for fraudsters in the Sunshine State.

The Republican mayor of Boca Raton, Susan Haynie, pleaded guilty in 2021 to misuse of public office, public corruption, and failure to disclose voting conflicts with two commercial real estate firms.  Florida MAGA Republican Senator and former governor Rick Scott was also the indirect beneficiary of the largest Medicare-Medicaid fraud scheme in U.S. history, a fraud scheme that was settled for $1.7 billion.  During the period when the fraud scheme was developing, Scott served as CEO and Chairman of Columbia/Hospital Corporation of America. He escaped prosecution and even received a bonus from the company.

While Florida is the nation’s third most populous state, it ranks first in the number of fraud reports filed by citizens, according to the site security.org.  The targets of fraud are often younger people, but people over 70 reported losing more money.  The typical person over age 80 lost $1,500, triple the loss of victims in their 20s, the FTC said in a press release.

The types of fraud most commonly reported in Florida include phony debt collections, identity theft, COVID-related federal fund distributions, impostor scams, credit bureau, banking and lending, mobile phone, and auto-related fraud (fake accidents and inflated repair costs).

So, if you want to commit fraud, come to Florida.  Everyone, including Trump and his family, lives in Florida.  Why miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime?

Why the Criminal Epstein Loved Florida

The state’s lax regulations and enforcement have also made it a haven for white-collar criminals, and now billionaires, who want to live in South Florida since the state has different rules for wealthy people. When Jeffrey Epstein was under house arrest in July 2009, he was regularly seen driving around town and going to lunch when he was supposed to be home, thanks to the lack of oversight by the police and the Palm Beach District Attorney’s office.

Specifically, “During the first nine months of his house arrest, Epstein made 14 trips to New York to meet with his attorneys and five trips to the Caribbean on business — always flying on his private jet, according to his daily logs required as part of his house arrest,” according to the Palm Beach Post.

This same Palm Beach Post article said that Epstein received special treatment while he was in jail.  “After pleading guilty, Epstein was taken directly from the courtroom to jail, where the special treatment continued. Epstein’s cell was not locked; he had free access to the attorney meeting room, where a new television had been installed. He was transferred to a private wing of the stockade after he agreed to pay the deputies to guard him.

“Epstein was also allowed out of the stockade for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, on work-release after agreeing to pay off-duty deputies to guard him at his office at 250 Australian Ave. On workdays, Epstein’s driver picked him up at the stockade and drove him several miles to his office… at a nonprofit he founded seven months before he pleaded guilty.”

This same special treatment for a convicted sex criminal should apply to billionaires and white-collar fraudsters who move to South Florida.  In South Florida, they will be under the shadow of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home and the nation’s fraud headquarters.

Trump’s legacy is that he is teaching his millions of followers to ignore laws, disrespect Court authority, local and federal laws, cheat on taxes, and tolerate adultery as acceptable behaviors in the Trump MAGA new America.

At first, she looked like any other older woman leaving the beach in Palm Beach County, Florida, except for her “Make America Great Again” sequined hat and worn beach bag.  I was sitting on a bench next to where she locked her bicycle.  We looked at each other, and despite the hat, I said it was an excellent day for the beach.  She nodded.  I asked how far she had to peddle home, and she responded that it was only a mile or so over the low intercoastal bridge and down the road.

She unlocked her bicycle and sat down to drink water from her thermos. Then, she asked me what type of work I was doing. I told her I was retired. She responded that she was looking for work as a blood technician, but it was difficult since many of the jobs were entry-level, and she had over 20 years of experience. Then, she asked me if I had received the COVID-19 vaccinations. I told her, “Yes,” and she shook her head.

“There’ll be a lot of cancer in a few years from those vaccinations,” she said.  I asked why, and she said the vaccines were all untested and had cancer-causing agents in them.

I thought this was odd for a woman who worked in the medical field, including some big hospitals, but she insisted that cancer rates were going to rise in the next few years.

She told me she was applying to hospitals but had no luck.  One big problem was that a major hospital chain in South Florida blackballed her for failing to follow standard protocols when working on blood samples.  I said that was pretty severe, but she only nodded.

Then, she took out her phone and wanted to show me some COVID-19 statistics.  But when her phone went to stories about the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, she paused.

“You may not know the Israelis killed a lot of people at that music festival, don’t you?  Israeli soldiers gunned them down in a helicopter.”

I had never heard this before, and the statement was ridiculous.  Why would Israeli soldiers kill their fellow citizens when the Hamas attack was already underway?  It was nonsense. 

I asked where she heard that.  She said it was from The Telegraph, a new site I had never heard about.  I later saw it was a conservative site in the UK that had a story on Israelis killing their citizens.

I told her that was impossible since it made no sense, nor did any other legitimate news site ever report it.

Oddly, she prefaced her wild claim with “You may not know about…”  Her claim that I did not know about this critical news was odd.  It made her sound like she had information that I would never discover.  It gave her a supposed intellectual leg-up on me, even though it was a lie.  She needed to say she had more information than me to propose her wild claim and bolster her ridiculous statement.

When I repeated that this news was wild and insulting to Israelis, she shrugged.  The claim that COVID-19 vaccinations cause cancer also made her feel intellectually superior.  She was not interested in why these were absurd things to offer to a stranger, but it showed that the MAGA crowd takes great comfort in knowing that they “know” more than non-MAGA Americans.  This little bench discussion on a beach in South Florida was a microcosm of two American worlds.  On one side, it showed that MAGA Zombies are uncompromising in their ignorance.

However, this discussion could have quickly happened across America on any bench before the Civil War, World War I, World War II, or any other major civic issue began.  What was different today?

MAGA Zombies on LinkedIn

The woman on the bench was not alone.  On LinkedIn, a site that offers a forum for professionals looking for jobs and professional development, the Newsmax site is also where the MAGA Zombies post their enthusiastic support about the slanted Newsmax news.  Their news focuses on the latest thing from the Republicans in Congress who are pushing impeachments (Biden and Mayorkas), anti-Ukain aid stories, the unfounded legal pursuit of Trump’s many court cases, and, of course, the Hunter Biden “scandals” about receiving money from criminal gangs.

You would think that people on LinkedIn who are still working would be retrospective about posting pro-insurrectionist, anti-Federal government views that are a part of their LinkedIn history, but these MAGA Zombies are not embarrassed.  They bet that no prospective employer or hiring agency would bother to look at their posts that endorse criminals, insurrectionists, and anti-Federal government messages.

That’s a big bet, but hiring managers don’t check these LinkedIn posts to see if they are hiring a new employee who wants to skirt federal or local laws.

That’s no way to build a company, but these hiring managers have a different take.

In the case of the MAGA Zombie at the beach and the aspiring professionals on LinkedIn, the common denominator is that they both refuse to listen to facts.  Trump’s numerous indictments in federal and state court, tax fraud convictions, plus his 50 years of being a scofflaw have no meaning for the MAGA Zombies.

Trump University was a fraud and a financial failure, and it did not fulfill its educational goal.  But Trump’s legacy is that he is teaching his millions of followers to ignore laws, disrespect the authority of the courts and any local and federal laws, cheat on their taxes, and tolerate adultery as acceptable behaviors in the Trump MAGA new America.

This is Trump’s real legacy:  He is educating followers to be petty and, in some cases, major white-collar criminals.  Teaching people to skirt or break the law is the real MAGA message.

BY-BYE BOCA

PART 3:

HOW THE VERY WEALTHY HANDLE DENSE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT WHERE THEY LIVE

HINT: THEY DON’T  ALLOW It

The Town of Palm Beach Has Resisted and Prevented Development Because It Listens to its Residents

“There are people who have money and people who are rich.”
―Coco Chanel

For the wealthy residents of the Town of Palm Beach, and not to be confused with West Palm Beach over the bridges, the Town of Palm Beach is a place of respite, calm, pink homes on manicured properties. There are rarely sounds of jackhammers or large cranes hoisting materials. Those construction sounds do not echo around the Island.

The Town of Palm Beach has strict ordinances and zoning laws about new commercial, office, and residential development. The tallest buildings on Palm Beach Island are an eight-story office building on Royal Palm and the eight-story Breakers Hotel. The town also does not have gated communities and zero-lot line properties, two standard real estate features typical in other cities throughout South Florida.

Maybe this is because Palm Beach is a town, not a city.   A town is a populated area with fixed boundaries and a local government. A city is a large or important town. The state also makes the distinction between city and town. One characteristic of a town is its population density and height restrictions on its commercial and residential properties.

Towns also have a more direct form of city government that can have a close relationship between citizens and the city council.

Regarding maximum heights, Palm Beach has a few six-story residential buildings on South Ocean Boulevard facing the ocean. The quaintness of Worth Avenue, the town’s luxury shopping street, maintains its special Palm Beach aura because the buildings are mainly two stories tall and adhere to the town’s original Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style architectural vision of Addison Meizner. 

The town (pre-Trump Mar-a-Lago) was noted for its understated elegance. In 1896, the industrialist Henry Flagler built the predecessor of the Breakers Hotel, The Royal Poinciana. It originally was a wooden structure six stories tall. After a few renovations, the Poinciana was renamed “The Breakers” in 1901. Today, the Breakers are only eight stories tall.

If building structures that reach for the sky is not a goal in the Town of Palm Beach, the city has other distinctions. Of course, the most obvious is home prices. The price of an average Palm Beach home is $2,017,803 as of 2021, according to Zillow. The typical home value of homes in Boca Raton is $566,680. In Florida, a person can defined by where they live: a gated golf country club, close or far from the Intracoastal or ocean, or west of the Turnpike.

Its quiet, private, and secluded design has made Palm Beach the home to many very wealthy people. Together, the top 10 richest billionaires who have ties or live in Palm Beach are worth about $140 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates. This group includes New England Patriot’s owner Robert Kraft; Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments; hedge fund CEO Kenneth Griffin of Citadel; businessman Thomas Peterffy; Carl Icahn, investor and founder of Icahn Enterprises;  Julia Koch, widow of David Koch; and Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

Oddly, while some Palm Beach residents know the benefits of predatory capitalism (private equity, hedge funds, real estate development), they don’t allow the real estate developers to ply their trade within their own town.

While Palm Beach may prevent large-scale development, it doesn’t mean they object to all building changes. Several private and exclusive (at least judging from the membership fees) are in the works to socialize with others in their class. This includes a private club in the old Chesterfield Hotel and a new club on South Country Road off Royal Palm Boulevard. This club carries an initiation fee of between $200,000 to $250,000.

Club Colette carries an initiation fee of between $20,000 and $30,000 for private dining. The Everglades Club has an initiation/Equity Cost of $100,000-plus. Mar-a-Lago has a $250,000 initiation fee. Plus, there are pricey facilities at the Palm Beach Country Club, the Beach Club, and the Everglades.

So, is development and congestion a characteristic of South Florida? Not at all.

The Town of Palm Beach is an exceptional example of how city officials, with the backing of its citizens, insisted on keeping the town’s original character intact. While Palm Beach is a small town (population: 9,200 as of 2021) and is 8.12 square miles compared to Boca Raton (29 square miles), Boynton Beach (16 square miles), and Delray (16 square miles), the key may be that Palm Beach listens to its residents who, if history is any indication, have insisted that the town should not become more developed and congested.

Notably, the town has never allowed overdevelopment, and it has no gated communities.

The Problem With Gated Communities

Gated communities have been around in the U.S. since about 1870 when private streets were built in St. Louis. However, they began to attract the attention of academics in the mid-1990s as interest increased in social fragmentation and new types of voluntary segregation. Today, the states with the most gated communities are California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas.

This became fertile ground for academic studies and popular critiques. The early themes of this work took on the warning of social fragmentation, urban segregation, and the emergence of a new type of civic arrangement. Gated communities became symbols and symptoms of a line that was being crossed from one based on a popular, democratic political base to one defined by a market-driven civic society, authors Renaud Le Goix and Chris J. Webster wrote in a paper, “Gated Communities.”

But as people created these secure, homogeneous enclaves, it also raised questions about the meaning of the future of citizenship and the concept of community in America. It raised the question of whether people living in gated communities voluntarily isolated themselves from the racially and economically mixed, open society that is the foundation of American democracy. In most cases, professionals managed gated communities, so residents gave up their social contract to act as neighbors in exchange for professional management. The communities were also regulated by HOAs and covenants, conditions, and rules (CC&R) that the land developers often established.

In the book Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States (Brookings Institution Press, 1997), authors Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder conducted the first study of gated communities and their social impact. In the book, they presented issues related to private versus public rights. They concluded that gated communities are “a dramatic manifestation of a new fortress mentality growing in America.” The authors presented some provocative ideas, such as whether residents of the gated community isolated themselves from the surrounding community.

What Created Gated Communities

The history of gated communities parallels the rise of the middle and upper classes as they sought exclusivity, privacy, and security. In the article “Gated Communities and Residential Property Values,” Appraisal Journal, April 1, 2001, by Douglas S. Bible and Chengho Hsieh, the authors found that fenced communities with gates were first developed for the upper class during the early decades of the 1900s, primarily on the East Coast and in Hollywood. In the 1950s and 1960s, gated entries became common for retirement developments. Gated communities grew more popular during the 1980s and 1990s.

Yet, while many articles and papers addressed the benefits of gated communities, there were few studies about how property values were impacted by living in one of these developments.

To gauge the impact of restricted access in gated communities on property values, Blakely and Snyder visited gated communities across the United States to interview residents and surveyed more than 400 homeowner associations’ boards in gated communities in Florida and California. Their field research in 1994 and 1995 describes three kinds of “fortified American neighborhoods, distinguished by the residents’ motivations in limiting public access.”

In the first group, what the authors called “lifestyle communities,” gates were found to provide security and enclose leisure activities and amenities, such as golf and tennis. The second group, “elite communities,” uses gates to symbolize distinction, exclusivity, and prestige to show a secure place on the social ladder. The third type of gated community is called the “security zone, where the fear of crime and outsiders is the foremost motivation for defensive fortifications.”

The researchers noted that “while life may be more comfortable for residents inside the gates than for those outside, gated communities symbolize a larger social pattern of segmentation and separation designed to disassociate and exclude.” They also found that while long-term crime rates are not affected by the installation of gates and fences, residents feel safer, especially when their children play outside.

The “Fortress America” theory suggests that gated communities “encourage economic segregation and are themselves a microcosm of the larger spatial pattern of segmentation and separation.”

They argued that the privatization of public services–such as when gated communities provide their police protection–tends to defeat the very idea of democracy. Furthermore, they find no evidence that gated communities foster community spirit even within their confines.”

Gated communities are common in South Florida. Towns like Palm Beach and other wealthy, more isolated towns have resisted over-development, kept their original town integrity, and preserved their small-town atmosphere. Prominent developers, intent on maximizing profit, have no respect for these values.

The Successful Formula of Palm Beach

Cities with larger populations than the Town of Palm Beach can keep their original city character if they have a civic tradition, responsive and ethical government, stewardship of their town’s vision, and respect for its citizen’s wishes.

Unfortunately, many cities and towns south of Palm Beach—including West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, and Miami–have forgotten that message. Instead, the city councils of many of those towns have become working partners of the developers at the expense of their residents.

Maybe the wealthy have more money than others, but they also may be more intelligent when preserving the neighborhoods where they live.

PART 2:

How a city council can disregard citizen input to push through real estate development and more congestion

Ron Desantis’ vision of Florida is that the state would have no or few regulations. This has attracted predatory businesses, such as real estate developers, hedge funds, and private equity firms, even as Florida remains the top state in the nation for fraud. Under Desantis, it will only get worse.

Boca Raton may have the image of pink stucco walls and narrow streets lined with palm trees, but this postcard version of the city is not what its future will resemble.

Thanks to Governor Desantis’ vision of a Florida that is loose on regulations. These range from zoning to wearing COVID-19 prevention masks to allowing large corporations to run their internal human resources department and what lessons teachers can present to their students.

But for the residents of Boca Raton, “free” means allowing real estate developers to have a free hand in deciding how large a project can be and what special considerations the city must provide for the project to move smoothly and profitably.

To do this, the city relies on a few basic ways to minimize and sometimes eliminate public participation in significant construction developments in Boca Raton.

These include the use of everything from state legislation to managing public meeting protocols:

Florida State Bill 102; This bill addresses affordable housing construction, but it also has some interesting provisions that make it impossible for any municipality in Florida to challenge a project. Specifically, the bill:

• “Preempts local governments’ requirements regarding zoning, density, and height to allow for streamlined development of affordable multifamily rental housing in commercial, industrial, and mixed-use zoned areas under certain circumstances.
• Removes a local government’s ability to approve affordable housing on residential parcels by bypassing state and local laws that may otherwise preclude such development while retaining such rights for commercial and industrial parcels.
• Removes provision in current law allowing local governments to impose rent control under certain emergency circumstances, preempting rent control ordinances entirely.

While the need for “affordable” housing carries political weight, the devil is in the details. In this case, the bill allows any residential project that provides 40% of its “affordable” housing space to be built to the highest limit of any other building within a one-mile radius. This could create a concrete forest of tall buildings.

Second, this law gives preferential treatment to projects that aim to provide “affordable” housing. One project slated for development to be built on the old IBM campus  (an area near Clint Moore and Yamato Road), would offer three-bedroom apartments of 1,300 square feet for at least $4,000 per month. Surprisingly, there is no affordable housing in the new BRiC Project as of now. This is a question that vexes some long-time real estate observers.

Affordable housing is a thorny issue for the city and developers. One developer explained that under Bill 102, you have to adhere to all the setback rules, and that limits what you can build. As a result, developers cannot build 100 units per acre. With setbacks, you lose valuable building space and are height-restricted. The setbacks and units per acre rules also do not apply to downtown Boca, he said.

He concluded by saying that “the city is getting so built up that the only thing left to develop are commercial properties and golf course. This is what Boca has coming t it in the years ahead.”

Florida State Bill 620: Also known as the “Local Business Protection Act”; this bill allowed certain businesses to claim business damages from a county or municipality if the county or municipality enacts or amends certain ordinances or charter provisions that hurt the businesses’ profitability. The bill would have taken away some of the home rule powers of towns and cities that were affecting business operations, such as the closing times for bars, as well as zoning ordinances that affected development. The bill was widely considered a very pro-small business bill and it had the backing of the Florida League of Cities, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Florida.

Publicly, the bill was presented as one that would prohibit puppy mills. But more importantly, it would have made a significant impact on local real estate development due to “onerous local regulations,” such as zoning restrictions.

Specifically, The Florida State Bill Analysis and Fiscal Impact Statement regarding Bill 620 states, “Currently, landowners have a cause of action under the Bert J. Harris Act (passed in 1995) to compensate them for the lost value of their land caused by certain local government actions; landowners have a cause of action for onerous local regulation in the form of exactions; and business landowners have a cause of action under eminent domain law for business damages related to a taking of real property. Similarly, this bill creates a cause of action for a business to sue a local government when the enactment or amendment of an ordinance or charter provision causes at least a 15 percent loss of profits to the business.”

Bill 620 would have given property owners recourse to contest city or town zoning restrictions it considered unfair or detrimental to their profitability. It would have allowed businesses to collect business damages and attorney fees if the business could prove a monetary loss “when an ordinance or a charter provision causes a business significant economic harm.” However, in a surprise move, Desantis vetoed the bill claiming it contained “broad and ambiguous language” that would lead to “unintended and unforeseen consequences.”

For a Republican who is supposed to be pro-small business, DeSantis’ veto surprised many Republicans. One real estate professional said DeSantis’ veto was strictly to keep the state’s municipalities behind him as he approached the election. “DeSantis just cares about his image and he will sell himself out for the vote, no matter what it is. His whole Republican Party caucus supported bill 620 and blindsided them by vetoing the bill, just to keep the municipalities happy, so they could keep and protect home rule,” he said.

Ex parte meetings:  These are secret meetings outside the purview of the public between interested real estate developers and their agents and city officials. What is discussed and agreed upon is not disclosed to the public.

Stage-managed public meetings: One of the most frustrating things for Bocar residents who take the time to attend public zoning meetings is that they are not allowed to speak due to time constraints or, more commonly, the earlier speakers, who often represent developers, speak for too long. As a result, interested citizens get bored and leave the meeting.

A Case Study in Land Development and Profit

The Boca Raton Innovation Campus, known as BRiC, was developed in the late 1960s by IBM as its North American Research and Development facility. The world’s first personal computer was invented on this site.

Today, it’s a 1.7 million square foot office park and is the largest office complex in South Florida. Yet most residents will drive by this campus and not even know it’s there. It is bordered by Yamato Road, Spanish River Boulevard, and Broken Sound Boulevard, west of I-95 and about a half mile west of the Tri-rail Commuter line.

It is a prime attraction for developers because it is already developed and due to its location. This 120-acre site was purchased for about $179 by Crocker Partners (now called CP Partners) in 2018. In 2021, the Group sold BriC for $320 million to DRA Advisors “in one of South Florida’s biggest real estate investment deals this year,” according to the Commercial Observer. Why did the sales price of BRiC increase by $141 million in three years? The project received a preliminary OK to expand how the property would be developed vastly.

One of the significant concessions the new owners received was that it would require fewer parking spaces because it is a half-mile away from the Tri-Rail train station. The theory of planned mobility developments is that more people would be taking the train to work on the campus and would not need a car. That could be a stretch since commuting on public transportation in South Florida is uncommon. Still, the theory convinced zoning officials.

Under the new plan, the BRiC developers would only provide one parking space for every 1.75 square feet of finished space versus the current ordinance that calls for one parking space for every 500 square feet. Parking calculations can also be distorted by how many people will live in a residential unit in the BRiC development.

For instance, what if three adults live in an apartment, and each has their car? The variance only allows one parking space for that same unit.

Parking space code requirements are a way the city addresses congestion. Parking spaces are valuable property and are stated explicitly in the Boca Raton Engineering Design Standards Manual, according to whether the spaces are in office parking structures, and if they are in a parking lot, whether the incoming parking traffic is one-way or two-way. The type of building, location, and square footage determines the space required. As for the dimensions of the spaces themselves, the Manual says they should be 10 feet by 20 feet. (Page 26 of the Manual.) That’s a precious 200 square feet for every developer to sacrifice.

As a result of how this mandated valuable parking space can be used, a random look at Boca Planning & Zoning Board meeting minutes routinely shows that parking spaces are reduced or traded for other spaces on a property or an adjacent property to fit the variance*.

(The building code for parking spaces is particular in Boca Raton and covers almost every type of business, from mortuaries to restaurants to schools and doctors’ offices. See below for the Boca parking code requirements.*)

A Real Estate Developer Fable

There is an old tale about a scorpion who wanted to cross a river. Unable to swim, the scorpion asks a frog sitting on a nearby rock if he could ferry him across the river on his back.

“I would do that for you, but how do I know you will not sting me and that I would not die?” the frog asked.

Perplexed, the scorpion replied: “I would not sting you since you are doing me a favor. And if I stung you, I would drown in the middle of the river. I also consider you my friend, so I would not harm you for doing me this great favor.”

Convinced by this logic and sincerity, the frog agrees. The scorpion climbs on the frog’s back, and the two start across the raging river. As they approach the far bank, the scorpion lifts his long tail and stings the frog. As the frog gasps for air, he asks the scorpion why he killed him despite his assurances that all would be well.

The scorpion looks the frog in the eyes and says: “It is my nature, and nothing I do can change it.”

Like the scorpion, the nation’s largest real estate developers have it in their nature to be repeat offenders of local zoning laws and other land use regulations that delay or hamper their projects. The evidence of this happens in every city and town where developers undertake a large, expensive project.

Unlike other industries, real estate developers also have access to significant tax credits that are not available to many other businesses. These tax credits include opportunity zones, historic tax credits, low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), year 15 tax credits applied to LIHTC, new market tax credits, cost segregation, investment tax credits, production tax credits, energy/renewable energy tax credits, and brownfields tax credits. Tax credits help propel the industry. The other engine is looking for available land or buildings that a builder can profitably develop.

In South Florida—from West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray, Pompano Beach, and Miami– rampant real estate development is transforming towns with various residential, mixed-used, shopping, and commercial office spaces. To get more favorable considerations from local zoning regulations, developers often drive hard bargains against local zoning staff and city officials to get the most advantageous—and profitable—concessions.

As an example, a recent article by investigative reporter Jason Garcia in his blog “Seeking Rents” found that undisclosed lobbyists are persuading members of the Florida Legislature to “pass a controversial bill that would have made it much easier for real-estate developers to bulldoze older buildings in Miami Beach — a city famous for both its Art Deco architecture and its strict historic-preservation rules.”

These “opaque lobbying groups” with undisclosed donors are another way predatory real estate developers work in Desantis’ version of a state that distains regulation, accountability, and public disclosure. This is why Florida is the fraud capital of the U.S. and will get worse given the lack of ethics in the Florida legislature and the big money bulldozing local zoning codes. In Florida, bug money trumps quality of life. More congestion means higher taxes and lower property values for individual homeowners.

A 2018 study of cities around the Great Lakes in the Journal of Transport Geography by Jangik Jin and Oeter Rafferty found that noise, air pollution, stress, energy consumption, and wasting travel time…may lead to falling residential property values…Property values decreased in areas 5 to 15 miles from the central business district.

So, where does that leave Boca’s residents and those in other cities concerned about over-building?

Not in a good place. As long as elected officials in Florida disdain regulation and cater to special interests, residents will see a slight decrease in their quality of life, accompanied by an inability to hold them accountable.

*Boca Raton Parking Space Building Code Requirements, Sec. 28-1655. – Required off-street parking: Multi-dwelling units containing two or more living units: 1.75 motor vehicle parking spaces for a 1-bedroom unit, 2.0 motor vehicle parking spaces for a 2-bedroom unit, and 2.0 motor vehicle parking spaces for a 2-bedroom unit with den or a three or more bedroom unit, except that efficiency units shall require 1.5 motor vehicle parking spaces per unit; Places of public assembly: 1 motor vehicle parking space for every three seats, plus one motor vehicle parking space for every 25 square feet of additional, gross floor area provided for public assembly purposes. Business, professional, governmental, and research development offices: 1 motor vehicle parking space for each 200 square feet up to 4,000 square feet of gross floor area and one motor vehicle parking space for each 300 square feet in excess of 4,000 square feet.

MAGA Republicans are experts in perverting language to their benefit.

In the most recent campaign ads, Florida Governor Ron Desantis and Senator Marco Rubio have decided to pervert the word “freedom” to meet their definitions.

In both of their campaign ads, they decry the infringement on the “freedoms” of Florida residents.  These restrictions are not ever listed, but they claim “the radical left,” meaning Democrats, are encouraging rising crime rates and illegal immigration. This is an obvious lie, but it plays well with MAGA followers. 

But DeSantis and Rubios’ use of the word “freedom” also has an economic meaning.

“Freedom” to the authoritarian governor DeSantis and Rubio means that shady business people and investors will find a haven in Florida and can avoid prosecution for fraud.

These frauds range from tax evasion to shoddy construction, running fake charities and tax-exempts, and real estate scams.  All these fraudsters are now welcome in Florida because DeSantis has known that fraudsters are welcome in the Sunshine State.

A government lawyer said in an article by Jasper Craven in the Nation (September 2022) that states with strict consumer protection and oversight of nonprofits noted that when they prosecuted fraudsters, they moved to other, friendlier states with lax oversight.

“Florida may be the most welcoming, with nonprofit regulation regulated to an office focused largely on agriculture.”

Asked why more states don’t focus on nonprofit misbehavior, Harvey Dale of NYU’s National Center on Philanthropy said, “Some wags say AG doesn’t stand for ‘attorney general’; it stands for ‘aspiring governor.’ And there’s no real political payoff for overseeing charities,” Dale said.

Most Floridians don’t know that fraud prosecutions fall under the jurisdiction of an office in the agriculture department. This office was held by Democrat Nikki Fried, who then ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor and lost to Democrat Charlie Crist.

It also explains why Fried, the former Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, was a constant target of DeSantis.  If it had not been for the Republican-controlled Florida legislature, Fried could have initiated many prosecutions.  It also explains why Florida’s most significant air and water polluters are Florida Crystals and Florida Crystals Corporation, based in West Palm Beach, tremendous contributors to Republicans in Florida and Congress.

Florida Ranks #1 in Internet Fraud

Florida also has the highest number of internet frauds, according to a report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

According to the latest FTC Data Book, about three million consumer complaints were filed with the FTC in 2018, and Florida ranked No. 1 for fraud and No. 4 for identity theft. The top fraud scams affecting Floridians were debt collection, identity theft, and impostor hoaxes.

Real estate sales development and construction are also ripe for fraud.  A December 2021 report from WFTV, “Central Florida becoming the Wild West of real estate scams,” found that people were selling land they did not own via online real estate sites.  Rental frauds are also common. Another area ripe for investigation is Community Redevelopment programs that involve HUD money and public-private real estate developments that misuse federal and state monies.

In April 2021, the former mayor of Boca Raton, Susan Haynie, pleaded guilty to charges that she failed to disclose financial ties to a local real estate tycoon while she was in office. Florida investigators said Haynie didn’t report over $330,000 in earnings she received from developers and commercial property owners.

For average consumers, fraud is also conducted by handymen, real estate agents, and home inspectors.  A retired plumber from New York bought a condo in Palm Beach County from an elderly owner but soon noticed the air conditioning was not working.  He checked the wiring and bought a new thermostat, but it did not fix the problem.  He then looked in the attic and found that the air conditioning ducts were never connected to the air conditioning unit.  The man said the elderly owner could never inspect the attic, so the repair people collected the money and disappeared.

Another elderly woman bought a unit in the Kings Point condominiums in Delray, Florida, only to find that her Jacuzzi tub did not work. Her real estate agent and home inspector both assured her everything was in working order. The new condo owner was then faced with a $5,000 bath remodeling job to replace the old tub.

Elderly fraud victims are often reluctant to notify authorities. Notifying authorities takes too much time, is stressful, and makes them look more vulnerable. They also don’t know who to contact.

Tax Evaders and Fraudsters: Welcome to Florida

Real estate agents in Florida are often poorly supervised, part-timers who don’t spend time researching Florida’s complex market of condos, gated communities, country clubs, homeowner association fees and what they cover, and whether any home improvements were made with permits by licensed contractors.

Even large real estate developers, who are significant contributors to Republicans, build $1 million homes on zero lot line sites with inadequate drainage and shoddy work.  To give homeowners the illusion of quality construction, many builders offer a one-year home warranty to discover any defects, but after that year is up, repairs become the homeowner’s entire responsibility.

Real estate developers, hedge funds, and private equity managers are also moving to Florida because of its lax oversight and lack of state personal income taxes. Wealthy people in these industries are huge beneficiaries of the carried interest tax loophole that allows people to pay capital gains taxes at the ordinary income tax rate, huge savings not available to ordinary people, and a huge tax loss to the federal government.  This makes it attractive, but paying no personal state income taxes means fewer Florida state services.

Florida ranks as one of the worst states for paying public school teachers. While Florida lawmakers posted misleading social media posts about raising teacher pay, National Education Association (NEA) “data shows that in the 2018-2019 school year, when DeSantis entered office, Florida ranked 47th in the nation for average public school teacher pay, giving teachers an average annual salary of $48,314. It ranked 48th in the 2020-2021 school year, costing teachers $51,009. According to Staci Maiers, an NEA spokesperson, the state is estimated to continue to rank 48th for the 2021-2022 school year.”

As a result, after New Year’s Day 2022, Florida ranked fourth among states where coronavirus spread the fastest per person, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.  A November 2021 report found that Florida’s total COVID-19 case rate was higher than the national rate and was the 10th highest in the U.S.

A story on FactCheck found that using data compiled by the New York Times, Florida — the third largest state — has the third most COVID-19 deaths and cases in the nation, with more than 3.6 million cases and more than 59,000 deaths since February 2020.  A social media post by a Republican lawmaker boasted falsely that “The steady decline in cases has led to sunny social media posts proclaiming Florida has the “lowest Covid rates in the country without having to institute communist mandates & lockdowns.”

For Florida Consumers, it’s Caveat Emptor to Prevent Fraud

This approach dovetails with the Republican’s political and anti-consumer protection philosophy.  One building inspector who worked for the city of Delray told me that he attended a County Commissioner’s meeting in which one resident complained of buying tires from a local dealer that had dry rot.  The tires were unsafe and expensive, but when he went to complain, the tire shop did nothing. 

A Palm Beach County commissioner later set the resident straight. In an open meeting, she said that the burden of buying safe products was on the buyer. She said Florida was a state that protects the rights of businesses, not consumers, so caveat emptor, “let the buyer beware.”

Based on the antidemocratic and anti-consumer actions of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Senators Mark Rubio, and Rick Scott, “caveat emptor” should also become Florida’s new motto.

Is buying in a country club a good investment, an ego trip, or a way to become a member of an adult Disneyland? It may not be all three of these choices.

The once-coveted dream of owning a home in a county club was a dream for millions of Americans.

But now, this lifelong goal is experiencing a fundamental shift. Due to changing tastes and demographics, high home prices, significant maintenance costs, the impact of global warming, and the diminishing value of country club name cache, many new, younger buyers are turning away from buying country club homes.

This is bad news for country club specialists who pride themselves on belonging to an exclusive club with a reputation cultivated over decades. This is also the bad news local real estate salespeople don’t like to discuss. Still, it is the elephant in the room whenever anyone talks about the future of country club residential living.

Country club living is outside the financial grasp and tastes of more Americans. It’s also affecting the future of many club and their residential prices. In some cases, these homes have become negative assets.

“I believe this is a difficult time for most country clubs,” said Thomas Feniger, PhD, who has lived at Boca Pointe Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida for 24 years. “Our equity membership is shrinking, and there appears to be little demand for such memberships.” His observations are bolstered by other metrics, such as the time country club residences remain in the market, the number of clubs making changes to their business models to accommodate this new reality, and, importantly, the changing values of younger buyers, often financially strapped.

“Country club life is entirely contrarian to millennial values, mores, and life goals. Millennials are more apt to own fewer possessions, buy smaller cars (if they buy one), use Airbnb frequently, travel more, be peripatetic, wander more, and settle down less. Owning a massive investment that ties oneself to a specific location doesn’t fit the lifestyle. Millennials tend to pursue experiential quests and are less interested in worldly possessions and locked-in vacations.

“As a result, the country club life doesn’t dovetail well with tastes and lifestyle. Taking a country club residence and opening it up to short-term rentals like a timeshare would help sales. A millennial who might like to play golf in one location a few times a year might be interested in fractional ownership,” according to Bruce Bronster, a hospitality and real estate partner at Manhattan-based Windels Marx.

Some clubs are hurting today, unable to sell condos and homes due to mandatory club membership purchases, high monthly homeowners association (HOA) and mandatory meal purchase expenses, and other miscellaneous charges. All of these unavoidable expenses are proving to be very problematic to younger people with limited incomes. These high expenses are especially troubling to many pre- and current retirees faced with possible cuts in pensions and higher medical costs that could all materialize under the Trump administration.

While a 2001 study estimated that eight million Americans lived in over 20,000 gated communities that were characterized as allowing restricted access to residents and their guests, that number is higher today. New exclusive gated communities, such as the Moonlight Basin in Big Sky, Montana, boast of home price ranges from $1,000,000 to $15,000,000, HOA fees ranging from $2,000-$5,000 annually (based on the property), mandatory memberships of $50,000 (initiation fee), annual dues ($9,200); and sports memberships ($18,000 initiation fees and yearly dues of $4,500.)

Then, there is even the more exclusive Yellowstone Club, Big Sky, Montana, with home prices ranging from $4,250,000- to $19,500,000; required residential membership deposits of $300,000; annual dues of $39,500; and a property owner’s association yearly fee that ranges from $24,000 to $36,000 based on the property.

Yet despite expanding exclusive clubs, many older clubs, especially those built in the 1970s and 1980s, suffer. How bad is the situation?

At the Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton, Florida, which carries a mandatory $100,000 membership fee, condos can sell for a few dollars (yes, a few dollars), provided the new property owner adds up all the membership fees. Some condos and homes can be sold at “negative pricing,” a real estate term for a negative asset, because when a property is sold to a new owner, the original owner gets half of their original membership fee refunded. As a result, what looks like a fire sale condo means that the original owner gets to cash out of half their membership.

Boca West is not alone. Other clubs in Palm Beach County are facing the same problems as they struggle to attract new full-paying members while maintaining their golf courses year-round in tropical and arid conditions, complete with a full complement of groundskeepers and culinary staff needed to provide top-notch service to an ever-demanding membership.

The golf course at the Boca Pointe Country Club, Boca Raton, Florida, spends about $110,000 a month to maintain its golf course. This expense is borne by everyone who lives there, regardless of whether they are golf members or not. But for many clubs, containing these costs while attracting new full-amenity members is like shoveling water up a hill. Time is working against this business model, and it will mean significant changes for some shortly.

The clubs provide excellent examples of a business model that worked for years as new wealthy homeowners bought into the coveted lifestyle. Many clubs were developed in the mid-1970s and 1980s in a different economy and society. However, this model falls apart when tastes, life goals, and finances change.

These changes are hitting the country club community from many different sources:

Changing tastes. Younger potential home buyers are increasingly becoming renters. This is due to several factors, mainly the inability to make a down payment and meet more stringent credit standards, but another major factor is a dramatic change in attitudes towards home ownership and work.

For instance, the average young adult expects to spend less than three years with any one company, so making a long-term commitment to country club ownership is  problematic. This new attitude reflects the changing nature of the American workplace, including declining employer-employee loyalty, fewer companies offering pensions, and stagnant real wages.

As a result, many prospective younger buyers must commit to living in a country club and its associated high membership and HOA maintenance costs.

The bottom line is that buying a home is financially challenging for the generation following the Baby Boomers. People born after 1965 are the first generation in American history who will not be better off than their parents. This is causing a fundamental change in how post-baby Boomers view country club living.

Demographics.  There are now 83 million Millennials, born between 1982 and 2000, representing over one-quarter of the nation’s population. Their size exceeds that of the 75 million Baby Boomers, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate. In terms of home ownership, people under 35 who own homes are at their lowest rate since 1994, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Aside from being a larger group than baby boomers, millennials also are very diverse: about 45% say they are politically independent; they are marrying later than other generations; and, importantly, “they are not rushing toward the traditional American-dream trifecta of getting married, buying a house and having children.” Also, more are living at home, and almost one in five 25- to 34-year-old men live with their parents, so home purchases are being delayed.

High costs of country club residential purchases. Aside from the hurdles of buying equity ownership that cannot be financed, country club residence owners face assessments, different levels of club dues, annual meal expenditure commitments, homeowner’s association monthly fees, and the other basic expenses of home ownership (utilities, insurance, taxes, improvements, etc.)

Take the case of one exclusive country club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, BallenIsles. This club is home to Serena Williams and is widely regarded as at the top of the list regarding clubhouse amenities, facilities, golf, and tennis courses. It has a mandatory club membership policy with a gold membership of $120,000, of which $68,000 is refunded upon the sale of the property. Of the $120,000 fee, $35,000 is a non-refundable initiation fee. All levels of membership pay the same $35,000 a year. A full golf equity membership is $85,000, and $68,000 is refunded when you sell your home. The club has a mandatory membership policy.

At the Polo Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, there is a $70,000 mandatory membership country club fee and monthly club dues ranging from $1,500 to $1,700 monthly. Of course, all this is in addition to your mortgages, taxes, insurance, and house expenses.

Wage stagnation among younger buyers. According to Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center, income inequality is widely regarded as being greater today than at any other time since the Gilded Age. Taylor said the rise of technology is driving the current wage disparity among generations, and this gap “between young and old are at levels never before seen in modern times; so are the economic divides between whites, blacks, and Hispanics and so, of course, is the gap between rich and poor.”

Another report found that since the Great Recession began in 2007, the median wage for people between 25 and 34, adjusted for inflation, decreased in every primary industry except for health care. Their reason for this wage decline is also due to technology and globalization, and it has shown itself in reduced savings rates and a disdain for buying houses and cars. “Indeed, the savings rate for Americans under 35, having briefly breached after the Great Recession, dove back underwater and now swims at negative-1.8 percent,” according to an article in The Atlantic. It’s no wonder that buying a house in a country club community is a distant dream to millions of younger workers.

Rising labor costs from country club workers. When many country club residential communities were built in the 1980s, lawn, groundskeepers, and other service personnel labor expenses were cheaper than today’s. Yet, to maintain the high standards of country club residential living and golf courses, those standards cannot be compromised, so labor cannot be easily cut without a decrease in overall club appearance, including the expensive maintenance of golf and tennis courts. Any drop in these expensive-to-maintain appearances will affect club prestige.

A February 2015 online survey of superintendent members of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America in the United States found that the nationwide average maintenance budget for an 18-hole golf course in 2014 was $724,269. The biggest expense of the total maintenance budget was labor, accounting for 55% of all expenses, excluding capital expenditures. Golf course labor often is non-skilled and immigrant, and these labor rates have also been rising.

Radically Changing Tastes

Each generation has its dominant trends, and for people under 50, country club living is not at the top of the list; aside from the significant financial reasons, golf and country clubs are viewed by many as passe. Worse, golf is too associated with Donald Trump and his business symbolism.

A recent article in Alternet, a leftist advocacy magazine, found that “for successful greedheads and their wannabes, golf is the most sacred of sports, the symbol of all that is retrograde and exclusionary in American life. There’s far more to golf, however than mere inequality or a history of institutional racism and sexism.

“Golf is also a waste of space, water, and a sinkhole for chemicals poisoning the local aquifer. Think of all the organic vegetables that could be grown on those swards or the walking trails and wildlife sanctuaries that could be established. Think of the affordable housing that could be built on that land. There has to be a better use for the millions of dollars that will be squandered this year on overpriced golf duds and equipment, lessons, playing fees, and memberships in the latest trendy clubs (that these days often have you-know-who’s name on them in large golden letters).”

Deciding What’s Important in Life

Millennials and younger people differ from their parents in a few crucial areas, especially their desire to be happy, travel, and have new life experiences rather than stay in a single job for a lifetime.

There is also a change in priorities that affects home purchases. Since many Millennials have difficulty paying for a house, they have chosen different life priorities. One is the distinction between money and happiness.  Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who studies the connection between money and happiness, said, “Our experiences are a more significant part of ourselves than our material goods. You can like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but they remain separate.

In contrast, your experiences are part of you. We are the total of our experiences.” As a result, many Millennials are spending more money on new life experiences, including travel, rather than choosing to buy a luxurious home in a country club community.

Americans Are Getting Poorer

There is no shortage of evidence on this topic. Consider the following:

• A Federal Reserve Board study that asked respondents how they would pay for a $400 emergency found that 47% of respondents said they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something or they would not be able to come up with the $400.
• In an article in the Atlantic, Edward Wolff, an economist at New York University, found that the median net worth of Americans has declined steeply in the past generation. It decreased 85% from 1983 to 2013 for the bottom income quintile, 63% for the second-lowest quintile, and 26% for the third, or middle, quintile.
• Research funded by the Russell Sage Foundation found that the inflation-adjusted net worth of the typical household (one at the median point of wealth distribution) was $87,992 in 2003. By 2013, it had declined to $54,500, a 38% decline.
• Nor are these dismal numbers restricted to lower- and idle-income people. Another study cited in the same Atlantic article found that nearly one-quarter of households making $100,000 to $150,000 annually said they would not to be able to raise $2,000 in a month.
• In this century, per-capita U.S. economic growth has been less than 1% a year on average, and even since 2009, it’s been only 1.1% a year. If the U.S. had maintained postwar 20th-century growth rates into this century, U.S. per-capita GDP would be over 20% higher than it is today, according to a New York Times article.
• The odds of becoming a millionaire for Millennials and younger people have dropped significantly over the past 25 years. If you’re over 62, your odds of having at least $1 million in net wealth are about 1 in 7. But if you are under 40, your odds are 1 in 55, according to a new paper by economists at the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability. The paper verified the growing wealth gap between young and old. This is the same gap that affects the purchase of expensive homes.

Culture Wars

Since country clubs were always considered the place for the rich and famous to enjoy time away from society’s riff-raff, they have been the brunt of comedies starting in the silent age of movies. Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, the Marx Brothers, the 3 Stooges, Happy Gilmore and the ultimate parody, Caddie Shack (released 1980) have all parodied the irreverent, anti-elitist, wealth gap to high comic effect. Think Rodney Dangerfield and his Chinese sidekick, Wang, clashing against the Bushwood country club’s board president, the silver-haired Judge Smails (played by Ted Knight), over proper decorum, language, and dress. Those were on-screen parodies, but the current generation of new, potential country club residence buyers subconsciously rebel against many of these same exclusive, anti-egalitarian prejudices.

Country Club Homes: Exclusive Residences or Bad Investments?

Gated communities have been around in the U.S. since around 1870 when private streets were built in St. Louis. Still, they began to attract the attention of academics in the mid-1990s as interest increased in the ideas of social fragmentation and new types of voluntary segregation. The states with the most gated communities are California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas.  

This became fertile ground for academic studies and popular critiques. The early themes of this work took on the warning of social fragmentation, urban segregation, and the emergence of a new type of civic arrangement. Gated communities became symbols and symptoms of a line that was being crossed from one based on a popular, democratic political base to one that was defined by a market-driven civic society, authors Renaud Le Goix and Chris J. Webster wrote in a paper, “Gated Communities.”

However, as people created these secure, homogeneous enclaves, they also raised questions about the meaning of the future of citizenship and the concept of community in America. It raised the question of whether people living in gated communities were voluntarily isolating themselves from the racially and economically mixed, open society that is the foundation of American democracy. In most cases, professionals managed gated communities, so residents gave up their social contract to act as neighbors in exchange for professional management. HOA also regulated the communities, and the land developers often established covenants, conditions, and rules (CC&R).

In the book Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States (Brookings Institution Press, 1997), authors Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder conducted what is regarded as the first study of gated communities and their social impact. In the book, they presented issues related to private versus public rights. They were recognized for their position that gated communities are “a dramatic manifestation of a new fortress mentality growing in America.” The authors presented some provocative ideas, such as whether residents of the gated community isolated themselves from the surrounding community.

What Created Gated Communities

The history of gated communities parallels the rise of the middle and upper classes as they sought exclusivity, privacy, and security. In the article “Gated Communities and Residential Property Values,” Appraisal Journal, April 1, 2001, by Douglas S. Bible and Chengho Hsieh, the authors found that fenced communities with gates were first developed for the upper class during the early decades of the 1900s, primarily on the East Coast and in Hollywood.  In the 1950s and 1960s, gated entries became common for retirement developments. Gated communities grew more popular during the 1980s and 1990s.

Yet while much has been written about the benefits of gated communities, few studies have examined how living in one of these developments impacts property values.

To gauge the impact of restricted access in gated communities on property values, Blakely and Snyder interviewed residents in gated communities across the United States and surveyed more than 400 homeowner association boards in gated communities in Florida and California. Their field research in 1994 and 1995 describes three kinds of “fortified American neighborhoods, distinguished by the residents’ motivations in limiting public access.”

In the first group, what the authors called “lifestyle communities,” gates were found to provide security and enclose leisure activities and amenities, such as golf and tennis. The second group, “elite communities,” uses gates to symbolize distinction, exclusivity, and prestige to show a secure place on the social ladder. The third type of gated community is called the “security zone, where the fear of crime and outsiders is the foremost motivation for defensive fortifications.”

The researchers noted that “while life may be more comfortable for residents inside the gates than for those outside, gated communities symbolize a larger social pattern of segmentation and separation designed to disassociate and exclude.” They also found that while long-term crime rates are not affected by the installation of gates and fences, residents feel safer, especially when their children play outside.

The “Fortress America” theory suggests that gated communities “encourage economic segregation and are themselves a microcosm of the larger spatial pattern of segmentation and separation.” They argued that the privatization of public services–such as when gated communities provide their police protection–tends to defeat the very idea of democracy. Furthermore, they find no evidence that gated communities foster more excellent community spirit even within their confines.”

So, if social status, name recognition, reluctant buyers, and house affordability are all working against the popularity of country club living, what will happen next?

As a country club community resident, it’s evident that most of my neighbors are older (in their 70s and 80s), with fewer new young families joining the community. Worse, the country club grapevine reports that club membership steadily drops despite more aggressive advertising.

Clubs that have de-linked home sales to mandatory country club memberships should have a better future, even though the large maintenance fees could mean club golf and tennis facilities will become public. What is certain is that country club communities will have to re-invent themselves using a new business model to survive over the next decade.