{"id":872,"date":"2012-03-27T20:22:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T20:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=872"},"modified":"2026-01-06T17:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:14:18","slug":"tlv-satire-poor-economy-threatens-developers-ability-to-ruin-oxfords-small-town-vibe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/tlv-satire-poor-economy-threatens-developers-ability-to-ruin-oxfords-small-town-vibe\/","title":{"rendered":"TLV Satire: “Poor Economy Threatens Developer’s Ability to Ruin Oxford’s Small-Town Vibe” by Sherman Smithers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Oxford, Miss. (WTF) \u2013 Citing recent government reports that show the nation\u2019s housing market is far from recovering, Stan Mabry<\/strong>, 34, says he may be forced to choose a different career path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brentwood, Tennessee<\/strong>, native has spent the last nine years trying to saturate the Oxford<\/strong> real estate market with hastily-built condominiums in areas that were once home to wildlife and nature trails. Despite his best efforts, the town may stay its current size and retain its appeal unless something miraculous happens within the next couple of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard out here for an overzealous real estate developer when you consider the national trends. Nobody\u2019s spending outrageous prices for plots of land where historical houses once sat,\u201d the bleached blond SMU alum said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figures show that while prices remain high in Lafayette County<\/strong>, only a handful of new homes were sold in 2011. Many analysts predict only a few percentage points will separate this year\u2019s numbers from the last. Mabry believes it could potentially be the downfall for other schmucks like him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI arrived here 10 years ago without knowing anything about the history surrounding this town or its university. I didn\u2019t know about The Grove or William Faulkner,\u201d he said while fidgeting with his Rolex <\/strong>watch, \u201cand I still don\u2019t. Those concepts are foreign to me, but I know a good deal when I see one, and boy did I see one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mabry quickly seized on the opportunity to construct condominiums wherever a bulldozer could reach. He was thoroughly disappointed when city officials refused to let him renovate Rowan Oak<\/strong> into a bed and breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought these guys could be bought. What happened to the American way? I think I know. It starts with Bah and ends with rock Obama<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Mabry focused on convincing struggling landowners in less fortunate parts of the city to sell their land at what was considered fair value. In many cases, Mabry realized 80% returns on investments once he sweet-talked them into giving away property that had been in their families for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was like stealing candy from a baby; a dumb southern baby,\u201d Mabry boasted, \u201c But now that the market has sunk, I\u2019m stuck living off of the millions I made in the past decade. Poverty sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(from TLV #152 :: Click here to access the digital edition PDF<\/strong><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oxford, Miss. (WTF) \u2013 Citing recent government reports that show the nation\u2019s housing market is far from recovering,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4624,133],"tags":[299,120,85],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-satire","category-wtf-news","tag-satire","tag-sherman-smithers","tag-william-faulkner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154640,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/154640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}