Loading ...My subdivision is less than half ‘built out’ from 1972 yet. My next door lot is wild jungle yet that was overgrown with Albizia trees… towering invasive species that are brittle and come down in hurricane winds. Trust that owned it didn’t want to maintain it when we neighbors complained, so they sold out to a Mexican family from Riverside, CA. Mexicans came and attempted to clear the lot with just family labor and failed after several trips here. Just too much for them. Papa finally hired a local ‘tree Tarzan’ to take down the biggest trees and just drop the limbs, piled eight feet deep. Several month later I read in the local news that some Mexicans with the same family name were intercepted at the airport here with kilos of cocaine, and we have never seen the lot owners again. I guess it was drug money that bought the lot. With new laws, my tree trimmer friends have legally gone into the lot and poisoned the regrowing big trees that are slowly breaking and dropping branches now without threatening our homes on either side.
Getting a home loan here in the lava zones is impossible. No one will insure the property, so a buyer has to come up with cash and assume the risk on self. That, too, helps keep the rif raf and speculators out. Mostly retired folks buying and building here now. Some don’t even have permits… just slap up a self-made shack and live off-grid.