Make the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Region the best place to live, learn, work, and play for everyone- Planning Meeting Upcoming

Upper Valley Life

(video by Creare)

Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission

How can we make the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Region the best place to live, learn, work, and play for everyone?

We imagine you have great answers to this question and we hope you will consider being a part of an upcoming informative conversation about the future of our communities, our region, and our state.

The issues local leaders face are many, including public health, transportation, economic development, infrastructure, housing, land use, energy, cultural, historic, natural resources and more. Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission is committed to engaging everyone to identify local assets, needs and ways to effectively use limited government resources.  Community conversations are designed and hosted by NH Listens and UNH Cooperative Extension. All perspectives are welcome and we hope you will join us!  

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Common Man Inn and Restaurant,

21 Water Street

Claremont, NH 03743

6:00 p.m. Sign in and Refreshments

6:30 – 9:00 p.m. Program

On-site childcare will be available.

Register at: http://tinyurl.com/RegisterListening or by calling NH Listens at 603.862.0692

Jobs & The Economy – This Time It’s No Different

From Zero Hedge:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-20/jobs-economy-time-its-no-different

Following the FOMC’s schizophrenic minutes, we thought it topical to look at how history has treated divergences between a lagging jobs market and a leading indicator (new orders) of the real economy. It appears that since the debt super-cycle began, the real economy has downshifted before the jobs market with CEOs finally giving in to slowing growth and laying people off soon after… of course, this time could be different – as we are sure to be told…

 

 

What exactly will the Fed do if jobs begin to deteriorate again? Print more? Perhaps that is why WTI , precious metals and other real assets get hit repeatedly by Fed proxies?

Hanover 2014 Budget Acknowledges Serious Federal & State Risks

So, a refreshingly clear assessment of the real impact of failure of leadership at the Federal and State levels. At a time when “kicking the can down the road and ignoring our $16 TRILLION Federal debt is the stock in trade, an experienced town manager rejects the jellyfish approach of ignoring the challenges facing a core Upper Valley town.

From Town Manager Julia N.Griffin’s Summary:

Fiscal Climate
For what is now the fifth year in a row, the budget proposal before you has been developed in the midst of what continues to be an enormously complex economic downturn, further complicated by the most debilitating level of political partisanship at the national and state level that I have seen in my 28 year career in local government management. To say that political dysfunction rules would be an understatement. Sadly, local communities and our citizens are suffering as a result – either as their local property taxes increase as local communities attempt to shoulder the service burdens abdicated by the Federal and State government, or as services are reduced to avoid the specter of raising taxes or fees. Whether we at the local level stand by and watch Federal programs defunded or State programs eviscerated or completely eliminated, in the final analysis, downshifting
abounds and the buck stops at the local level. Just a few examples of the “death by a thousand cuts” phenomenon that continues to challenge us at the local level include:

1. • Elimination of multiple Federal Department of Transportation transit and transportation funding programs upon which our region has relied for transportation and transit capital improvement funds, combined with a $700 million shortfall in the State’s Transportation capital budget, resulting in increasingly under-maintained roads and bridges;
2. • Funding reductions in agencies like Housing and Urban Development, leading to, among other things, a freeze on new Section 8 subsidized housing certificates in our region, upon which we rely to help residents in need secure subsidized housing;
3. • Steep Medicare and Medicaid funding cuts at the Federal level, compounded by the State’s “grabbing” of Medicaid funds to balance the State budget – funds which have traditionally been paid to hospitals and social service agencies – which has severely impacted the operations of local social service agencies, resulting in increasing numbers of seniors and the poor seeking help from local municipal welfare offices, Hanover’s included;
4. • The State’s elimination of general revenue sharing and shared Business Profits Tax in FY 2010 which previously returned $177,000 per year in revenue to Hanover (2.2% tax rate impact);
5. • Elimination of the State’s 35% subsidy for Group II public safety employees in 2011 ($120,511 or a 1.5% tax rate impact), coupled with the unrelenting biannual increases in employer mandated contributions resulting from years of mismanagement of the State’s Retirement System investment portfolio;
6. • Reduction in the motor vehicle registration fee assessed by the State in 2012, resulting in the loss of $40,000 in State shared revenue which Hanover traditionally utilized to offset the annual paving program (a .5% tax rate impact);
7. • A “temporary suspension” in the statutorily established increase in amount of Meals and Rooms tax to be shared with municipalities by the State, in spite of the general growth of that revenue source – what should have been a continued steady climb toward sharing a full 40% of the revenue source with municipalities stopped at 28% and has slid back down to 24% as of 2012.
8. • “Delaying and Deferring” (aka: expropriating) the statutorily required 20% State Aid Grant for all water, wastewater and landfill projects, including $45,000 owed annually to Hanover for our most recently completed wastewater treatment plant upgrade;
9. • Wholesale reductions in State staff across a host of State agencies, from Health and Human Services to Environmental Services, State Police to Revenue Administration, Department of Transportation to Department of Resources and Economic Development, leading to elimination of many State services and much longer delays in receipt of State services that communities rely upon (motor vehicle, permit review and issuance, legal support from the Attorney General’s Office, maintenance of State roadways, bridges and streetlights, etc);
10. • Significant increases in State fees, from dam permits to wetlands permitting, State-mandated laboratory testing to State-issued certifications;
11. • Plummeting interest earnings from investment of short term capital, which once generated as much as $350,000 per year and now hovers around $50,000 (a 3.5% tax rate impact);
12. • And the floor amendment adopted by Town Meeting last May, raising the Veteran’s Tax Credit to the maximum $500 allowed by state law resulted in the loss of an additional $72,000 in tax revenue as many additional veterans chose to register for the significantly higher, permanent property tax credit – resulting in an additional 1% increase in the municipal tax rate. And with that as backdrop, we now sit, poised on a precipice – on the one hand, awaiting word on the threatened but continually postponed “fiscal cliff” at the Federal level, with looming,potentially substantial budget cuts across a wide swath of agencies that provide funds to states.

The Town of Hanover FY2014 Proposed Budget is now available on the Town’s website. Citizens are encouraged to attend one or more of the Public Hearings beginning Monday, February 25, 2013 to participate in the discussion and the budget adoption process as the Board of Selectmen consider the budget proposed by the Town Manager for the upcoming fiscal year (to begin July 1, 2013).

Links: http://www.hanovernh.org/pages/hanovernh_admin/FY2014BudgSumm

Good Advice: Attend Your Inspection!

Don’t pass up chance to attend home inspection

On-site review can avoid misunderstandings, determine a property’s worthiness

By Barry Stone, Inman Columnist,  February 12, 2013.

Inman News®

Inspection image via Shutterstock.

DEAR BARRY: Our home inspection is scheduled for next week. This is the first time we’ve bought a home, and we’re not sure what to do and what not to do. Our agent says it’s not important for us to attend the inspection, and that we should just wait for the report. But we’re uncomfortable with that advice. There are so many things we want to ask the inspector. What do you recommend? –Annamarie

DEAR ANNAMARIE: Your agent is not giving you good advice. The importance of attending your home inspection cannot be emphasized too strongly.

Too many homebuyers miss a great opportunity by not being present at their home inspection. Sometimes this is unavoidable, due to geographical distance. But whenever possible, buyers are strongly urged to participate in the inspection process. Being on site during the inspection, viewing specific conditions in person, consulting with the inspector, asking questions, and obtaining advice greatly magnify the benefits to you, the buyer.  A home inspection is a fact-finding mission in which the inspector is your hired advocate. You and the inspector should jointly engage in the discovery process. Both of you are there for the same reason: to learn as much as possible about the condition of the property.

Prior to the inspection, most buyers make a purchase offer based upon a 15-minute walk-through or run-through. At that point, they know very little about a very expensive commodity. The home inspection provides buyers their only opportunity to slowly and methodically view and consider the object of their investment. During the inspection, they have hours to voice questions and concerns as they evaluate their prospective purchase. Buyers have even been known to discover defects the inspector might otherwise have missed.

Buyer attendance also enables the inspector to explain the meaning and importance of each condition noted in the inspection report. When buyers are not present at the inspection, conditions noted in the report must be read and interpreted without explanation. Lacking a verbal review of the findings, a buyer may overreact to minor disclosures, while failing to appreciate the importance of more serious ones. The on-site review provided by your inspector may be the most informative aspect of the entire home inspection process. When circumstances prevent buyers from attending the inspection, a telephone conference with the inspector is strongly advised.

Know Your Buyers and Whether They Are Actually Qualified

Officially, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) calls for brokers to be self policing, but our group faced a couple of situations last year where “buyers” approached us, unrepresented and claimed to want to purchase a property sight unseen.  NAR’s policy is:

“NAR supports continued efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism through the regulation of entities using a risk-based analysis. Any risk-based assessment would likely find very little risk of money laundering involving real estate agents or brokers. Regulations that would require real estate agents and brokers to adopt anti-money laundering programs may prove to be burdensome and unnecessary given the existing ML/TF regulations that already apply to United States financial institutions.”

In reality, we had to apply the “Know Your Customer” guidelines that Pip Barton had learned at the Treasury Department in 2002-2006 working in conjunction with the Financial Crimes and Enforcement Network or FinCEN. FinCEN actually produced a report about structuring and money laundering activities in real estate in 2008 (see http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/rp/files/MLR_Real_Estate_Industry_SAR_web.pdf)

New anti-money laundering regulations came into effect for non-banks last summer. According to Mortgage Professional (see http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news30823/anti-money-laundering-program-preparation-protection)

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, recently finalized regulations (Final Rule) requiring non-bank Residential Mortgage Lenders and Originators (RMLOs) to establish an Anti-Money Laundering Program (AML Program) and file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), as FinCEN requires of other types of financial institutions.¹ FinCEN issued these regulations defining non-bank residential mortgage lenders and originators as loan or finance companies for the purpose of requiring them to establish AML Programs and report suspicious activities under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

Part of the bid to U.S. real estate since 2011 has come from excess liquidity in banks and other entities bolstered by central bank money printing. In Asia, excess liquidity has come from some unscrupulous Chinese officials concerned about the Asian real estate bubble and desperately placing it in real estate all over the globe.  From The Telegraph:

As China’s new leaders intensify a campaign to root out corruption, thousands of Communist party officials have been panicked into a fire sale of their illicit properties while billions of pounds have been smuggled overseas. It said the volume of deals had intensified by “a hundred times” after Xi Jinping, the incoming Chinese president, warned that corruption could kill the Party and put one of the country’s most vigorous and resolute politicians, Wang Qishan, in charge of stamping out graft.

It also claimed that an astonishing $1 trillion (£630 billion), equivalent to 40 per cent of Britain’s annual GDP, had been smuggled out of China illegally in 2012.  Marco Pearman-Parish at Corporation China, a company in Beijing that helps clients find properties abroad, said there had been a strong rise in clients looking for homes in the Cayman Islands.

In the United States, the National Association of Realtors said that more than $7 billion of properties had been bought by Chinese in the US last year. Some high-end homes are now specifically built for rich Chinese with ponds for koi carp and a second kitchen for pungent cooking.

Hedge fund manager and former international exchange trader Mike Krieger is more suspicious (see http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/01/22/chinese-criminals-are-buying-billions-in-u-s-real-estate/). Having understood his perspective, ask the Barton Group to conduct a more complete assessment of a buyer prospect if a party to a transaction (or “a side”) seems suspicious or unqualified.

Dartmouth Winter Carnival: 1930s to 1960s

A selection of scenes taken during winter carnival events from the 1930s to the 1960s. Winter Carnival dates back to 1911 and is the nation’s oldest collegiate winter celebration. Still a major social and athletics event at Dartmouth College, the carnival is a celebration of winter activities, and each year features a large snow sculpture on the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, New Hampshire. These selected scenes include ski-jumping, downhill and cross-country skiing, figure skating, snow sculptures, the Carnival Queen competition, the Dartmouth Glee Club singing, and other social and athletic events surrounding the Carnival weekend.

Zero Down Mortgages Returning- Uh Oh!

From CBS Marketwatch:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-money-down-home-loans-are-back-2013-02-01

Some affluent buyers are getting the keys to their new home without putting a penny down. It’s 100% financing—the same strategy that pushed many homeowners into foreclosure during the housing bust. Banks say these loans are safer: They’re almost exclusively being offered to clients with sizable assets, and they often require two forms of collateral—the house and a portion of the client’s investment portfolio in lieu of a traditional cash down payment.

Shutterstock.com

In most cases, borrowers end up with one loan and one monthly payment. Depending on the lender and the borrower, roughly 60% to 80% of the loan can be pegged to the home’s value while the remaining 20% to 40% can be secured by investments. On a $2 million primary residence, for instance, the borrower could get a $2 million loan, which would require a pledge of assets in an investment portfolio to cover what could have been, say, a $500,000 down payment. The pledged assets can remain fully invested, earning returns as normal, without disrupting the client’s investment goals. While these affluent clients may be flush with cash, this strategy allows them to get into a home without tying up funds or making withdrawals from interest-earning accounts. And given the market’s gains combined with low borrowing rates in recent years, some banks say clients are pursuing 100% financing as an arbitrage play—where the return on their investments is bigger than the rate they pay on the loan, which can be as low as 2.5%. Some institutions offer only adjustable rates with these loans, which could become more expensive if rates rise. In most cases, the investment account must be held by the same institution that’s providing the loan. See: Home improvement gets a makeover  These loans also provide tax benefits. Since borrowers don’t have to liquidate their investment portfolios to get financing, they can avoid the capital-gains tax. And in some cases, they can still tap into the mortgage-interest deduction. (Borrowers can usually deduct interest payments on up to $1 million of mortgage debt.)