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Cash crop: The right financing can fertilize food systems
By John Hamilton A recent CNBC report, Trouble on the farm, described the high level of debt experienced by commodity farmers in the U.S. and left me wondering whether their experience is mirrored here in New Hampshire. My sense is that many New Hampshire farms are diversified, and many farmers debt-averse. An important question to ask in this discussion is why a farm is raising additional capital. If the farmer is borrowing to pay regular ongoing operating bills and the financing term...
1 week 1 day ago | more
The other 97 percent
By John Hamilton I want to spread the seeds of royalty financing—a powerful new deal structure for later-stage companies with healthy gross-profit margins. Investors, entrepreneurs and community development practitioners would be better off if they were familiar enough with the benefits and tradeoffs of royalty to apply it to a given business opportunity. I'm not saying that royalty is better than equity financing. Equity is a great way to add fuel and expertise to early-stage companies,...
2 weeks 22 hours ago | more
Community-focused investors are discovering CDFIs
By Sally Hatch Anyone thinking about investing in the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund might be interested in a recent Financial Advisor magazine article, Impact Investments With a Local Connection. Our investments give you a way to support projects and services that create opportunity in every corner of our state. It’s quite simple: When you make an investment in the Community Loan Fund, you determine its length and the fixed interest rate (up to 5% for investments of at least 10 years)...
2 weeks 2 days ago | more
Lack of credit history didn't prevent abuse survivor from buying a home
By Ron Thompson We cheered when Anne Quintal bought her first home. Anne is a survivor of domestic abuse, which had escalated for years from emotional to verbal to physical. By the time she escaped from the relationship, her husband was in jail and she was in the hospital. She had lost much of her hearing and had a damaged jaw and missing teeth. Anne Quintal She was even homeless for a brief time before finding help at Jaden’s Ladder, a Seacoast-area nonprofit organization dedicated...
5 days 23 hours ago | more
Housing market improving? Depends who needs a home
By Mike LaFontaine The latest news reports have the housing market rebounding. But that depends on which “market” you’re talking about. For low-income renters across New England, very little has changed. Finding safe, decent housing that’s affordable to many working families is still an uphill climb: In most areas, rents have not fallen (the average two-bedroom apartment in New Hampshire still costs more than $1,000 a month) and vacancies are as hard as ever to find. The New England Housing...
4 weeks 6 days ago | more
Opening the jar(gon): What's an asset, anyway?
By Steve Varnum Those of us who work for financial organizations like the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund throw around industry lingo and jargon all the time, all the time assuming that people know what we're talking about, and much of the time being wrong about that. I survived my first 55 years never having heard the terms "infill" or "stick built," not really understanding any of the many definitions of "equity," and thinking "income-eligible" referred to the fact that I'd never be able to...
7 weeks 5 days ago | more
Co-op president has what it takes to advocate for his community
By Rick Minard It takes vision, persistence, and guts to change big systems. Don Woodward, president of Exeter River Cooperative in Exeter, NH, has all three qualities and uses them to change public policy to serve his resident-owned community. He recently persuaded a public bus line to add a stop, starting April 22, that will serve the residents of Exeter’s three manufactured-home co-ops. Don explains: “One of the ways we make our community financially sustainable is to look for ways to...
9 weeks 5 days ago | more
NH House makes low-income homes a RGGI fund priority
By Rick Minard New Hampshire’s House of Representatives recently voted to help low-income households be part of the solution to climate change, instead of its victims. Good work, House! Representatives voted 204-153 to allocate “at least” 20 percent of N.H.’s proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to help low-income households become more energy efficient. This is progress. Conserving energy is one of the best ways for homeowners to save money. Anyone with a manufactured...
11 weeks 4 days ago | more
First-time homebuyers reconnecting with dream of homeownership
By Jennifer Hopkins When I think about first-time homebuyers, I think of Ziggy and Pat Zeveckas buying their first home after 43 years of marriage. Ziggy was a Navy and Coast Guard veteran, and an engineer. Pat worked in the plastic mills before retiring. They rented an apartment, then a house in Tyngsboro, Mass. Pat and Ziggy made ends meet while raising their three children, but never saved enough for a down payment for a house. When water problems forced them to leave their Tyngsboro house,...
12 weeks 1 day ago | more
Unplug, people!
By Maureen Carroll We’ve all done it. You hear a phone ringing in a meeting, and quick―hip check! The sweet relief washes over you when you realize it isn’t yours. Maybe you even pull your phone out to double-check that it’s on vibrate, taking an extra moment to inspect your email inbox while you have the phone in hand. Most of us have done it. Some of us do it all the time. We’ve unplugged our devices and made them portable―now we need to unplug from them. We’re all relying more and more on...
12 weeks 4 days ago | more