Hoff & Leigh’s Weekend Market Report
Hoff & Leigh, Inc.
Leasing, Sales, Management, Buyer or Tenant Representation
4445 Northpark Drive, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907
10.04.09
Attached is our complete listing of all properties for sale in Colorado Springs, based on property type - office, industrial and condo. This is the most complete listing that we are aware of. It’s our goal to provide this information, updated weekly. We develop these lists by basic research and cross-checking data points from the PPCIE, local broker's individual web sites, The Turner Book and any other public information domain we can find.
You are receiving this information because, at some point, you asked or a friend referred your name to be included in our e-mail Insider’s List. If you no longer wish to receive this information, send an e-mail reply to me (tim@hoffleigh.com) and ask to be removed. Alternatively, if you know someone who could benefit from the receipt of this information, forward this e-mail to them, and suggest they contact us, so we can consider adding them to our exclusive list.
All Market Average Office Building Sale Price PSF = $110.96 (DOWN from $111.05 last week.)
We are currently tracking 145 office buildings for sale.
This is 1,496,446 square feet, which represents a total market value of $166,995,083.
All Market Average Industrial Building Sale Price PSF = $82.97 (UP from $82.23 last week.)
We are currently tracking 141 industrial buildings for sale.
This is 1,727,459 square feet, which represents a total market value of $143,332,556.
To View Tim Leigh’s ad, please click below!
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/Tim%20Leigh.pdf
To view our most recent Colorado Springs Business Journal Ad please click below
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/10.2.09.pdf
Tim’s Market Report
OK! You caught me; I was out of the office last week. I went on the Chamber of Commerce’s annual Washington, DC, Legislative Action Trip. And visiting Washington, DC validates why we live in Colorado; clean air; no traffic; amiable, healthy, good-looking people; abundant opportunity; yada; yada; yada.
I flew out of Denver because Colorado Springs does not offer non-connecting flights (and I don’t like connectors – I miss too many of them) and as you may guess, (I’m a high-maintenance- traveler), I flew 1st Class. Of course, the airline with the animal on the tail says “All of our seats are 1st class!”
The flight was quick & dirty and I was only nominally worse-for-the-wear after 3 hours in a non-reclining seat. Arriving at the Fairmont Hotel, I scored an instant victory. I met Ian Pullan, the General Manager of its sister Fairmont http://www.fairmont.com/orchid in Kona, where I plan to spend a week in January recovering from the depths of the cold Colorado winter. Of course Ian and I “Good O’l Boy’d” each other nearly to death and of course, maybe, there’s a discount in my future!
The trip was a whirlwind but I managed to see the Capital Dome; The Mall and the surrounding memorials; Washington, Lincoln; The Wall; WWII and The Korean War Memorials. I saw the Declaration of Independence; The Constitution; The Bill of Rights; the Magna Carta; and a video of George Bush telling us that he’s the President and “No, I’m not going to eat my broccoli. I don’t like broccoli and my mother can’t make me eat it. I’m the President!”
I visited the National Gallery and saw Leonardo da Vinci’s “Ginevra de’ Benci”, which I was told is the only da Vinci in the US. http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=50724. I visited the National Cathedral and saw Bob’s marble likeness. (I actually met Bob in the hot-tub at the hotel and after remarking about how strong his pecs looked, he encouraged me to hunt-him-down.) Bob spent a lot of time rowing the Potomac in the old days and as it turned out, because he was so well muscled, he became the model for the statue of Adam in the marble mosaic on the side of the building.
I visited the Air & Space Museum and saw the Wright brother’s plane. (Bob Hoff claims that he actually knew the Wright brothers – no kidding; something about being older than dirt!). One of the most interesting facts I learned from visiting that exhibit was that without ice hockey, we’d have no airline or space industry. Seriously; Orville was injured in a hockey game and because his debilitating injury prevented him from further play, he became depressed and prone to deep thought. In his despond, he began formulating his thoughts about bikes & planes. Imagine if he hadn’t been injured . . .
I saw the most viewed tourist attraction (The Capital Dome) via a private tour with Representative Lamborn. The tour was awesome, the art-work amazing and Doug was very affable. We climbed 300 steps to the top of the inside of the capital dome. As we looked at the dome’s art-work, the tour guide told us the same artist painted both, the inside of the dome and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (Now, there’s some Washington-style salesmanship!) If the climb on the inside wasn’t scary enough (I hate heights!) we actually went outside and walked around the top of the dome at the foot of Lady Liberty’s feet. The highlight was the 2 Red Tailed hawks that provided us with a dazzling show of flight; crying a Colorado-shrill-song, they chased each other; stopped in mid-flight; performed 100% roll-overs and generally proved they were free. It was an appropriately choreographed drill as we looked across The Mall and across our nation’s capital.
And of course, as only I could, I managed to get my picture taken with your father in Washington - Barack Hussein Obama. Yup; I met him in the food-court. I guess he was shopping for some new shoes. Apparently he’s been doing a lot of tap dancing. Anyway, if you’d like, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you a copy. And, I saw the White House and I saw several outhouses (coincidentally located just adjacent to each other!)
I saw the largest scaffolding project I’ve ever seen. It was the renovation of the Vice President’s office building. I saw it after 3:00 PM, and while I couldn’t read the foreign language construction signs, I presume it was time for Dos Equis, Por favor, because there were no mas workers.
“The Wall” was surrounded by tourist; many of them looking suspiciously Vietnamese. And in a serious moment, I couldn’t help wonder what a waste that war was. The Korean War Memorial was creepy. It’s a platoon of life-sized soldiers trudging forward through tall-grass from a heavily-treed area. I saw it in darkening light so it took on the surreal, foreboding look of an actual war scene. The faces of the soldiers were anguished and terror struck. I could imagine each guy thinking, “What the . . .”
There were good times; starting with the 1st reception to the wrap-up luncheon. The food was terrific, including “a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a chocolate (light on the chocolate, please) milk shake” from room service; to the “Bananas” (some kind of weird crepe, filled with Argentine beef and some “other stuff”), served by the Argentinean Embassy.
And, by the way, if you’re looking for a great real estate opportunity, look no further. The Argentinean Embassy is a fixer-upper of the 1st order. I was amazed at the run-down condition of the embassy’s physical plant. Paint pealing everywhere; I actually tripped walking up a flight of stairs, catching my foot on a loose floor board. The condition of the building spoke volumes about Argentina’s true political & financial condition. Further evidence was presented when I was told that the room-rental-payment for this fete (made by the Chamber), had to be made in-cash. Not a cashier’s check; cash. Hmm. . . Apparently, the CFO said he didn’t understand how the American Banking system worked and required cash. Hmm. Hmm.
So many highlights; so little time. . . I was very impressed with the Secretary of the Interior’s presentation. Oh, yes; Secretary Salazar’s a smooth dude, but, what was impressive was his art collection. According to good authority (John Hazelhurst), he had at least a couple million dollars worth of art in his personal office. Now here’s an idea; let’s hold a Capital Hill garage sale. Heck, if we rifle through enough Big Shot offices, I’ll bet we’d rake in enough to take a meaningful stab correcting our foreign trade deficit.
The reception at the Pew Trust building was amazing, not because the food was great, (because it was merely mediocre), but because it allowed a look at world class architecture. The building featured glass everywhere including in-the-staircases. There are no rival buildings in Colorado Springs that come-close, and while looking at “what’s possible” energized me, it also made me feel (architecturally) like we’re living in Mayberry, RFD.
On to the Brookings Institute and a presentation about Mountain Megapolitan areas, of which the Boulder; Denver; Colorado Springs corridor is one. They told us that there are 5 such areas in the Intermountain West and that they are becoming the new “Mid-West” with strengthening financial & political clout as the Mid-West continues its slide into ignominy & anonymity.
Their story is, “people are tiring of fighting the West (that would be California) and are moving in great numbers to the new Intermountain-West Megapolitan areas”. This migration bodes well for those areas that can capture the economic development opportunities that attend such mass migration. It was interesting to note that these guys spoke about Regionalization from a financial, political, economic development and marketing perspective and they included Colorado Springs with Metro-Denver. They specifically excluded Pueblo saying that their studies indicate that Pueblo will continue to “left-behind” mostly because of the education (blue collar work is “out”; white collar, entrepreneurial, innovative workers are “in”) of their work force. On the other hand, Secretary Salazar promoted the idea of Regionalization but included Colorado Springs with Pueblo and the Arkansas Valley. Maybe this regionalization idea has some merit. Hmm.
We were briefed by Joseph Calcara (Assistant Secretary of Defense). Mr. Calcara is the guy who (literally) signs the check for any large military program dealing with real estate. Can you say “Pinon Canyon”? He said the department of defense loves Ft Carson and there are no plans to “BRAC-it” or downsize it because the Army loves our geography and our people. But, he said we have a gigantic wart in the middle of our collective forehead when it comes to funding new, long-term projects at Ft Carson. The wart is our inability to deliver the Pinon Canyon.
He went on to say, “The Army doesn’t want Pinon as a land-grab, they want it because it mirrors the fighting conditions present in Afghanistan”. He said our inability to “deliver the goods” has already caused Ft Carson to lose $15,000,000, which was budgeted and earmarked for Ft Carson but found its way to Fort Polk instead. He also said, “Obtaining Pinon from a national defense position is critical because we’ll be in Afghanistan for at least the next 10 years”. That’s something to think about as you watch the President sing & dance around this issue.
He laid out a bleak financial picture. He spoke about allocating military dollars in general and how there would be less to spread-around in the future because of our soaring national debt and the attendant interest payments that will be required to service that debt; and how onerous those payments will become because of the market demand for higher interest. He predicted that within the next 3 - 4 years, we could expect national (annual) interest payments near $1 Trillion dollars! http://www.pgpf.org/about/nationaldebt/ That being said, the natural conclusion is that there will be fewer dollars in discretionary military spending that could enhance our community.
We were briefed by men-in-blue, who are trying to figure out how to link cyber technology (everything from the web to phones to anything with electronic linkage) as a national security issue. The air force has taken the lead in the conversation with about 1,500 people currently working on solutions. This is going to be a growth area in the military & private sector. Eventually, they expect to employ something like 35,000 engineers and other bright, computer geeks. Obviously, the demand for electrical engineers will be huge. The gross demand for a smart, creative class will be huge; and since Colorado Springs is currently considered the intellectual home for the Air Force, and since we have world class educational facilities in our hood, you could make a pretty compelling argument that there’s a significant opportunity for us to provide a lot of those needed “quality employees”.
We were briefed by a guy who said, “Without reservation, we should expect our energy costs to double in the next 10 years.” We were told that the President is finally figuring out that his #1 job is “protecting and defending the American people” and that a lot of policy will be driven by that goal. Representative Lamborn reiterated that the National Cemetery is on track. It’s going to be located just south of Colorado Springs but north of the Pueblo County line. He said there will be a new ICE office opening in Colorado Springs. (Psst - somebody needs to pass this on to him – it’s already here – at the corner of Wahsatch & Pikes Peak.)
I pitched my Big Idea to Brian Appel, Senator Bennet’s legislative counsel for the Finance Committee. My idea is so simple that I’m surprised it hasn’t yet been vetted. It’s the idea of putting FHA-style lending on small, owner-occupied commercial buildings
These loans would require less money down (3% in most cases); would fix the interest rate for 30 years; would fix the monthly payment (unless there was a local tax increase) for 30 years; would allow the buyer to sensibly plan his financial future; would allow the borrower to earn real equity over time because of the amortizing effect of the loan; would cause a tremendous, immediate flow of funds from refinancing; (and) would provide the national economy with another bubble option with great opportunities for thievery, graft and corruption – imagine the possibilities - these loans could be bundled and resold several times! Frankly, I can’t think of one reason not to enact my program.
Michele Bachmann is the 1st republican woman elected to the US House from Minnesota. John Hazelhurst and I were looking for someone famous to meet and he told me she was in the hallway, (and I naturally presumed she was looking for a job). I took the cue and introduced myself. She remembers Tony Kinkel. (Tony’s fame comes from his tenure as the State Senator from Cass Lake, Minnesota, where you can buy a 3 bedroom house for $5,000 and where LeRoy’s minnows are guaranteed to catch fish or die trying. She is Sara’s heir apparent; she’s bright, articulate and easy on your eyes. She is married to a dairy farmer who no longer milks cows. Sounds like “Green Acres is the place to be; farm living is the life for me!”
The stated purpose of the trip was to learn about economic vitality, entrepreneurship and innovation. And I came away with the realization that there will be a couple of central drivers in our economy, in the future; health care (and health care-related industry) and energy (our quest for energy independence and our quest for innovative and sustainable new ways to power the physical machine that drives our economic system). It’s now apparent that what we’re doing ain’t working. And it’s become apparent that we need some type of technological renaissance to lead us into a long-term, financially sustainable and globally competitive economy. (I can say that and look smart, not because I am, but because there’s an historical precedent for this.) If you merely look back to the 1920’s and the electrification of the US, the discovery and innovations brought about by oil, the auto, etc, and you can predict where we’re heading.
Returning from Washington was a treat, but trying to “put on a happy face” in the midst of the controversy surrounding the various tax policy issues our city faces in the midst of continuing, local, financial & business deterioration is a trick. Just last night, I was told by a friend of mine who owns a large electrical contracting company, except for his government contracts, he would have to shut his doors and lay-off around 150 guys. Now there’s a scary Halloween thought.
Have a profitable week!
Sincerely,
TJL
Tim Leigh
719-337-9551
Tim@HoffLeigh.com
Hoff & Leigh, Inc.
Leasing, Sales, Management, Buyer or Tenant Representation
4445 Northpark Drive, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO USA 80907
10.04.09
Attached is our complete listing of all properties for sale in Colorado Springs, based on property type - office, industrial and condo. This is the most complete listing that we are aware of. It’s our goal to provide this information, updated weekly. We develop these lists by basic research and cross-checking data points from the PPCIE, local broker's individual web sites, The Turner Book and any other public information domain we can find.
You are receiving this information because, at some point, you asked or a friend referred your name to be included in our e-mail Insider’s List. If you no longer wish to receive this information, send an e-mail reply to me (tim@hoffleigh.com) and ask to be removed. Alternatively, if you know someone who could benefit from the receipt of this information, forward this e-mail to them, and suggest they contact us, so we can consider adding them to our exclusive list.
All Market Average Office Building Sale Price PSF = $110.96 (DOWN from $111.05 last week.)
We are currently tracking 145 office buildings for sale.
This is 1,496,446 square feet, which represents a total market value of $166,995,083.
All Market Average Industrial Building Sale Price PSF = $82.97 (UP from $82.23 last week.)
We are currently tracking 141 industrial buildings for sale.
This is 1,727,459 square feet, which represents a total market value of $143,332,556.
To View Tim Leigh’s ad, please click below!
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/Tim%20Leigh.pdf
To view our most recent Colorado Springs Business Journal Ad please click below
http://hoffleigh.com/Doc/10.2.09.pdf
Tim’s Market Report
OK! You caught me; I was out of the office last week. I went on the Chamber of Commerce’s annual Washington, DC, Legislative Action Trip. And visiting Washington, DC validates why we live in Colorado; clean air; no traffic; amiable, healthy, good-looking people; abundant opportunity; yada; yada; yada.
I flew out of Denver because Colorado Springs does not offer non-connecting flights (and I don’t like connectors – I miss too many of them) and as you may guess, (I’m a high-maintenance- traveler), I flew 1st Class. Of course, the airline with the animal on the tail says “All of our seats are 1st class!”
The flight was quick & dirty and I was only nominally worse-for-the-wear after 3 hours in a non-reclining seat. Arriving at the Fairmont Hotel, I scored an instant victory. I met Ian Pullan, the General Manager of its sister Fairmont http://www.fairmont.com/orchid in Kona, where I plan to spend a week in January recovering from the depths of the cold Colorado winter. Of course Ian and I “Good O’l Boy’d” each other nearly to death and of course, maybe, there’s a discount in my future!
The trip was a whirlwind but I managed to see the Capital Dome; The Mall and the surrounding memorials; Washington, Lincoln; The Wall; WWII and The Korean War Memorials. I saw the Declaration of Independence; The Constitution; The Bill of Rights; the Magna Carta; and a video of George Bush telling us that he’s the President and “No, I’m not going to eat my broccoli. I don’t like broccoli and my mother can’t make me eat it. I’m the President!”
I visited the National Gallery and saw Leonardo da Vinci’s “Ginevra de’ Benci”, which I was told is the only da Vinci in the US. http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=50724. I visited the National Cathedral and saw Bob’s marble likeness. (I actually met Bob in the hot-tub at the hotel and after remarking about how strong his pecs looked, he encouraged me to hunt-him-down.) Bob spent a lot of time rowing the Potomac in the old days and as it turned out, because he was so well muscled, he became the model for the statue of Adam in the marble mosaic on the side of the building.
I visited the Air & Space Museum and saw the Wright brother’s plane. (Bob Hoff claims that he actually knew the Wright brothers – no kidding; something about being older than dirt!). One of the most interesting facts I learned from visiting that exhibit was that without ice hockey, we’d have no airline or space industry. Seriously; Orville was injured in a hockey game and because his debilitating injury prevented him from further play, he became depressed and prone to deep thought. In his despond, he began formulating his thoughts about bikes & planes. Imagine if he hadn’t been injured . . .
I saw the most viewed tourist attraction (The Capital Dome) via a private tour with Representative Lamborn. The tour was awesome, the art-work amazing and Doug was very affable. We climbed 300 steps to the top of the inside of the capital dome. As we looked at the dome’s art-work, the tour guide told us the same artist painted both, the inside of the dome and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (Now, there’s some Washington-style salesmanship!) If the climb on the inside wasn’t scary enough (I hate heights!) we actually went outside and walked around the top of the dome at the foot of Lady Liberty’s feet. The highlight was the 2 Red Tailed hawks that provided us with a dazzling show of flight; crying a Colorado-shrill-song, they chased each other; stopped in mid-flight; performed 100% roll-overs and generally proved they were free. It was an appropriately choreographed drill as we looked across The Mall and across our nation’s capital.
And of course, as only I could, I managed to get my picture taken with your father in Washington - Barack Hussein Obama. Yup; I met him in the food-court. I guess he was shopping for some new shoes. Apparently he’s been doing a lot of tap dancing. Anyway, if you’d like, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you a copy. And, I saw the White House and I saw several outhouses (coincidentally located just adjacent to each other!)
I saw the largest scaffolding project I’ve ever seen. It was the renovation of the Vice President’s office building. I saw it after 3:00 PM, and while I couldn’t read the foreign language construction signs, I presume it was time for Dos Equis, Por favor, because there were no mas workers.
“The Wall” was surrounded by tourist; many of them looking suspiciously Vietnamese. And in a serious moment, I couldn’t help wonder what a waste that war was. The Korean War Memorial was creepy. It’s a platoon of life-sized soldiers trudging forward through tall-grass from a heavily-treed area. I saw it in darkening light so it took on the surreal, foreboding look of an actual war scene. The faces of the soldiers were anguished and terror struck. I could imagine each guy thinking, “What the . . .”
There were good times; starting with the 1st reception to the wrap-up luncheon. The food was terrific, including “a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a chocolate (light on the chocolate, please) milk shake” from room service; to the “Bananas” (some kind of weird crepe, filled with Argentine beef and some “other stuff”), served by the Argentinean Embassy.
And, by the way, if you’re looking for a great real estate opportunity, look no further. The Argentinean Embassy is a fixer-upper of the 1st order. I was amazed at the run-down condition of the embassy’s physical plant. Paint pealing everywhere; I actually tripped walking up a flight of stairs, catching my foot on a loose floor board. The condition of the building spoke volumes about Argentina’s true political & financial condition. Further evidence was presented when I was told that the room-rental-payment for this fete (made by the Chamber), had to be made in-cash. Not a cashier’s check; cash. Hmm. . . Apparently, the CFO said he didn’t understand how the American Banking system worked and required cash. Hmm. Hmm.
So many highlights; so little time. . . I was very impressed with the Secretary of the Interior’s presentation. Oh, yes; Secretary Salazar’s a smooth dude, but, what was impressive was his art collection. According to good authority (John Hazelhurst), he had at least a couple million dollars worth of art in his personal office. Now here’s an idea; let’s hold a Capital Hill garage sale. Heck, if we rifle through enough Big Shot offices, I’ll bet we’d rake in enough to take a meaningful stab correcting our foreign trade deficit.
The reception at the Pew Trust building was amazing, not because the food was great, (because it was merely mediocre), but because it allowed a look at world class architecture. The building featured glass everywhere including in-the-staircases. There are no rival buildings in Colorado Springs that come-close, and while looking at “what’s possible” energized me, it also made me feel (architecturally) like we’re living in Mayberry, RFD.
On to the Brookings Institute and a presentation about Mountain Megapolitan areas, of which the Boulder; Denver; Colorado Springs corridor is one. They told us that there are 5 such areas in the Intermountain West and that they are becoming the new “Mid-West” with strengthening financial & political clout as the Mid-West continues its slide into ignominy & anonymity.
Their story is, “people are tiring of fighting the West (that would be California) and are moving in great numbers to the new Intermountain-West Megapolitan areas”. This migration bodes well for those areas that can capture the economic development opportunities that attend such mass migration. It was interesting to note that these guys spoke about Regionalization from a financial, political, economic development and marketing perspective and they included Colorado Springs with Metro-Denver. They specifically excluded Pueblo saying that their studies indicate that Pueblo will continue to “left-behind” mostly because of the education (blue collar work is “out”; white collar, entrepreneurial, innovative workers are “in”) of their work force. On the other hand, Secretary Salazar promoted the idea of Regionalization but included Colorado Springs with Pueblo and the Arkansas Valley. Maybe this regionalization idea has some merit. Hmm.
We were briefed by Joseph Calcara (Assistant Secretary of Defense). Mr. Calcara is the guy who (literally) signs the check for any large military program dealing with real estate. Can you say “Pinon Canyon”? He said the department of defense loves Ft Carson and there are no plans to “BRAC-it” or downsize it because the Army loves our geography and our people. But, he said we have a gigantic wart in the middle of our collective forehead when it comes to funding new, long-term projects at Ft Carson. The wart is our inability to deliver the Pinon Canyon.
He went on to say, “The Army doesn’t want Pinon as a land-grab, they want it because it mirrors the fighting conditions present in Afghanistan”. He said our inability to “deliver the goods” has already caused Ft Carson to lose $15,000,000, which was budgeted and earmarked for Ft Carson but found its way to Fort Polk instead. He also said, “Obtaining Pinon from a national defense position is critical because we’ll be in Afghanistan for at least the next 10 years”. That’s something to think about as you watch the President sing & dance around this issue.
He laid out a bleak financial picture. He spoke about allocating military dollars in general and how there would be less to spread-around in the future because of our soaring national debt and the attendant interest payments that will be required to service that debt; and how onerous those payments will become because of the market demand for higher interest. He predicted that within the next 3 - 4 years, we could expect national (annual) interest payments near $1 Trillion dollars! http://www.pgpf.org/about/nationaldebt/ That being said, the natural conclusion is that there will be fewer dollars in discretionary military spending that could enhance our community.
We were briefed by men-in-blue, who are trying to figure out how to link cyber technology (everything from the web to phones to anything with electronic linkage) as a national security issue. The air force has taken the lead in the conversation with about 1,500 people currently working on solutions. This is going to be a growth area in the military & private sector. Eventually, they expect to employ something like 35,000 engineers and other bright, computer geeks. Obviously, the demand for electrical engineers will be huge. The gross demand for a smart, creative class will be huge; and since Colorado Springs is currently considered the intellectual home for the Air Force, and since we have world class educational facilities in our hood, you could make a pretty compelling argument that there’s a significant opportunity for us to provide a lot of those needed “quality employees”.
We were briefed by a guy who said, “Without reservation, we should expect our energy costs to double in the next 10 years.” We were told that the President is finally figuring out that his #1 job is “protecting and defending the American people” and that a lot of policy will be driven by that goal. Representative Lamborn reiterated that the National Cemetery is on track. It’s going to be located just south of Colorado Springs but north of the Pueblo County line. He said there will be a new ICE office opening in Colorado Springs. (Psst - somebody needs to pass this on to him – it’s already here – at the corner of Wahsatch & Pikes Peak.)
I pitched my Big Idea to Brian Appel, Senator Bennet’s legislative counsel for the Finance Committee. My idea is so simple that I’m surprised it hasn’t yet been vetted. It’s the idea of putting FHA-style lending on small, owner-occupied commercial buildings
These loans would require less money down (3% in most cases); would fix the interest rate for 30 years; would fix the monthly payment (unless there was a local tax increase) for 30 years; would allow the buyer to sensibly plan his financial future; would allow the borrower to earn real equity over time because of the amortizing effect of the loan; would cause a tremendous, immediate flow of funds from refinancing; (and) would provide the national economy with another bubble option with great opportunities for thievery, graft and corruption – imagine the possibilities - these loans could be bundled and resold several times! Frankly, I can’t think of one reason not to enact my program.
Michele Bachmann is the 1st republican woman elected to the US House from Minnesota. John Hazelhurst and I were looking for someone famous to meet and he told me she was in the hallway, (and I naturally presumed she was looking for a job). I took the cue and introduced myself. She remembers Tony Kinkel. (Tony’s fame comes from his tenure as the State Senator from Cass Lake, Minnesota, where you can buy a 3 bedroom house for $5,000 and where LeRoy’s minnows are guaranteed to catch fish or die trying. She is Sara’s heir apparent; she’s bright, articulate and easy on your eyes. She is married to a dairy farmer who no longer milks cows. Sounds like “Green Acres is the place to be; farm living is the life for me!”
The stated purpose of the trip was to learn about economic vitality, entrepreneurship and innovation. And I came away with the realization that there will be a couple of central drivers in our economy, in the future; health care (and health care-related industry) and energy (our quest for energy independence and our quest for innovative and sustainable new ways to power the physical machine that drives our economic system). It’s now apparent that what we’re doing ain’t working. And it’s become apparent that we need some type of technological renaissance to lead us into a long-term, financially sustainable and globally competitive economy. (I can say that and look smart, not because I am, but because there’s an historical precedent for this.) If you merely look back to the 1920’s and the electrification of the US, the discovery and innovations brought about by oil, the auto, etc, and you can predict where we’re heading.
Returning from Washington was a treat, but trying to “put on a happy face” in the midst of the controversy surrounding the various tax policy issues our city faces in the midst of continuing, local, financial & business deterioration is a trick. Just last night, I was told by a friend of mine who owns a large electrical contracting company, except for his government contracts, he would have to shut his doors and lay-off around 150 guys. Now there’s a scary Halloween thought.
Have a profitable week!
Sincerely,
TJL
Tim Leigh
719-337-9551
Tim@HoffLeigh.com
