Moving advice

I hope my post helps you sell your house!

I hope my post helps you sell your house!

Me too! Theres a 2015 F150 available too. Maybe a package deal!

I think it is a fine time to purchase property particularly if it is residential and has an apartment or guest house - or enough space to add one of these.

It is not a buyers market like it was even a year ago. But prices are not significantly higher -there are just not as many choices. The market for well-built, well-maintained, well-priced houses in good locations Is strong but not overpriced. Just as in the US, appraisals determine mortgage value thus control prices from rising fast. Without a lot of comps, appraised values are conservative.

Building materials and supplies can be hard to come by - even more so if you're picky. In VI, function can be more important than form.

Thank you islandjoan and Gator's Mom. It doesn't sound like now into the next year is going to be a good time to find a house.

I've heard rumors of the plant opening for years. Is it really going to happen? I assume that would make housing even harder to find?

Federal monies for fixed capital assets are restricted and visual - these grants have hard/timely deliverables (like roads and power lines) and at least quarterly reporting. Hard to divert to personal purpose. Most also require the grantee to submit invoices and other documents matching expenditures to financial reporting to asset purchased (numbered and location noted).

I've worked with fixed capital asset federal grants. Generally, you don't get a lump sum but you get payments based on performance that is evaluated line item by line item, activity by activity. Every federal grant has an assigned project officer watching over it.

This of course doesn't stop relatives and friends from being hired or contracted for work on the grant funded project - but they still will need to do the work to get paid. They will need to be the lowest bidder, too.

Programmatic grants - whether from the feds or private enterprises - are less structured and deliverables may be easier to fake. But you still have constant reporting and oversight. I worked with an organization that had a programmatic grant that wasn't well documented audited by the feds - you'd better save all records or the feds will claw back the money.

Gator's Mom, how do we know money is going where it's supposed to go? Please tell me where I can get that info!

Thanks for the info. The VI almost lost federal money for the VINGN. Where can we see all the federal grants awarded to VI since September?

I'm counting on you to keep VI government from stealing any of the money.????

I know the NTIA program officer for ViNGN and worked with him on a project in FL some years ago. He is diligent, fair and no nonsense. You can read the grant documentation and reporting by the VI to the feds for this NTIA project at the link below if you're interested.

https://www2.ntia.doc.gov/u.s.-virgin-islands

As for all the grant awards since the storms to the VI government, I'll need to think about how to compile that list - but I know it can be done. This sounds like a great data reporting project for a local news organization.

There have to be far easier ways to steal money and not get caught than to thieve from a federal grant.

Thanks for the info. The VI almost lost federal money for the VINGN. Where can we see all the federal grants awarded to VI since September?

I'm counting on you to keep VI government from stealing any of the money.????

I'm going to delegate's office to see if they can generate a list and keep us updated.

I agree the outlook right now for STX is good. All the FEMA $$$ has the potential to get the infrastructure roads, electric grid, hospitals, improved much faster and better that the VI government could have ever hoped. We might even see street signs again. Progress being made at the old refinery with storage and maybe even some production soon. Some more cruise ships. Hopefully the tourism commissioner is working on a plan to improve the cruise ship offering. Now if we can just keep Chris and Kerri Hanley on TV....

As far as I am aware now there is also individual Medicare supplemental insurance available through AARP.

We don't live there yet and I'm not Medicare eligible yet but I'm researching.

I thought Chris and Kerri Hanley WERE St. Croix's Tourism Commissioners.

As far as I am aware now there is also individual Medicare supplemental insurance available through AARP.

We don't live there yet and I'm not Medicare eligible yet but I'm researching.

Better double check this.
At one point it was and then it wasn't according to a local AARP representative that I spoke with a couple years ago.

I couldn't find any individual healthcare insurance in VI.
That pretty much forced my decision to move to FL so that I could have individual healthcare insurance and afford it until I'm old enough for Medicare.

Good luck to you!

Yes, there is AARP Medicare Supplement. But that means you have to have Medicare A & B to start with. It's not individual insurance. When you call the Medicare representatives in the states, they are flummoxed, but if you look it up on the Medicare site and are persistent, you can buy it...