With some planning, you can cut your heating costs in your Bennington, Vermont area home this winter.

• You can save a bundle by caulking and weather-stripping those doors and windows. Did you know that the average home has enough gapping around windows and doors to equal a three foot hole in the wall? Imagine how much heat can escape through that hole! 
•  Turn down the thermostat when you leave and at night. Setting the temperature to 60 degrees during those times could cut 5 to 10% off your bill. 
• Reverse your ceiling fans to push warm air down from the top of a room.

Are you having trouble paying your utility bill? Go to http://dcf.vermont.gov/esd/fuel_assistance to see if you qualify for assistance.

We have certainly seen a number of buyers take avantage of the First Time Home Buyer credit that expires on November 30 in the Bennington VT real estate market.

The new legislation recently passed includes a First Time Home Buyer credit and a Repeat Buyer credit.

Of course, this causes those looking in the Bennington Vt real estate market to ask questions, and I can’t blame them, becuase it can all seem so confusing.

Here is an example of a question that was received by a local Mortgage Officer, who sent it along to educate us all:

We have certainly seen a little up-tick in activity over the past few weeks in the Bennington VT real estate market.  This article from the National Association of Realtors gives a more macro view of the national real estate market.

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Driven by the home buyer tax credit, existing-home sales showed another big gain in October with a strong uptrend established over the past seven months, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. At the same time, inventories have continued to decline.

Existing-home sales—including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops—surged 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.10 million units in October from a downwardly revised pace of 5.54 million in September, and are 23.5 percent above the 4.94 million-unit level in October 2008. Sales activity is at the highest pace since February 2007 when it hit 6.55 million.

Tax Credit Fuels Surge (more…)

NORTH BENNINGTON — Anyone thinking about raising children in Vermont may want to consider North Bennington first. That’s what Business Week says in its recent “2010 Best Place to Raise Your Kids” ranking.

In the business magazine’s annual selection of the top municipalities in each state to raise children, the most heavily weighted criteria considered the affordability, safety and school test scores in each.
Also considered were the number of schools, household expenditures, air quality, job growth, family incomes, diversity, museums, parks, theaters and other amenities of each town.

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Confused about the Home Buyer Tax Credit?  You’re not alone.  Here is a video to help explain it further.  This is important information for you to have if you’re looking for a home in the Bennington Vt real estate market.

Home Buyer Tax Credit Explained

Home sales are up around the country, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®. Sales of existing homes, including single family homes and condos, increased 11.4% in the third quarter. And it could be the extended tax credit had something to do with it.

 The $8000 credit will continue to be in effect until June 2010. Homebuyers must sign contracts before April 30 and close by June 30. And there’s more good news: single buyers can earn up to $125,000 (married couples can earn $225,000) and still qualify.

“Extending and expanding the tax credit to more buyers through the middle of next year is the right medicine,” said Charles McMillan, president of the NAR. “Congress understands the impact of housing on the economy, so consumers who aren’t able to complete a transaction before the end of this month now have a second chance.”

Call Troy Richardson to start looking for your new Bennington, Vermont real estate!

The following has been reprinted from the Battenkill Business Journal, November 2009.
By TRICIA N. HAYES

The possibility of generating hydroelectricity to power the Bennington College campus and some homes is a license away, if Bill Scully gets his way.

In June, Scully and wife Maria Scully purchased the former Vermont Tissue mill on the Walloomsac River next to the Paper Mill covered bridge.

The couple hopes to restore the historic 12,000-square-foot-building with 27-foot-tall ceilings, and refurbish the dam and hydroelectric power station to generate 250 kilowatts annually. The dam predates the entrance of Vermont into the Union as the 14th state. It powered the mill until its decommissioning in the 1950s.

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RE/MAX National Advertising Television Commercial

Bennington VT

The second quarter of 2009 has more states recording positive growth, according to e-forecasting.com.  It was just last quarter where NO states had positive growth, and back to 2008Q4 only one state had recorded positive growth: Washington DC with 0.3% growth.  In the second quarter of 2009, we see that 25 states recorded positive growth. North Dakota beat out all other states in terms of GDP growth in the second quarter.  With a 6.1% growth rate over the previous quarter, it is double the growth of the runner-up: Mississippi.  Rounding out the top five are: Vermont, Montana and Washington, DC.

Read the full article on Vermont Business News website.

The second home market collapses, as formerly affluent out-of-staters suffer investment losses. Manchester stores start leaving for outlet malls closer to population centers, shopping meccas that are doing better because gas prices make long drives expensive.

Bennington, with its manufacturing base eroding like those in the Midwestern rust belt, has more holes in its downtown retail streets than its impoverished artists can decorate with unsold works.

Scenarios like this might have come true had the American economy slid into a true depression, but it didn’t. Not only are doom-and-gloom visions inappropriate, they are in some cases diametrically opposed to what has happened in the past year.

The ski areas had a good winter, and this summer they showed they were still valued as places for families to gather and enjoy a range of activities. Manchester took a hit in retail sales in 2008, but has seen new stores replace the few that left and seems likely to post a retail recovery in 2009.

Manufacturers in the Bennington area sometimes needed to downsize operations to weather the storm, but that sector has made more money in than expected and has been adding back jobs due to a lucrative military contract. And don’t mourn for downtown Bennington, which is enjoying a huge boom in tourism thanks partly to having added a herd of life-size, artistically decorated moose as an attraction in addition to its deer park.

The nation’s economic debacle showed the wisdom of diversifying investment portfolios. Bennington County, which is so diverse in character than the Northshire and Southshire are almost two different counties, likewise has shown that with more than one kind of bedrock strength, its takes more of an earthquake than breaking bubbles to demolish the economy.

See the full article on the VermonBiz website.