OCR Text |
Show Page 10b Enterprise Review, May 19, 1976 Condo Sales Meet Favor at Willows Consolidated Capital Olsen earlier acknowmet has Corporation ledged that although the from vacancy rate was reasonable, amazing" response present tenants and an it was a factor in the firms extremely large amount of outside calls" from people wanting to purchase the Willows apartments as condominiums. And we haven't even advertised, yet." said Norm Olsen, president of the company. He said he expects a comfortable ratio" of residents will want to buy units in decision to convert the apartments to condominiums. He said people living in the adult community are the kind who want to invest more money in their units to upgrade them. We had received a number of calls from residents inquiring whether they would have an opportunity to purcomchase. The cost of individual the complex, defining fortable as between 25 and housing has skyrocketed over 50 percent." The units are the past two years. When you selling for between $28,000 for have a nice place built a few a unit to $45,000 years ago, people can afford to townhouse. own it for the same amount it for a He expects sales to begin-withi- costs to rent," he added. two weeks. two-bedroo- m Contractors Yet Unsure The Utah Department of Contractors will again hold hearings regarding proposed changes in requirements for contractors and builders licenses. considered Department requiring contractors who bid over$l million on a job to submit a certified financial statement with their license renewal application. ContracAlthough Department tors bidding between $100,000 officials held hearings March and $999,000 would need to 31 regarding those changes, submit a financial statement only about five contractors prepared by an accountant, appeared. We didnt want to but would not need to undergo be accused of railroading a certified audit. Contractors something through, so this bidding under $100,000 could time we will do some extra prepare their own financial advertising," said Jud Weiler, statements. financial investigator for the Other proposals being reviewed by the department Department. In addition to changes con- concern the possibility of sidered before, Weiler said, accepting apprenticeship and the Department will also con- technical school time as expersider requiring general ience time in a contractor builders to have two years of license application. business management experDate for. the forthcoming ience before qualifying for a hearing has not yet been set. license. "It will be sometime this At the March hearing the year," Weiler said. Housing Suffers Capital Crunch The nations housing needs can be met despite capital shortages if builders, planners and government officials make innovation their byword and back to basics their objective. This was the message of Oakley Hunter, Chairman of the Board and President of the Federal National Mortgage Association, speaking at a meeting of the Urban Land Institute in Washington last week. Although mortgage money is currently available, Hunter told meeting delegates he believes the housing industry is already suffering from a fairly severe capital shortage and that this situation will continue into the future. Many economists contend that capital will always be forthcoming at the right price, which is probably true," he continued. But, he said, The trouble is that more and more American families cant afford to pay the right price." In order to bring more of those families back into the housing market. Hunter said, some builders are already producing more affordable homes. The lesson to be learned is that small can be beautiful, and that as far as housing is concerned, we as a nation can no longer afford to live beyond our means. I think young people in the market for new homes have gotten this message. Now it is the turn of the housing industry as a whole to get back to basics." Hunter also said builders and planners should focus their attention on providing ' more housing options to meet the varying needs of potential homebuyers. The age of the homogeneous housing market is over. Families today must be given options so they can match up their basic needs in a home with their reduced ability to pay for a home." Another challenge which has so far eluded the housing industry and the federal government is construction of an adequate supply of decent housing for poor and middle-incom- e city dwellers, Hunter said. Related to this basic problem," he stated, is the need to supply housing for city dwellers who cant afford to buy or rent a decent home, yet whose incomes are too high to qualify them for government-subsidize- d public housing." One of the things FNMA has learned from a series of conferences it sponsored is that local minimum property standards, building codes and zoning laws often make it impossible to meet city housing needs, he said. The time has come when the housing industry and local government officials must begin resolving their differences in the interest of the people were all attempting to serve." One aspect of the solution, Hunter said, may lie in capitalizing on the potential of manufactured housing to provide homes more people can He added that this afford. could be accomplished by legislating a uniform manufactured housing code so that homes could be assembly-lin- e produced and sold throughout the United States without g running into building and zoning laws which differ from one community to the next." By using such new approaches, the country can meet current and future housing needs through a willingness to stay flexible to change and to continually substitute abundant resources such as human innovation for scarce ones such as capital," Hunter said. . cost-inflatin- MORTG mGE RATES FHA 8.5 M VA 8.5 ZCMI Fares Well ZCMI has released its annual report to stockholders showing sales and other income during fiscal 1975 reached $68,662,841. This was an increase of 19.9 percent over 1974, indicating that ZCMI fared well in what was a recession year for retailing nationally. Net income set a company record at $2,904,213, up 65.8 percent from the previous The result was an year. unprecendented earnings per share of $8.60. The companys previous e high in earnings per share was ment at a time with final completion of the 368,000 sq. ft. store planned for mid-summ- er 1976. A sixth ZCMI branch in the Cache Valley Mall at Logan, Utah is scheduled to open at the end of July. Fed Submits to GAO Study The Federal Reserve System, the nation's central bank, has agreed to allow the Gen$5.29 in 1973. At the last board meeting eral Accounting Office (GAO) the quarterly dividend on to make a performance study ZCMI stock was increased of its bank supervisory function. from 40 to 45 cents. Originally, Congress had The department store chain moved all its corporate requested such a study but the and. central offices, services, Federal Reserve Board had reservations. Guidelines for receiving, marking and warehouse functions into a new the study were agreed upon by service center at 2200 South the board and the comptroller general of the GAO. 900 West last April. Individual state member ZCMIs new flagship banks of the federal reserve store in the ZCMI Center system await selection at ranin downtown Salt Lake City is dom. All findings of the study will be confidential. being completed one depart all-tim- These rates were obtained by telephone conversation with the above institutions. 'The rates are correct to the best of our knowledge but their accuracy cannot be guaranteed. |