September 2022

ISSUE 11

News Bites

SAVE THE DATE

3rd Annual Homeowner Appreciation Event

We are happy to share that the Homeowner Appreciation Event has been scheduled for the evening of October 20th at the Wolfe Park Shelterhouse, 105 Park Drive. We hope you can join us for hors d'oeuvres, prizes, and an opportunity to mingle with other COCLT Homeowners and staff. More details to come.

Homebuyer Selection Drawing

A Drawing will be held on September 22nd for 10 homes being built in Linden. Please direct anyone you know that may be interested to our website.

Renovation Boom

Nears Peak

We have all experienced delays and shortages of some sort during the global pandemic. They seem to have become our normal.

Experts are predicting the spending renovation boom will peak in the third quarter of this year and begin to decline during the fourth quarter. Some factors responsible for this decline are rising costs of labor and materials, difficulty retaining contractors, and rising interest rates.

So, while there is some relief in sight, change will not happen overnight. It is still best to relax your expectations when it comes to project completion timelines and have patience with contractors and laborers.

These delays and shortages are affecting everyone - not just homeowners. Builders and even the Land Trust have experienced unprecedented interruptions. In short, there are too few people and supplies to do the necessary work. We appreciate your patience if you are waiting for us or one of our builders to complete a job at your home. We are doing our best to address things in a timely manner.

Update

Save the Dream Ohio:

Help for Homeowners

The March newsletter included preliminary information about Ohio's program to help homeowners who are facing foreclosure or cannot afford to pay their mortgage, utility bills, or other housing-related costs as a result of economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is now out of the pilot stage and accepting applications.

Through the Mortgage Assistance component of the program, payments can be made directly to a mortgage company to help eligible Ohio homeowners with delinquent mortgages and/or up to six months of future mortgage payments. While the amount of assistance may vary by household, an eligible household may receive up to $25,000 in mortgage assistance.

Homeowners that need assistance paying utility bills, non-escrowed property taxes, and other qualified housing costs may be eligible for assistance through the Utility Assistance Plus component of the program. A household may receive up to $10,000 in utility, property tax, and/or other housing-related expense assistance.

To be eligible for the Save the Dream Ohio, a household must:

Be a homeowner with primary residence in Ohio;
Have experienced a financial hardship, loss of income, or increase in expenses related to the pandemic after January 21, 2020; and
Meet the program's annual income eligibility threshold. See the income chart below.

The Save the Dream Ohio program is expected to continue through September 30, 2025 or until the available funding is depleted.

Homeowners are eligible to receive assistance if they experienced a financial hardship after January 21, 2020 and have incomes equal to or less than 150% of the area median income.

Find more information HERE or call 888.404.4674.

Consistent mowing throughout the growing seasons keeps your lawn healthy and thriving. Our mowing season usually lasts from April through November. Cornell University advises to “Stop mowing in fall as growth slows, usually about the time that the daily average temperature falls below 50° F for a week. Don’t leave the grass more than about 4 inches long because it can mat down and encourage snow mold.”

Homeowner Tips

House Ventilation Fan 101

If your home has a continuous ventilation fan installed in a bathroom, read on to understand its importance.

Homes without adequate ventilation can experience a variety of problems from high humidity levels with indoor moisture that can lead to mildew growth. Newer homes have less natural ventilation, which means construction pollutants like formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds are present in the home. Ventilation, in the form of exhaust fans, allows contaminants to be removed.

Fans typically have speeds which can be adjusted by removing the fan grate and changing the dials. Typically, one dial will adjust the CFM or speed, while the other will determine how long the fan will remain on after being triggered by motion or a wall switch. More information on how to do this can be found HERE, or you can search online for instructions specific to your fan.

It is recommended that the fan run continuously, 24/7. By running it all the time, the fan can be set at a lower, less noisy speed. Fans typically cost around $7-$15 per year in electricity costs to operate continuously.

Don't Let Expenses Blindside You

Budgeting for expenses is hard enough. Then you add in a few as-needed, quarterly, or biannual bills, and it throws everything off.

Fortunately, taking the surprise out of irregular expenses is fairly simple. You can identify your irregular expenses, total their cost, and divide that total by 12 to turn them into a single monthly bill that you can include in your budget. Consider adding 10% to the total as a buffer.

Irregular expenses can include things such as :

Car insurance
Tuition payments
Water/sewer bill
Vehicle registration
Home maintenance (e.g., HVAC yearly checks)
Vet bills
Birthday and holiday gifts
Vacations
Income tax payments

To help keep you on budget, consider opening a separate savings account for the irregular expenses. Once per month, or with each paycheck, automatically divert a small amount of money to your separate savings account. You can pay those pills from that account or transfer it back to your main account when the bill is due.

Remove Personal Info

We have all done it. Typed our name into the Google search bar to see what comes up. It's not a sign of vanity; it's actually a good practice. By occasionally searching your own name, you can look for privacy breaches and take steps to eliminate them.

Earlier this year, Google announced that people can now submit removal requests for Google Search results containing personal contact information like a phone number, email address, or physical address, as well as login information.

To begin the removal process, visit the topic’s support page HERE, scroll halfway down, and click the blue Start removal request button. Go through all the steps before signing and submitting.

Google will review the request considering the criteria and public interest. You will be notified of their decision.

Even if the content is removed from Google Search, it may still exist on the web. Someone might still find the content on the page that hosts it, through social media, on other search engines, or other ways.

National Hispanic Heritage Month

National Hispanic Heritage Month traditionally honors the culture and contributions of both Latino and Hispanic Americans. The history and accomplishments of these groups in the shaping of the country are celebrated. The starting day of September 15th is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.