Coping With Problems Created by Rapid Growth and Development at Cape Coral, Florida

Abstract

Although the land sales industry did not begin to take its present form until the 1950s, subdividing land is not new to the American experience. Land fever began to afflict the American people shortly after the federal government was established.  In fact, speculative land schemes, the subdivision of real estate for profit and premature  subdivision of land, are age-old practices (Cornick, 1938). The success of the speculative land sales industry has fluctuated drastically, in many cases in direct response to the state of the economy. As a result, the land sales industry has experienced several "boom" and "bust" cycles. One particularly active period for land subdivision and lot sales activity occurred during the decades of 1950s and 1960s, especially in Florida and the desert Southwest (Stroud, 1995).