Check out your renting profile based on your rent, your housing price increases, and the cost of buying your home! It is quite astounding that based on today’s estimated residential price appreciation rates, it may make more sense to keep on renting and save that extra money per month.

New funding and support for lead paint enforcement in the Burlington area. Areas outside Burlington will get notices and support in the coming months.

Sorrell announces compliance plan for lead paint

November 22, 2008
Free Press Staff Report

Attorney General William Sorrell announced Friday the creation of a Burlington-based project that will focus on enforcement of the state’s laws on lead safety.
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“Far too many children with lead poisoning come from the Burlington area,” Sorrell said. “This is a serious public health problem, and yet, one that can be avoided.”

Lead even in tiny amounts can affect brain development in children.

Lead-based paint is the primary way children become exposed to the toxic substance. Lead-based paint is still found in older homes and apartments even though it hasn’t been sold since 1978. Children may be exposed when paint chips away from window sills or door frames, or during renovations when lead dust is released.

Vermont law requires that certain steps be taken — essential maintenance practices — to protect against the release of lead in rental housing construction before 1978. Annual compliance reports are required.

Beginning in January, the Attorney General’s Office will send letters to Burlington landlords whose maintenance compliance records aren’t up to date. The first round of letters will be sent to the city’s largest landlords.

“The Burlington Lead Program and the Burlington Housing Authority offer resources, both educational and financial, to Burlington area landlords that can assist them as they bring their properties into compliance,” said Brian Pine, assistant director of housing in Burlington. “In many instances these resources have gone unnoticed and unused. Hopefully, as part of this project, more landlords will take advantage of the assistance and support these groups are willing to offer.”

Landlords in communities outside Burlington can expect to receive similar mailings later in the year.

More and more real estate professionals are realizing the importance of offering Broadband internet to their customers.

Renters should be asking their landlord about their broadband options so YOU don’t get caught by surprise.

Areas with better and faster broadband are becoming more desirable than ones with slower access.

Real estate broker Edward Redpath of Hanover, N.H. said he has seen potential deals fall by the wayside once the buyer finds out a home doesn’t have broadband Internet access. Across the river in Norwich, Vt., the center of the village is the only place with cable.

“We have a lot of people that don’t go into the rural neighborhoods or consider the rural neighborhoods because they need the broadband,” Redpath told the AP.

“Our lifestyle demands speed.”

Many factors are at play in driving the trend, including our increasing reliance on broadband. Indeed, roughly 55 percent of Americans have broadband connections in their homes, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. However, more have service available to them and choose not to buy it.

But the growth of broadband is slowing, and providing connections to the remaining 10 percent of unconnected homes will be expensive since these homes are typically in small communities or in remote locations. As time goes on, the lack of universal broadband combined with higher gas prices might draw people from the countryside to cities and suburbs.

Redpath’s local phone service provider, FairPoint Communications Inc., is turning to unconventional means to connect the most remote Vermont homes. The company will begin using wireless broadband links next year to keep its promise of providing high-speed Internet access throughout its entire service area.

The most important factor for the location was the availability of reliable Internet,” Skripka told the AP.

The standard in luxury apartment buildings is to have at least two options for broadband Internet access, said Henry Pye, director of resident services and technology at JPI Partners LLC, which owns buildings throughout the United States. Pye’s job is to ensure the buildings have broadband connectivity, because you can’t rent out apartments without it, he said.

“It might as well be water,” he told the AP.

Andru Edwards, who runs Gearlive.com, moved from Seattle to a suburb last year so he could gain access to a fiber-optic connection from Verizon Communications Inc. While he had a cable modem at his old apartment, it took too long to upload high-definition video for his blog.

“It definitely took our business to the next level. I’ve never looked back,” he told the AP.

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