There Is Some Good News Out There This Thanksgiving Week

CIN Alert for November 22, 2011

As we prepare to enter the holiday season, your CIN editors thought it would be a good time to take a tiny step back from the daily dosage of negative news served up to us all by the major media and recognize that there have been some significantly positive developments recently regarding the US economy.  This is by no means meant to minimize the negative impact that this Great Recession has had on the lives of so millions of individuals and businesses.  We all know it, we feel it and we see it every day.

However, between media inclination to highlight the negative news of the day, along with the outrageous sound bites offered by some of politicians, we fear that some positive and noteworthy developments get lost in the balance. For example, how many of us recall seeing or hearing about this development last month:

“Permits for housing construction climbed in October, signaling an uptick in optimism among homebuilders. The number of permits for future housing construction jumped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 653,000 last month, up 10.9% from the revised rate of 589,000 in September, the Commerce Department said. That was much higher than expected, with economists surveyed by Briefing.com looking for a 603,000 permit rate.

If the glut of foreclosures starts thinning and demand picks up, the jump in permits could translate into a rise in new construction in coming months. As it is, permits and construction have both increased significantly from a year ago. Housing starts are up 16.5% from the same month a year ago, and building permits are up 17.7%.”
(Source: CNN)

Small development, perhaps, but a welcome (positive) news report among the many negative reports on the state of the economy.

We would guess that many people never knew of, or heard about these positive figures. Of course, time will tell if there is a positive trend development.  The editors will be watching and reporting to you. CIN editors make a concerted effort to present a balanced collection of news and commentary on each subject that we cover.

CIN is specifically designed to be a reliable information resource for individuals and organizations interested in creating, rejuvenating and maintaining healthy communities in the United States and other countries.  We have made this 24/7 resource easy to access and to use for you. For example, if you click on the link for Community Development, you would see this collection of recent news articles:

The Next Mega-Trend in Housing
(Source: Stock Market Review) One pocket of absolute strength in the current housing market is apartment-based REITs. According to Oliver Chang, a housing and securitized products analyst at Morgan Stanley, this trend toward rentals is just getting started.

KC architects work to create affordable green housing
(Kansas City Star) A Kansas City architectural firm is partnering with a local Habitat for Humanity organization to create a new energy-efficient model for the affordable-housing program. Heartland Habitat for Humanity, which works in three Kansas counties and two in Missouri, hopes to break ground next spring on a prototype being developed by El Dorado Inc.

Building permits climb 11%
(Source: CNN) Permits for housing construction climbed in October, signaling an uptick in optimism among homebuilders. The number of permits for future housing construction jumped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 653,000 last month, up 10.9% from the revised rate of 589,000 in September, according to the Commerce Department.

TD Bank to Create More Than 1,600 Jobs in South Carolina
(Source: TD Bank) TD Bank has announced that it will expand its corporate operations at the bank’s campus on Interstate 85 in Greenville, SC, creating more than 1,400 new jobs in the next three to five years. TD Bank will also add more than 200 new positions in Lexington, SC.

Farmland prices surge to record; investors grow wary
Source: (Reuters) U.S. farmland prices in the third quarter surged to the highest levels in more than three decades amid an accelerating agricultural boom that has so far defied fears of a bubble about to burst. Prices hit record highs in the plains, where wheat and cattle dominate production, and jumped 25 percent in the Midwest Corn Belt.

Chase Expands Military Banking Benefits to all US Veterans
(Source: JP Morgan Chase) Chase has announced the expansion of its Military Banking checking program to include all U.S. military veterans. Specifically, the premium checking account benefits typically reserved for high-balance are now available to everyone who has served in the U.S. military.

For sure, we are still bombarded every day with negative news of the U.S. and global economies, the prolonged effects of the Great Recession, and news and commentary about jobs, employment and the economy.  Still, this Thanksgiving week, there are glimmers of hope in some of the media reports we bring you, however tiny they may be in today’s challenged environment for American families.

CIN is the place where the news — good and not so good, and the bad — will be found. We work hard to present programs and developments which will benefit the single community and all communities in need, as well as numerous “communities of interest” that share the goal of creating or maintaining vibrant hometowns.  We urge you to make CIN a daily reference source.

And to all in the land – a Most Happy Thanksgiving.  We do have much to be grateful for, even in tough economic times.

Related articles

• Jerry Jasinowski: Good News For Thanksgiving (huffingtonpost.com)

Another Small Business Success Story

CIN ALERT
October 27, 2011

For many of us, the idea of starting a small business is a lifetime goal. In fact, the chance to be your own boss by providing a product or service ranks right up there with homeownership as one of the true American dreams. Despite tough economic times, the environment for starting a small business in many parts of the country is better than you might think, particularly in view of the various assistance programs made available for small business owners.

An enterprising business owner can be very successful, but it takes a lot of work. (And usually a lot more time and money than the business plan calls for.)  Christy is an individual who knows the score. A Registered Yoga Teacher, she has been helping people achieve healthier lifestyles through massage therapy, group exercise, yoga, and Pilates for over 17 years. However, success had rendered a problem for her: the small storefront she used for years in a downtown Midwest city is just too small for her growing clientele. She faced a daunting task: Find a new location that would be a lot larger — yet also fit into her operating and personal budgets.

Driving to work one day through town, she noticed that ‘for sale’ signs had just been posted in front of a small one-story home nearby. All along Christy had been thinking about finding a larger storefront or office. Suddenly, the idea of conducting her instruction classes in a small home made sense. The next several weeks were consumed with meetings and communications with the local town officials, realtors and the chamber of commerce, to be sure that the zoning was correct and that she could have access to some small business assistance programs.

That was three months ago, and the bottom line today is: Christy has much more room in brand new surroundings, her customer base is growing by the week and it all fits into her budget very nicely.  Things are looking up now for her.

All told, there are an estimated 15 to 17 million small businesses operating in America today. Small businesses are still the backbone of our communities – our Main Streets! — and are seen by many as the embodiment of the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs are credited with creating the vast majority of new jobs and employing the majority of the nation’s workers. Granted, big businesses have emerged in fields where new technologies permitted economies of scale in the production and/or distribution of goods. Still, small businesses have remained vital to the nation’s economic development, and even more important as a component of American culture.

Even as our new 21st Century embraced what many Americans could view as superior efficiency and productivity (for both small and big businesses), Americans continued to revere small business owners like Christy for their self-reliance and independence and can-do spirit.
Small businesses have also been the primary way immigrant families coming to America have climbed the economic ladder and achieved the American dream.   Many minority populations today — in urban, rural and suburban communities — have seized the small business pathway as a road to economic independence and building personal wealth.

CIN editors have always recognized the vital role played by small businesses, and we devote a large section of the CIN to them. This resource tool provides basic information  – including the pros and the cons of small business ownership – basic start up information – government assistance programs on the Federal and State levels – grassroots programs provided by NCRC members – private sector assistance programs – franchising basics – banking connections assistance –  available small business resources and the latest small business news and information.   Here are some recent excerpts:

Keeping Your Small Business Ahead of the Curve  
(Source: Small Business Trends) Ten key ways to keep a small business profitable and ahead of the competition are provided by Small Business Trends.

Small Business Owners Think Controlling Employee Expenses Will Lead To Cost Savings
(Source: Gaebler) A recent Citizens Financial Group/Mastercard study found 55 percent of small business owners believe better management of employee expenses would reduce costs and benefit their business, while 40 percent said more control over employee spending would give them a better peace of mind.

Wells Fargo Lends More Dollars to America’s Small Businesses Than Any Other Lender
(Source: Market Watch) 2011 US Small Business Administration data shows Wells Fargo & Company is the top lender in dollar volume, approving $1.2 billion in SBA loans to America’s small businesses for the 2011 federal fiscal year.

How Small Business Owners Were Hurt by the Fall in Home Prices
(Source: Forbes) Personal borrowing plays a key role in how many small business people finance their companies. When the housing crisis hit, small business owners that relied on home equity to finance their companies’ operations faced a credit squeeze. Thus, small businesses have access to about $25 billion less in credit than they would have had if the trend in home equity loans had continued in the direction it had been going in the first half of the 2000s.

Coffee Fix: Starbucks Pushes Small Business Loans
(Source: Business Week) New York Times columnist Joe Nocera lauds Starbucks for supporting community development financial institutions, the nonprofit lenders serving small businesses and affordable housing in low-income communities. The coffee chain is donating $5 million and encouraging customers to pitch in at the checkout line as well.

Geithner Defends Performance of Small Business Lending Fund
(Source: Business Week) Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner says that the Small Business Lending Fund had been successful even if it was smaller than envisioned. The program closed Sept. 27, having distributed $4 billion of its $30 billion to 332 community banks nationwide.

Related articles

• PR Tips for Small Business (wordsforhirellc.com)
• Small Business Concepts That Work in Today’s Economy (cash-bandit.com)

Thirty Percent: Good Or Bad?

CIN Alert for October
Community Investment Network
October 14, 2011

Thirty percent: It’s a terrible score on a school exam, but a rather nice figure for the relative humidity outside in this balmy fall weather. It’s also the amount of household income devoted to housing costs which the federal government uses as the“affordability threshold.” In other words, anyone devoting 30 % or more of their income to housing is considered to be living in “unaffordable housing.” This figure applies not only to those who own their homes but also to those who rent.

Recent reports would indicate that the number of both owners and renters living in unaffordable housing has increased.  Consider this report:  “The share of renters paying 30% or more of their household income on housing costs — the government threshold to determine if housing is unaffordable — rose to 53% last year from 51.5% in 2009 and about 50% in 2008, according to 2010 Census data released today.

While median rents remained stable last year at $855 a month, median national household incomes, adjusted for inflation, fell 2.2% — putting the squeeze on renter budgets. Last year, 38% of homeowners with a mortgage paid 30% or more for housing, up from 37.6% in 2009.

Yet, the fact that percentage rose at all shows that many homeowners haven’t been able to refinance mortgages, despite near record low interest rates. The US Census Bureau’s definition of housing costs includes mortgage payments, insurance, taxes and utilities. (Source: USA Today)

Living in a home remains the ultimate American Dream. For all of our country’s history the dream of land and homeownership has been an important motivating force for individuals and families.  That desire drove the early pioneers from east coast to west coast and south; drove homesteading, especially in the west; and today continues to motivate individuals and families who want a home of their own.  But there are obstacles to the dream.

In a perfect world, everyone who earns a salary should be able to buy a home of his or her own. However, the impact of the economic recession has clearly taken its toll on the ability of many people to purchase a home of their own. The rental market is very hot, as would be expected in times such as these with a slow residential real estate market, but there too we find obstacles for many individuals.

Mortgage lenders generally are not lending money today to many creditworthy individuals, but interest rates are rock bottom right now. Also, various municipal, state and federal government programs have been designed to expand homeownership.  Some help is still there for home purchase – as long as you can make the numbers work.

Clearly it’s a challenge for everyone. CIN’s editors recognize the importance of homeownership, and we maintain a special section on affordable housing designed to provide information to prospective homebuyers, their counselors and advisors, lenders, developers, and others focused on the critical issues surrounding affordable housing.

Related articles

• Rising rents lessen the affordability of housing (usatoday.com)
• You: Private rents unaffordable for families in most English boroughs (guardian.co.uk)
• Truth and Nonsense About Mortgage Lending, the Housing Collapse and Homeownership (scoppcanton.wordpress.com)
• Census: Housing bust worst since Great Depression (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• National Survey of Homeowners and Renters Reports Increased Interest in Homebuying (prweb.com)