Senior Citizen Home Improvement Is ‘Changing Lives’ | News, Sports, Jobs

Senior Citizen Home Improvement Is ‘Changing Lives’ | News, Sports, Jobs

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The Town Council talked about the results of the Senior Citizen Household Advancement plan that has been wildly preferred in the community for the duration of Monday’s do the job session. Pictured, from left, are City Councilman William Reynolds, R-Ward V, and Housing Committee Chairwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV.
P-J picture by Timothy Frudd

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The Senior Citizen Home Improvement method seems to be building a key affect in the local community.

Although the Housing Committee did not meet up with through Monday’s Metropolis Council function session due to the distinctive conference session on the 2023 finances, the Metropolis Council mentioned the profitable implementation of the Senior Citizen Household Advancement software.

During November’s voting session, the Town Council an more $500,000 in American Rescue Prepare Act funding for the Senior Citizen House Enhancement Incentive method. By allocating an supplemental $500,000 in ARPA funding, the City Council was equipped to carry the entire allotment of the Senior Citizen Household Improvement Incentive software to $1.5 million.

The further funding was handed in get to deal with the remaining assignments by authorised candidates that were being set on maintain until additional funding was created accessible by the Town Council.

Very last week, Mayor Eddie Sundquist instructed City Council associates that letters experienced been mailed to every of the accepted candidates, letting them know that the extra funding had been produced out there less than the Senior Citizen House Improvement plan.

“I consider anyone who was authorized ought to have had letters mailed very last 7 days and should really have been given them by now.” Housing Committee Chairwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV, stated in the course of this week’s conference. “I do have a record of all the homes, and I consider it’s at the very least 193 residents that have been authorised for money for possibly the aged or senior approval.”

Carrubba claimed credit score should go to everyone associated in the Senior Citizen Home Improvement venture, which include workers in the Office of Advancement, the City Council and Lisa Volpe’s office.

“It’s obviously superior information to think that 193 residents are getting assistance with a range of tasks that will enable, like a wheelchair ramp for an individual, which is quite in the vicinity of and pricey to me in terms of accessibility,” she claimed.

Town Councilwoman Kim Ecklund, R-At Large, asked the city administration if the reimbursement course of action has been started for people underneath the Senior Citizen Home Advancement application. Sundquist explained that the reimbursement procedure is underway and that some of the tasks have now been finished.

“We’ve received some wonderful playing cards from some individuals that required extremely small enhancements but have truly adjusted their lives,” he stated. “It’s genuinely a fantastic system.”

The Metropolis Council has built the Senior Citizen Household Enhancement Incentive system a major priority around the past many months, presented the accomplishment and popularity of the plan with Jamestown citizens. Right after thoroughly funding the method previous month, council members have been happy with preliminary the results of the application.

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6 reasons why senior homeowners should consider a personal loan for home improvements

6 reasons why senior homeowners should consider a personal loan for home improvements

A home improvement personal loan can be a good way for seniors to finance home repair or remodeling projects at a low, fixed interest rate. (Shutterstock)

Aging houses need regular maintenance and improvement — to keep you safe, to make your home more comfortable to live in, and to preserve the value of your investment. If you don’t like the idea of risking your home equity in your senior years, a home improvement loan can be a good option for financing your project. 

Here’s how a home improvement loan works and why you might choose one to finance home renovations or repairs.

What’s a home improvement loan and how does it work?

A home improvement loan is a type of personal loan that you can use to pay for repair, renovation or remodeling projects. 

Home improvement loans are generally unsecured, meaning you don’t pledge any of your property as collateral when you take out the loan. Instead, the amount you can borrow and the interest rate you pay are based on your credit history, debt-to-income ratio and other factors. 

Visit Credible to see your prequalified personal loan rates from various lenders, all in one place.

Home improvement loan vs. home equity loan

Home improvement loans are distinct from other types of loans you may use to fix up your home, such as a home equity loan, home equity line of credit or cash-out refinance. With these loan options, the amount you can borrow is based on how much equity you have in your home – the difference between how much you owe on your mortgage and how much the home is worth.

  • Home equity loan — A home equity loan is secured by your property. You’ll typically borrow a home equity loan as a lump sum and pay it back at a fixed rate over a period of time.
  • Home equity line of credit (HELOC) — A HELOC is also secured by your property, but it works more like a credit card. You can borrow against your line of credit as needed during a set period of time, known as the draw period.
  • Cash-out refinance — With a cash-out refinance, you take out a new mortgage for a higher amount than you currently owe. Your new mortgage pays off and replaces the one you currently have, and the difference in the two amounts come to you as cash that you can use for any purpose, including fixing up your home.

WHAT IS A HOME EQUITY LOAN AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

6 reasons for seniors to choose a home improvement loan

Depending on your financial circumstances, a home improvement loan can be an excellent choice for seniors looking to finance home repairs or remodeling projects. Here are six reasons why a home improvement loan may be the best option for you:

  1. You can preserve your home equity. You’ve worked hard to build up the equity in your home. But when you use a home equity loan, you eat into that equity, meaning you’ll make less if you need to sell the home. You’ll also have less equity available if you need to borrow again in the future. Home improvement loans preserve your equity for when you really need it.
  2. You don’t risk losing your home. Since home improvement loans are unsecured, you don’t risk losing your home to foreclosure if you fail to make your payments.
  3. You can get a lower interest rate than a credit card. Credit cards have significantly higher interest rates than home improvement loans. If you wouldn’t be able to pay off your home project by the time your credit card balance is due, a home improvement loan can help you save money in interest payments.
  4. Your loan can be funded quickly. Most home improvement lenders allow you to apply online in just a few minutes and get a decision nearly instantaneously. Some types of home equity loans require an appraisal and closing costs, and can take 30 days or more to close.
  5. Your monthly payment won’t change. Most home improvement loans have fixed interest rates, so you’ll know exactly what your monthly payment will be for as long as you have the loan. This amount won’t change, no matter what happens to interest rates in the market.
  6. You won’t have prepayment penalties. Most home improvement loans don’t include prepayment penalties, so you can pay off your loan as quickly as you’d like.

Credible makes it easy to compare personal loan rates from various lenders, and it won’t affect your credit.

Where to get a home improvement loan

To find a home improvement loan, look for a personal loan lender. Many personal loan lenders market their products specifically for paying for home improvement projects. 

The following 12 Credible partner lenders offer home improvement loans:

Avant

  • Loan amounts: $2,000 to $35,000
  • Loan terms: 2 to 5 years

Axos

  • Loan amounts: $10,000 to $50,000
  • Loan terms: 3 to 6 years

Best Egg

  • Loan amounts: $2,000 to $50,000
  • Loan terms: 2 to 5 years

Discover

  • Loan amounts: $2,500 to $35,000
  • Loan terms: 3 to 7 years

Marcus by Goldman Sachs

  • Loan amounts: $3,500 to $40,000
  • Loan terms: 3 to 6 years

OneMain Financial

  • Loan amounts: $1,500 to $20,000
  • Loan terms: 2 to 5 years

PenFed

  • Loan amounts: $600 to $50,000
  • Loan terms: 1 to 5 years

Prosper

  • Loan amounts: $2,000 to $40,000
  • Loan terms: 3 or 5 years

SoFi

  • Loan amounts: $5,000 to $100,000
  • Loan terms: 2 to 7 years

Universal Credit

  • Loan amounts: $1,000 to $50,000
  • Loan terms: 3 to 5 years

Upgrade

  • Loan amounts: $1,000 to $50,000
  • Loan terms: 2 to 6 years

Upstart

  • Loan amounts: $1,000 to $50,000
  • Loan terms: 3 to 5 years

How to get a home improvement loan

If you’re ready to get a home improvement loan to pay for your project, follow these five steps to help make sure you get the best deal:

  1. Check your credit. Home improvement loan decisions are based primarily on your credit history. You can request free copies of your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus using a site like AnnualCreditReport.com. Look carefully through the reports and make sure there are no errors, like incorrect balances or accounts listed as past due that are actually current. If you do find a mistake, you can dispute the information with the credit bureau and have it corrected.
  2. Get prequalified for a loan. Most personal loan lenders allow you to get prequalified with a simple online form. This will let you know how much you’re likely to be able to borrow, and at what interest rate. You can apply with several different lenders to see the rates and terms you may be offered.
  3. Select the best loan. With loan offers in hand, select the one that works best for you. The best home improvement loans have the lowest interest rate and lowest (or no) fees.
  4. Fill out a full loan application. Once you’ve picked the lender you’d like to borrow from, you’ll complete a full application. Your lender will let you know if you need to provide any additional information, such as documentation of your income.
  5. Receive your money. Most personal loan lenders will deposit your loan funds directly into your bank account within a few days. Once you get the money, you can start hiring contractors and completing your home improvement project.

If you’re ready to apply for a personal loan to make home improvements, Credible lets you quickly and easily compare personal loan rates to find one that suits your needs.

I’m a senior economist at Zillow. Here are 3 things home buyers should know about the housing market now

I’m a senior economist at Zillow. Here are 3 things home buyers should know about the housing market now

In this sequence, we ask a assortment of authentic estate economists what they assume potential buyers and sellers should really know about the housing sector now.


Jeff Tucker

House charges have been on a continuous climb upward, as have property finance loan premiums (you can find the cheapest fees you might qualify for listed here), and several People who are pondering about shopping for are no doubt wondering: What ought to I anticipate? So, as portion of our sequence the place we communicate to genuine estate economists about the housing marketplace now, we requested Zillow’s senior economist, Jeff Tucker — who has put in the the past 10 years studying the forces shaping the American housing market, like domestic formation, homeownership and housing offer — to share his perspective.

Prospective buyers need to put together for higher month-to-month expenses

There’s no question that home finance loan prices are climbing immediately just after hitting a file small in 2020 and remaining around 3{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9} for a 30-12 months home loan for substantially of the earlier two yrs, holding payments in examine. But 3{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9} mortgages are a detail of the earlier. “Now the normal 30-yr level is over 5{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9}, which usually means much bigger month to month costs for any provided acquire value. Browsing around for a home loan to come across the finest fee can bring sizeable price savings and employing a property finance loan calculator can assistance a buyer keep up to date on what they can afford,” suggests Tucker. (You can find the cheapest home loan rates you may qualify for in this article.)

Even with growing charges, there is nevertheless a large amount of levels of competition in the current market

Certainly, need is still sky superior. The median vendor is accepting a acquire offer you considerably less than one particular 7 days just after listing their home for sale, says Tucker. “There will be a place when the charge of acquiring a dwelling deters adequate prospective buyers to carry price tag expansion back again down to Earth, but for now there’s lots of fuel in the tank,” states Tucker. 

What’s far more, need should continue being significant thanks to generational demographics, he says. “There’s a significant wave of millennials ageing into their prime residence-getting many years and newborn boomers are additional energetic in the housing market than earlier generations. And stock has a extensive way to capture up from a lot more than a ten years of less than-creating next the mid-2000s housing crash, which means source and desire realities will keep pressure on charges for the foreseeable long run,” suggests Tucker.

He provides that even even though the spring home buying time is here and extra households are staying detailed, inventory is continue to exceptionally low. The lengthy-awaited seasonal inventory increase at last arrived in March just after six consecutive months of slipping inventory, he claims: “But inventory was much less than 50 percent what it was in March 2019.”

For the reason that it’s still a seller’s market, purchasers should really anticipate level of competition for residences they’re intrigued in. “Being well prepared with financing and ideally receiving pre-accepted from a loan company not only can give a purchaser additional certainty about what they can find the money for but it presents sellers more self-confidence in the offer which can thrust that offer you above the major in a competitive condition,” suggests Tucker. (You can obtain the least expensive home finance loan fees you might qualify for here.)

Property selling prices may possibly amazing, but they probably won’t fall

Nonetheless, he states this is not a bubble and he does not assume residence costs will drop. “The mix of more new residences becoming developed, bigger rates and rising home loan prices should really assist toss chilly h2o on the market in the around foreseeable future.” claims Tucker. This will direct to a cooldown in rate expansion, but not a selling price drop, he predicts.

If you are seeking to acquire now, Tucker claims it is important to determine out a funds for the utmost total you ready to shell out on a residence. “The the greater part of residences are now offering previously mentioned checklist cost, so customers really should give on their own some area to escalate from competing gives if required. Usually, they threat getting shut out repeatedly, losing valuable weeks of difficult property browsing hard work,” states Tucker.

I’m the senior economist for Realtor.com. 5 things to know about the housing market

I’m the senior economist for Realtor.com. 5 things to know about the housing market

George Ratiu is the senior economist and supervisor of economic research at Realtor.com.


Real estate agent.com

For a lot more than 15 a long time, George Ratiu has been researching the housing current market. He’s the senior economist and manager of financial investigate at Real estate agent.com, the place he focuses on trends in global economies and real estate markets. He’s also a previous supervisor of investigation courses at the National Association of Realtors, where by he specialized in housing figures, global and industrial real estate current market general performance and additional. (Realtor.com is owned by the identical father or mother organization as MarketWatch.)

So we questioned Ratiu: What do buyers have to have to know about the actual estate market place now? (See the lowest mortgage loan fees you could possibly qualify for in this article.)

1. Home loan rates will likely continue on to increase

“The surge in rates pushed the monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced house $550 increased than a yr ago, a substantial enhance thinking of that most households are also emotion the squeeze of higher rates for food items, gasoline, cars and trucks and garments. Just as importantly, prices are envisioned to go on rising as the Federal Reserve tightens credit history movement,” says Ratiu, who predicts that if the tempo of improves continues, we could before long see a 6{d4d1dfc03659490934346f23c59135b993ced5bc8cc26281e129c43fe68630c9} charge on 30-12 months loans. 

2. There aren’t enough houses for sale — which tends to make your alternatives far more restricted

One thing to continue to keep in mind is that inventory remains limited as the range of homes for sale is still down below last yr when customers were competing intensely. “The principal explanation for this scarcity is the truth that builders have not matched the tempo of development to populace and residence development more than the previous ten years,” states Ratiu. In point, there’s a shortfall of virtually 6 million houses, according to investigation from Real estate agent.com, and that helps make it tough to come across more than enough homes for all the customers wanting for a residence.

3. House prices will possible keep likely up in a lot of markets, but not practically as rapid

Ratiu predicts that costs will also continue to improve thanks to the point that there are even now more purchasers than houses for sale. “In quite a few marketplaces across the state, potential buyers are obtaining that they might nevertheless be outbid by somebody with a money give or a larger down payment,” claims Ratiu. 

But owing to sharp improves in curiosity prices and inflation, he says we’re nearing the major of the selling price progress curve. “In some markets, sellers are acquiring that buyers are commencing to commit more time seeking and are considerably less inclined to waive contingencies, insisting on house inspections and asking owners to deal with a property’s shortcomings,” claims Ratiu. What’s additional, he says in about a dozen cities across the region charges have declined above the earlier few months, an sign that the market place is beginning to return toward far more stability.

“We can count on price ranges to carry on soaring in the months forward. For individuals, the base line is that larger expenditures are leaving a lot less dollars in their pocket at the stop of each individual thirty day period, just as rents and property prices proceed mounting at double-digit costs,” claims Ratiu. 

See the cheapest mortgage loan charges you might qualify for right here.

4. Sellers will nevertheless have an benefit, but it won’t be pretty so excessive

Sellers are probably to retain the upper hand in most marketplaces throughout the place. On the other hand, their gain is setting up to wane supplied the mix of high selling prices and better fascination fees — which are pricing thousands and thousands of buyers out of the market. Ratiu claims the slowdown in need is recognizable as gross sales of both new and existing households have been declining above the past couple months. “Twenty per cent of home owners indicated that they prepare to shift forward with pandemic-delayed options this year and list their qualities for sale. The enhance in source will guide to more competitiveness amid sellers, shifting the market place additional in the direction of buyers,” states Ratiu.

5. Don’t permit FOMO land you in a dwelling you do not love

The principal takeaway for prospective buyers this yr is that housing markets are currently in a apparent transition from the frenzied tempo of 2021. With economical and economic pressures mounting, Ratiu says it is essential not to allow the worry of missing out direct you into hurrying what’s the greatest buy of most people’s lives. “The rate of new design is buying up, more property owners will be completely ready to checklist their homes and with mounting fascination charges, costs are by now adjusting to the slowdown in demand from customers. Patience is generally viewed as a advantage and may perhaps also be a critical component in this year’s search for a property,” suggests Ratiu.

Lowe’s Home Improvement donates ,000 to renovate senior citizen center at Odessa’s Old Town Hall | Columbia Basin

Lowe’s Home Improvement donates $68,000 to renovate senior citizen center at Odessa’s Old Town Hall | Columbia Basin

ODESSA – Lowe’s Residence Enhancement selected the metropolis of Odessa as 1 of its 100 Hometowns winners.

The 100 Hometowns plan is Lowe’s affect task system that money 100 unique neighborhood-based mostly endeavors across the U.S. as portion of its 100th birthday celebration. Odessa was only 1 of a few areas selected as a 100 Hometown recipient in the Pacific Northwest.

Task nominator Terri King says Lowe’s donated $68,000 to enable renovate Odessa’s Previous Town Corridor. The historic town corridor homes a senior citizen middle that was in dire need of staying modernized. Renovations bundled new flooring, construction of a massive door to open the area, new lights, new appliances, and electrical updates.






old town hall

Odessa’s Outdated City Hall from the outside 


The 100-year-outdated city hall is a put the community appears to be like upon with delight. The space is a haven for senior citizens to socialize, cook and engage in a wide range of work out classes. The senior center’s objective is to support its elderly group maintain excellent wellbeing, reduce loneliness, and make improvements to longevity.

“When our German ancestors recognized Odessa in 1900s, they remaining a legacy that continue to exists today,” stated job nominator Terri King. “It can be seen in the very long-time period investments made in the community around the last century: healthcare facility, nursing house, assisted-residing, school system, park, public swimming pool, Outdated City Hall, industrial park, golfing system, and a local community celebration that attracts 1000’s of individuals each 12 months. When other smaller communities are disappearing, Odessa has a dazzling potential. In Odessa, we know the grass isn’t often greener someplace else, fairly, we require to make the most of the group we have and nurture it so it proceeds to thrive.”

On Oct. 22, the city of Odessa will rejoice with an occasion referred to as “Renovation for the Senior Era,” at the Previous City Hall. The Lowe’s crew will maintain a Crimson Vest volunteer day for about a dozen of their workforce to assistance cleanse and place the developing back together commencing at 9 a.m. The thoroughly clean-up will be adopted by a group celebration at 11:30 a.m. which will understand Lowe’s, the volunteers that served, and the 100 persons/groups who donated an added $16,000. Those included in the renovation undertaking include things like volunteers with the neighborhood Lion’s Club, community users, and neighborhood college students.

 The renovation is just about complete.