Monterey County Herald | 10/16/2004 | UNEASY RETIREMENT
Fred Pilot sent this link. Once again, the Associated Press' Jim Wasserman proves that he is the best journalist in the nation on this issue. Here he focuses on the "time bomb" aspect of the CID revolution. I've been talking about it for almost 20 years. Jim lays it out in the clearest possible terms:

As developers build more planned communities, they are also turning them -- and their multimillion-dollar annual budgets -- over to residents and volunteers to run once the developers sell out. Often, development experts said, residents from California to Arizona to Florida learn they've inherited financial time bombs.

Cracks develop in clubhouses, tennis courts and roads. On the championship golf course that once lured buyers, grass either dies or turns soggy because of defective irrigation systems. Often, residents find the problems are due to construction defects and that the developer didn't leave enough money in the reserve funds to pay to fix them. Either the associations have to raise dues or collect one-time special assessments, often raising living costs beyond buyers' original expectations.
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