Real estate mania lives on at the HGTV cable channel, where house shoppers still holler for granite on their kitchen islands and his-and-her sinks in their en suite bathrooms. But in the non-TV reality of middle-class America, the bloom is definitely off the real estate rose. The rose isn’t dead, mind you. Surveys show an […]
housing
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Rival Lewiston landlord group arising
LEWISTON — A disagreement about city politics and efficiency has inspired a group of Lewiston landlords to split off from the Lewiston-Auburn Landlords Association. Landlord Darcy Reed said a disagreement about city trash collections and how to deal with a proposed 29-unit housing development highlights the reason for her to create the new group, the […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Lewiston developer insists 29 unit project about rebuilding
LEWISTON — People rebuild when what they own gets destroyed in a fire, and Phyllis St. Laurent insists that’s all she’s trying to do, but groups of landlords are circulating a petition seeking to overturn the city’s approval of her project before she gets started. “I thought, when (my buildings) burned down, there would be […]
Posted inLetters
D. Pelletier: Housing project not needed
During a Lewiston City Council meeting on April 15, the Council voted 4-3 in support of a $5 million project to replace three burned out buildings in the downtown area. My husband and I oppose the project and we are starting a petition to stop it. There are about 300 empty apartments in Lewiston now; […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Lewiston approves minimum thermostat level increase to 68 degrees
LEWISTON — A plan to require landlords to turn up the heat by two degrees won City Council approval Tuesday. Councilors voted 7-0 to make some housekeeping changes to the city’s building maintenance code to match state rules on minimum heat. State building ordinances require landlords to heat their buildings to 68 degrees year round. […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
UMaine to give underclassmen higher housing priority over juniors, seniors
UMaine makes it mandatory for freshmen who live more than 30 miles from the school to live on campus. Since the number of first-year students has been steadily increasing over the last few years through a concerted effort to stabilize the university’s financial troubles, less dorm space is available to the upperclassmen. In the past, […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Budget battle, shutdown delay Maine heating aid
PORTLAND (AP) — Federal heating aid to low-income Mainers has been delayed primarily because of the federal budget battle and government shutdown last month. A spokeswoman for MaineHousing, which oversees the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in Maine, said the agency usually knows by October how much funding it will receive. By Friday, the […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
AP source: JPMorgan to pay $13B under tentative deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. has tentatively agreed to pay $13 billion to settle allegations surrounding the quality of mortgage-backed securities it sold in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, a person familiar with the negotiations between the bank and the federal government said Saturday. If the agreement is finalized it would […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine State Housing Authority won’t ban medical marijuana users yet
AUGUSTA — A lack of federal guidance on the use of medical marijuana in federally subsidized apartments led the Maine State Housing Authority board of commissioners on Tuesday to delay a decision on the issue for up to another year. Commissioners and MaineHousing Director John Gallagher expressed deep frustration that despite repeated attempts to secure […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Lewiston landlords challenge housing project
LEWISTON — A group of landlords hope to challenge the city’s approval of a low-income housing project downtown. “We already have a lot of low-income property, and this won’t contribute to our tax base,” Darcy Reed, who owns two units downtown, said. “Just as a taxpayer, this concerns me,” Reed said. “Even if I were […]