Northwest Indiana Mortgage - Steve Dalton

Twitter members in Northwest Indiana worth following

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:23:09 -0500

The first list, and obviously some will find it controversial, of Top Twitter members in Northwest Indiana.

My biggest complaint is the almost non-existence of Realtors on the list. I'll be frank, some of you live in communities with real estate professionals who really work social media hard. So far, northwest indiana has a bunch of real estate professionals that may have signed up for a site, but don't use them and don't engage.

Jeff and Grace Safrin are the exception to this of course, they get it. A few mortgage people get it, but all in all our industry too is under-represented by actual social types ... and more often than not people who joined because someone told them they needed a profile.

One perfect example, is that in the Top Ten Active Rain members in Porter County, only three are RE agents. Now what in the world does that tell you? Sorry to be negative, but it's time for real estate professionals to step it up in the Region.

Home values - leveling off for best time to buy - NOW!

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:07:24 -0500

Help - I need to know if I should buy now?

Let's be honest, this was a real question submitted by a reader, but they knew my thoughts on the matter. YES, there has never been a better time to purchase a home in Northwest Indiana. Real estate values have completed a small correction over the last two years, and are actually leveled or even increasing in some areas.

I wrote that post a couple hours ago on my personal outside blog, Northwest Indiana Mortgages and Real Estate, and now the Case Schiller Home Price Index is released substantiating the same:

Report shows home prices in metro markets were down 18.1% last year, which was a reduction in the slide of values, and an indicator of recovery and leveling off. GOOD NEWS!

Love to have you join as a "fan" of our Facebook Page too: Northwest Indiana Mortgages on Facebook.

An update on Northwest Indiana

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:21:00 -0500

A few years back I was a lot more active here on Active Rain, working with some great real estate professionals and learning every step of the way. Thanks to all of you who have been true friends. I am spending most of my time on mortgage lending these days, although still building a home once in a while. Here is a list of links to my mortgage sites, most still in fledling stage but I'd like to do your loan.

Northwest Indiana Mortgages

For those looking for our website, please check it out First Financial Trust Mortgage.

For home mortgage loans in Indiana we focus on FHA mortgages and first time buyers.

As always call me at 219-762-7200 or email me at Northwest Indiana Mortgage Steve

Twitter Politicians from Indiana

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:06:40 -0600

During the last campaign cycle Indiana politicians were seen to be using a little bit of social media, a blog here and there, and I think a few of them even played around with twitter. Over the last month I've noticed that a few more have migrated to twitter, so I went on a hunt this morning for twitter profiles for politicians. If you have more that I've missed, please submit in comments and I'll update.

Governor Mitch Daniels

Lt. Governor Becky Skillman

Secretary of State Todd Rokita

Attorney General Greg Zoeller

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett

US Representative Mike Pence

US Representative Dan Burton actually two Dan Burton - not sure which is official one

US Senator Richard Lugar

US Senator Evan Bayh - can't verify authenticity yet, and hasn't been updated since August

Indianapolis Mayor Ballard - mostly third person, probably staffer

State Representative Jackie Walorski

Mayor of Valparaiso Jon Costas

Fort Wayne City Councilman Mitch Harper

Whitley County County Councilman Jim Banks

Judge Michael Kramer in Noble County

Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold

I'll do a separate post on party officials on twitter, yes both parties.

Alright Indiana tweeps, I'm sure I am missing some, or maybe this post will get some of the existing political crop to at least hold their own names so squatters don't grab them.

Many politicians start out assigning their social media work to a staffer, and although this may work on facebook and blogs, twitter really demands a little bit of personality. Staffer generated tweets are pretty quickly dismissed as broadcast media and not worth engaging. A word of recommendation, if you are an elected official at any level in Indiana and see the potential to engage your constituents on twitter, do so yourself. Even one personal tweet a day and you'll be amazed the following.

You may think you're busy, but last I checked Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove are both personally tweeting from their blackberries, you aren't more busy than they are.

#indiana Politicians joining twitter

1-16 Northwest Indiana news and views

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:13:54 -0600

Worth reading - NW Indiana Today

Like many of our readers, I try to skim through the Times and the Post each morning online, and then my google reader feeds for NW Indiana ... recently I've added a few more bloggers and the #NWIndiana twitter stream just to keep my eyes open for interesting news. See NW Indiana bloggers if you want to add some great new sites.

Here's what I found today, I'll keep comments to a minimum so you can read quickly:

School Closings due to extreme cold weather - one editorial suggesting the schools are waiting too long to let people know, we all knew it would be 2 below this morning and Valpo Schools waited till 5 a.m. to decide. Kudos to Portage and Chesterton for calling it early.

Rep. Soliday says McDermott plan won't fly, Little Cal River Commission needs total overhaul
National Geographic BioBlitz in National Lakeshore Dunes this spring
Portage extracts $60,000 in fines from company for soapy discharges
I-49 and Vale Park interchange to get assisted living facility in Valpo
Valparaiso Redevelopment has less money to improve pathways
Where are regional joint purchasing programs? Evansville leads the way, not NW Indiana

WOW ... Porter County Auditor pounds John Scott and Lefever for poor work environment and lack of full disclosure on software

Hammond Soldier's body arrives in Gary
Jerry Davich recounts story that reminds us to check on our neighbors
Homes of snowbirds burgalized

Local Blogger Kevin Tracy says scientists think there may be life on Mars
Jerry Davich waiting for enviro-wackos to complain that birds were mistreated in airplane crash yesterday
Local socialist and apparently racist CJ happy about new grocery
Christopher Hedges warns of possible problems ahead for Mexican government
Dave Woodson reprints popular email from boss
How much does the Westchester Library cost taxpayers?
Brad from NW Indiana Pundit takes a contrarian position on county government reform, asking why give so much power to so few?
Mad Mortgage Machine predicts 4.5% rates soon, time to buy and refi NOW
Buzz takes a hard shot at Roosevelt Allen Jr, Lake County Commissioner
Do we really need to tax mobile homes every year?
Obama isn't looking like CHANGE so far
Mark Keisling sees a trick afoot in Lake County with new tax proposal

Sorry if the whole list is too busy to read, leave links to great news and posts related to NW Indiana in the comments section too. We welcome the extra input.

Indiana Politics - Who's the greatest of them all

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:26:04 -0600

Indiana Power Rankings

#TCOT Howey Power 50 ridiculed

I'll be the first to admit I was a bit ticked when I tried to read the ranking and found that I needed a subscription, just seemed "old world" paradigm to me. I've tried to interact with Howey a couple times, but he seems to favor a few of you guys in Indy over hyper local reporting from the Region. When we posted a series of three articles on the Gary Distressed Unit Board filing, with a writer in the room posting live, he seemed to find the Indy Star reporting 24 hours later better.

Oh well, I don't think they picked up the lead when the residents against the bailout for Gary met the firefighters in the hallway with "we'll back you guys if you help us take down Rudy."

Now, what the scoop on this article by Advance Indiana and peppering Howey with ridicule for his Power 50 list? I'm sure there's a back story, love to hear it. How about a Hoosier Access poll on most influential people in Indiana Josh? My nominations: Mitch Daniels, Pat Bauer, Pete Visclosky, Mike Pence, G'wood Mayor Henderson for huge annex grab, Chair of Distressed Unit Board Kitchel, CEO of Mittal Steel, Todd Rokita (where's he going next?) ... Just thinking out loud.

Northwest Indiana - blogs worth reading daily

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:04:48 -0600

Recap First NW Indiana Blogger Meetup

First let me say thanks to those that attended, I think we had 15 total and next time we'll easily see 20 plus if the weather if a bit better. To those that attended, please feel free to comment liberally on ideas and thoughts on where we can collaborate.

Our evening's hosts Golden Technologies - terrific team of IT and software consultants from Valparaiso were magnanimous in extending hospitality ... thanks again!

In attendance:

Aaron Simac from NWI Reviews and On Home Comfort
Dave Woodson from Mad Mortgage Machine and Dave Woodson.com
Brad Enslen from NWI Pundit
Kevin Tracy from KTracy.com
Chris Sloan from Ink Spot Printer
Chris Buckley a contributor to Porter County Politics
Chris Hedges from Christopher Hedges
Dan O'Day from NWI Connect and Prayeramedic and Tyranny Watch and 390days
and yours truly with way too many blogs to list here but my first one was Daltonsbriefs
we were missing at least 8 others that couldn't make it last night, so the next meeting really should be great!

A great time to fellowship and get to know each other, if you missed this one, please try to make the next one, which we'll probably try to get set in March. Some things we decided to work on in the future in no particular order:

For those that use google reader, it's awful fun to connect using the gmail chat feature and then whenever we "share" a post all our chat friends can see those shares. My gmail is stevesynergy (at) gmail (dot) com ... feel free to request chatting so we can all get connected inside of reader. Obviously if you use a reader, subscribe to all the other NW Indiana blogs
Many of us have attempted to compile lists of Northwest Indiana bloggers, I'll update my list here and we all agreed to attempt to stay updated and add new bloggers to our lists for blogrolls links. More important though than blog rolls, which don't score super high with google ... is actual text links in blog posts. When possible link to fellow region bloggers.
I have the list of email addresses and am pondering a google group, I know it's old school bulletin board, but would allow us to communicate ideas for collaboration. Let me know if you like this idea.
There was a lot of talk about twitter and other social media platforms. If you decide to use twitter and are posting about NW Indiana, highly recommend using the #nwindiana hashtag and then Twitter Search ... a good place to check daily for region posts and conversations.

If I've missed stuff, leave in comments and I'll raise up as updates to this post.

Related Posts:
A Shoutout to Golden Technologies
First NWI Blogger Meetup Was A Success
Northwest Indiana Bloggers Meet

If you've posted a recap and links back to Golden, let me know and I'll add to the related posts list here.

Northwest Indiana Blogger Meetup

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:58:27 -0600

NWI Indiana Blogger Meetup

This Thursday at 6 pm. at Golden Technologies 2402 Beech St. Valpo
No sales pitches, just a chance to meet everyone

Please come ... and also help us promote it. (use #nwindiana hashtag if using twitter)

I know that there are a bunch of real estate bloggers in NW Indiana, a lot more than when I used to be real involved here on AR, please join us if you can make it.

Not so common predictions for 2009

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:33:13 -0600

Call me a contrarian, but here's my gut for the New Year

Housing recovery has already started, and will become big story in 2009. Home building will remain sluggish while inventories slowly drop.
Stock market rally in first quarter to 12,000 Dow ... with big stories dominated by mergers and acquisitions
Even though Federal Government gave out cash to GM and Chrysler, both will file bankruptcy in 2nd quarter, with GM being purchased by Ford and Chrysler by Toyota. This will break the union contracts and allow steel, textiles, and other union dominated industries to begin re-organizing labor contracts.
Mortgage rates will hang at 5% till end of March, with refinance boom helping dodge Alt-A reset crisis, but then start going up as "economic recovery" news causes inflation to become more certain
Oil will go back up to $80 by June 2009, the dollar will strengthen though. The US will lead the global recovery thus the dollar strength. Oil demand issues will recover traction thus the oil strength.
Conservative groups will continue rapid growth - #TCOT, #dontgo, #rebuild, and collaborative projects will push to hyperlocal since local races in 2009 and 2010 are more important than national ... ie. local state house control of re-districting in Indiana
Obama will be tied in knots, one the one side his radical left support, on the other the great middle of America that only heard "change" ... he will accomplish very little in 2009 and 2010 ... which frankly will be good for America
Governments all over the country will actually have to cut budgets, and cut deeply. This will be the first time in decades that budgets actually get cut. Some politicians will lose in 2010 merely because they couldn't deliver pork for the first time.
Hyper local blogger collaboration will hurt traffic to individual bloggers, with a rush to get added to collaborative projects. Monetization will only work in collaborative aggregates, with traffic and advertising connections. See circa 2006 model Northwest Indiana bloggers, old news. I better move or I'm dead in the water too.
Massive unemployment will actually be good for the economy, with consulting and home based contractors niche growing substantially. Companies will hire the work they actually need and leave the extras to the side as unecessary overhead. The fast and connected will not only survive but grow, the lazy and entitled will be left far far behind.

What are your predictions for 2009? Disagree with me, cool comment or email me, the engagement is more important than the prophesy.

Housing Myth Number One #TCOT

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:35:26 -0600

Myth - A nation of renters

Some of you know I'm working on a book project, A Conservative on the 2009 Housing Recovery, and today specifically the second chapter which details commonly held myths about housing. Here's a bit of Myth Number One - would appreciate any feedback positive or negative.

Chapter Two- 10 Myths about housing

Myth One - It would be better for more families to rent their homes

This is a catagorical insult to the American ideal. We may as well suggest that Americans would be better off if only landowners voted, or if the government controlled all health care, or any other list of nonsensical mental excursions that end up in socialism or worse. The AMERICAN DREAM has been and must continue to be that a family can own their own home. For a few transitory households renting may make some sense at times and in certain seasons. But for the most part every family should have the opportunity to purchase a home. President Bush announced goals of attaining record levels of homeownership in excess of 78% of all households, these were great goals and his leadership should not be faulted merely because housing values have slid. It's a good idea to save for retirement, and just because many IRA's and 401K's have reduced in value due to stock values, this does not mean people should stop saving for retirement.

I hesitate to say this so strongly for fear that do-gooders will then suggest that the government needs to step in to make ownership happen by legislation or regulation. No, no, and a thousands times NO! Families want to buy a home, they want to live out the American Dream of ownership and wealth creation. They don't need the government to tell them to do it or manipulate the markets to make it happen. Builders want to build for first time buyers, and one of their largest obstacles is the government in the form of impact fees and zoning that combats affordable housing. Lenders want to provide mortgages for first time buyers, and help them fix their credit if need be, once again government gets mostly in the way. We cannot legislate the American Dream, isn't that the whole point of our 230 year experiment? The American Dream exists where familes and individuals make decisions for themselves. Government needs to stay out of the way, so they can decide for themselves.

Almost every family I have met over my last 20 years in this industry would be better off owning a home than renting. First, our tax system favors home ownership in that all mortgage interest can be deducted, rent cannot. Second, every payment made in a normal 30 year mortgage helps that family accumulate a little more equity and thus household wealth. Third, the self-confidence and pride instilled in a family when they own their own home is patently American in its ideals and culture. We want to have our own place, a place that is ours and no one else's. Sure there were many families that I met that couldn't quite afford a home yet, or had some credit issues that we needed to work to clean up, or needed totally different jobs to make it all work. But in every case where a family wanted to do the work, to be disciplined to save some money, pick up a second job, contact creditors and work things out, homeownership was possible.

When we fall for the liberal tact of "some just aren't smart enough or astute enough" to own a home, we start down a slippery slope of "us and them" that is not American. There are many families that cannot afford a $500,000 home, but they may well be able to purchase a $65,000 home after six months of saving for down payment and cleaning up credit problems.

One last comment, to my conservative friends reading along, who think I'm being hypocritical using tax law as a reason to buy a home. I will agree that for the most part tax laws should be simplified and flattened. If during this process one day the mortgage interest deduction is eliminated, while taxes are actually reduced and flattened, I will be supportive. I understand that favoring one consumption decision over another is still government manipulation and intervention. Today though, the tax laws do strongly favor purchasing a home over renting, and if we merely eliminate the tax benefit for some environmental or culture correctness that suggests that more people should rent, I won't back it.

Social Media for Conservatives

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:41:51 -0600

I wrote this for my local political blog, at the request of a reader, I realize many of you here on Active Rain are already active on social media ... but just in case there's still someone not using twitter.

10 day plan - Social Media for Conservatives

I was asked yesterday if I had an outline or plan for a politically active person wanting to get involved in social media? Now, first let me say that the second I write this plan down it will of course get skewered by those that know a lot more than I. I'll try to source the really great socially actives in my posts. So, from today December 27th, 2008 till January 5th 2009 I will write one post per day.

Follow along if you like - The steps will be as easy as I can explain with links to places for lots more details if my method of "esplaining" isn't all that great.

Day One - Social Media for Conservatives (allow 20 minutes)

1. Join Twitter - Go to twitter homepage and sign up. My recommendation would be to use your own name or a nickname you use often. You may have to try a couple different names, if yours is common and already in use. I would not suggest doing the AOL thing and doing your name followed by a number. Too generic and impersonal. You'll need an email address, I think they limit each email to one twitter profile ... of course we all have multiple email addresses and yes some of us also have multiple twitter profiles.

2. Once you're signed up, and this really only takes a matter of minutes. Click my profile Daltonsbriefs and press "follow" ... it would be great if you would go to the bottom of this post and in the comments section tell me you followed and leave your profile name too. Frankly, I have over 2,600 followers and I don't always follow back right away. Sorry.

3. Go to Top Conservatives on Twitter and choose "Get Added" just enter your profile name, remember that profiles have no blanks (perhaps an underscore if you used but no blanks) and email and whether you desire to have a mentor assigned to you.

4. Go to Search.Twitter (#TCOT) this is the live stream of all posts on twitter that feature the hashtag #TCOT so that we can follow along. You'll see big names like Michelle Malkin, Drudge Report, Instapundit, and thousands of little bloggers and activists as well. The fun really starts when the elected officials, like Bill Frist and members of Congress, start posting and engaging.

Watch as long as you want, it will keep updating and you'll merely have to choose "refresh" to see the new ones as they flow in. When you see a tweet that you want to respond to ... now we're going to dive in.

Press "reply" under the tweet that you liked, disliked or want to comment on. Your twitter homepage will come up, you now have 140 character to say anything you want. Because you hit "reply" you'll see the original person's profile with an @ in front of it. That creates a reply to that person ... but everyone can still read it!

Hit "update" when done with your comment or reply. Now, you need to follow some people so they'll follow you. Go to Follow-TCOT and follow this person. It's a listing mechanism to make following easier. I think they have to follow you back to make it real easy, so we'll just follow today and come back in Stage Two tomorrow.

5. Lastly here are your first 15 people to follow: As you go to each link choose follow and then come back for the next link. Obviously multiple tabs in your internet explorer is going to help make this quick work. Follow all 15, anything they post will appear on your timeline on your profile, the rest of the #TCOT posts you'll have to watch on the search.twitter site. Anytime you see a post on search.twitter that engages you, follow that person too. You'll get followed back by most and the goal is to pick up 100 followers in the next week!

More tomorrow, check back in, leave comments below especially if what I said doesnt work or doesn't make sense. Thanks

Wanted - Housing RE.covery

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:26:11 -0600

Need Input - 2009 Housing Recovery #TCOT

As is currently posted on Top Conservatives on Twitter I am researching for a book based on a Conservatives' views on a Housing Recovery next year. Since I'm a blogger and social media activist, it would only seem right that I ask my readers for input and ideas.

This is an open thread, which I'll also post on my personal blog, for ideas and debate. We may disagree, that's ok, at least we're willing to think and try some things. I am predicting that there won't be an Economic Recovery in 2009 unless housing recovers. The question is, how?

Fire Away!

As always, for those that prefer Twitter my profile: Daltonsbriefs

Northwest Indiana hosts Carnival of RE next week

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:28:22 -0600

Carnival of Real Estate here on Monday

For the second time I am proud to host and edit the Carnival of Real Estate here on this site. Submissions need to be sent in by Sunday so I can read and choose the top real estate posts for the week.

From the Carnival Site:

The carnival will make its next appearance on Monday, December 22nd at Northwest Indiana Mortgages. Please submit your best post by Sunday December 21st, to be considered. Are you a real estate blogger and would you like to host a future edition or take a more active role in administration of the CoRE? If so, get instructions on how to do so here. Please check the complete FAQ list if you have other questions as to how to participate.

I won't tip my hand quite yet on theme and method of choosing, but let's just say yesterday on a radio talk show I announced my opinion that the Housing Recovery of 2009 started three months ago in September ...

For those that use Twitter ... I'm going to run an ongoing question for the next couple days: What is the best way to guarantee a HUGE Housing Recovery in 2009? Love to get your input

Twitter: daltonsbriefs

Active Rain - blast from twitter past - looking ahead

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:35:21 -0600

My first 10 twitter friends

My main twitter profile Daltonsbriefs, is now followed by approximately 2100 people, I'm hoping to hit 3,000 sometime in January. Last night though, I went back to look at who were my first 10 twitter friends. I'm listing them here.

Most of them, as you'll note, were from the real estate world and were very early adopters on Active Rain, where I first met them all. At 2100 followers I'm way down the list, when matched up against these guys. I guess I can say I'm proud to be part of this group, even though many of them have long since passed me and moved on to speaking at conventions and team blogs.

ResPres / Jeff Turner
Ines / Ines Hegedus-Garcia
pchaney / Paul Chaney
AndyKaufman / Andy Kaufman
jburslem / Joel Burslem
trulia / Rudy Bachraty
SeattleCondo / Ben Kakimoto
pkitano / pat kitano
TBoard / Teresa Boardman
JonWashburn / Jonathan Washburn

I created a reason, a legitimate non spam reason, to reach out to each of them tonite just to say hi. Oh by the way, there were two others on this list, and they have been removed. When I look at my follows list, I remove those that really don't interest me, or have never really engaged with me. Interestingly enough, neither were RE.net professionals anyway.

To all my real estate industry twitter and Active Rain friends - Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and 2009 will be a whole lot better!

Blatant Self-promotion: Follow me on twitter

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:34:02 -0600

No beating around the bush here, I'm on a bit of a campaign to surpass 2,000 followers on Twitter and would appreciate any adds today.

My Twitter Profile - Daltonsbriefs

For those that follow issues political, of course I do, you may find the list Top Conservatives on Twitter to be quite interesting ... with some great writers worth following. As you can see, I'm falling a bit behind since I'm at the 2,000 following ceiling and can't even follow the whole list. I'm hoping that if I pass the 2,000 followers level then the Twitter gods will let me follow more people.

I'll post this to twitter group and political groups, those most likely to follow. Thanks

Northwest Indiana cities and towns roundup

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:46:33 -0600

There's no doubt I love politics, but one key reason I do is because political debate can create better government and thus better communities for our families. I'm proud of Northwest Indiana and want to tell stories about great things going on in our communities. If you want to hear more, contact me, I'm always glad to tell our stories.

Political News in Northwest Indiana

With the election over, much of the angry talk is gone for the next year, and we can focus on positive good government debate and interaction here. It's been a while since I've done a general rundown of political news in the Region, if I've missed some stories, put in comments below and we'll graduate good ones to full posts this week.

From Merrillville Howard Fink promoted at Town of Merrillville

A hearty congratulations to my good friend, Howard Fink, with the announcement of his promotion at the Town of Merrillville to Town Administrator. It looks like he'll have the opportunity to move to full Town Manager in the future depending on the budget and the council's opinions of his work.

From Valparaiso - Valpo parks looking for pathway upgrades

Another good friend, Chuck Lehman has presented a proposal for reviewing the pathways thru Valparaiso. Even with budgets being tight, and property taxes capped by law, Valparaiso continues to invest in parks and recreation.

From Portage - Marquette Plan rewarded for excellence

"Accepting the award on behalf of the project sponsors was Mayor Olga Velazquez of the City of Portage, a board member of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission." I believe that this park and the Valpo busline into Chicago are the first visible effects on Porter County of the $3.5 million a year they send to the RDA.

From Cool story about the East Chicago Sewage Treatment Plant

You read that right.

East Chicago's sewage treatment plant works so well that salmon spawn in it's tanks!

People think that the environment is getting worse, but stories like this just go to show that, little by little, it is really a lot better than it used to be, all thanks to technology.

From Crown Point - The race for who will get new plant

"Mayor David Uran is noncommittal about the possibility of the county seat as a location for the future home of a Northwest Indiana garbage-to-ethanol plant.

Uran said he had the opportunity to see firsthand what the Lake County Solid Waste Management District would be voting on, and as a voting member, he wanted to take the opportunity to do so.

Uran called the plant "impressive" and "odorless."

The world watches as #Mumbai mourns

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:36:40 -0600

Mumbai and the WAR on TERROR

I'll be the first to admit, as I have when discussing Kosovo or DR Congo here on this site, that I really don't get the whole Paki-Indian historical conflict. But that sure doesn't mean it's not real.

As the terror crisis in Mumbai unfolded over the last 48 hours there were quick comments to attempt to tie Pakistan to these attacks. So far, I think this is totally unfounded. There's surely a possibility that Al Queda or other groups inside Pakistan could have taken part ... with other rumors suggesting Russia, China, Iran, or Somali terrorists. Time for a deep breath, and let the intelligence professionals sort things out.

First, the situation is not even over yet. Go to live search on twitter for minute by minute updates, some from people standing outside one of the hotels.
Second, we know from our own experience that terror is not necessarily a country and can be entirely borderless. It's time to return to George W. Bush's philosphy, if you work with us great, if you work against us then we will assume you are harboring terrorists and will take steps to pre-emptively protect the free world.
Third, we know that Israel has the capability to knock out Iran's nuclear capability, this may be the right time to make that happen and get rid of one massive potential problem.

I know that some of you will disagree, great, give me your best shot.

A bailout for builders?

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:47:45 -0600

Got to agree with Mark, no bailout for autos or home building, at least in the since of giving them money.

Via Mark MacKenzie:

I have not pulled any punches in expressing my discontent with how Washington has mishandled this economic crisis; how they have been slow to identify that there is indeed a problem, how they have been slow to respond to the problem, and how they have been ineffective and impotent in their response to it.

And so with that as a background, I need to express my concern about the builders who are now asking for a $250 billion bailout, according to CNBC.

Look, I agree that home builders, just as the Detroit automakers, have a significant "GDP" associated with them. They employ a lot of people and purchase a lot of materials. The home building process permeates through a lot of different industries; REALTORS, mortgage brokers, title companies, home warranty companies, inspectors, appraisers, etc. In fact, you could argue that even municipalities benefit from the construction of new homes because it provides them with a new property tax source.

A lot of good things happen when new homes are built. But I don't think that a lot of those in Washington recognize this because it is a splintered industry and because there are not any unions involved. The home builder industry doesn't have the Big 3, they don't have the UAW. In other words, they don't have the lobbying power that Detroit does. And for the record, I am against a Detroit bailout as well and would prefer to see a bankruptcy reorganization that would allow the Big 3 to renegotiate union labor contracts.

Now, with all of this being said, and with all of the benefits that the home builder industry can provide to the economy, we would be reckless to "bailout" this industry because it will only exacerbate the problem.

As I have been saying, mostly to myself, for nearly a year, in order to solve this housing and economic crisis, we need to sell the excess supply of housing; the approximately 1.7 million too many homes that are on the market. The same homes that are causing excessive downward pressure on home values which is ultimately leading to foreclosures.

Until this excess supply of homes is sold, this housing market simply can not recover. That is a fact. So any new stimulus or bailout that the government proposes that does not address this systemic problem with the housing market, will be ineffective in bringing our country economic and housing stability.

History has shown that in the absence of a stable housing market, the economy itself will be unstable.

So, rather than spend another $250 billion to bailout builders that would allow them to continue to construct new homes and add more housing inventory to the already underwater housing market, what the government needs to do is to provide a new fiscal policy that would stimulate new demand for Americans to invest in real estate.

In fact, you could argue, if the government is going to give the builders any money, it should be to have the builders STOP building.

When you drill down through all of these foreclosure and price decline headlines, what it comes down to is supply and demand. How effective Washington is in managing this supply and demand relationship for housing will tell us how quickly we can get the housing market and economy back on track.

How to pump up the economy

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:36:03 -0600

Mini-Depression and the battle for economic common sense

While reading a post by Robert Reich tonite it occurred to me that 2009 will feature a battle of epic proportions, with the now styled Mini-Depression at center stage.

On the one side economists and the Democrat Congress, demanding quick action to drastically increase government spending on infrastructure, roads, highways and rail to create jobs and pump money into consumer's hands.

"First, understand that the main problem right now is not the supply of credit. Yes, Wall Street is paralyzed at the moment because the bursting of the housing and other asset bubbles means that lenders are fearful that creditors won't repay loans. But even if credit were flowing, those loans wouldn't save jobs ...This means bailing out Wall Street or the auto industry or the insurance industry or the housing industry may at most help satisfy creditors for a time and put off the day of reckoning, but industry bailouts won't reverse the downward cycle of job losses."

Ok, so far we agree, which is hard to believe since Reich comes from so far away to get even here. Now from my perspective he shows his true big government colors:

So the crucial questions become (1) how much will the government have to spend to get the economy back on track? and (2) what sort of spending will have the biggest impact on jobs and incomes?

The answer to the first question is "a lot." Given the magnitude of the mess and the amount of underutilized capacity in the economy-- people who are or will soon be unemployed, those who are underemployed, factories shuttered, offices empty, trucks and containers idled -- government may have to spend $600 or $700 billion next year to reverse the downward cycle we're in.

No, that isn't the only option. The biggest job creators are small businesses, who are being taxed and regulated into oblivion by the very big government that is now wanting to increase taxes to throw more money at the old business models that are cutting employees.

How about a totally different approach:

Eliminate capital gains taxes - giving an immediate boost to stock prices

Reinvigorate FHA and Homeownership Society concepts, we don't need to bailout bond holders who bought foolish sub-prime backed securities, we need to encourage home buyers to buy the inventory sitting in our communities. What we need are more buyer, and now. Did you know that right when we most needed buyers for homes this summer that President Bush and Congress eliminated one program that used "zero" government dollars to let buyers purchase with no money down? Why? because it made them all think they were "regulating away" risk. We need buyers now!

Eliminate "mark to market" so that assets aren't being brutalized during this mini-depression.

Stop the $700 Billion bailout, Paulson is already changing the plan, and it's too dangerous going into the new administration to allow Treasury unfettered ability to spend money on whatever they want.

Where Reich is calling for $800 billion or more to build highways and bridges, much of this is already in numerous spending bills and merely marooned by regulations, red tape, and envirnmental largess ... call for a regulatory halt while we unwind our nationa economic crisis.

Make insurance and healthcare expenditures tax deductible for all businesses and entrepreneurs. Give tax incentives to banks for loaning lines of credit to small businesses under $1,000,000. Don't go all regulatory like CRA on this, they can choose to pay less taxes or pay what they're paying now, get this "big daddy government" thing out of your heads.

Lastly, remember the post 9-11 boom of SUV buyers, mainly because businesses were allowed to write off these purchases in full? Do the same for 2009 ... any automobile purchased in 2009 under $100,000 should be allowed a 100% write off to the business. This will create buyers, we need buyers.

Now .. That's Change. Change you can believe in. Change that creates jobs. Change that sells houses and cars. Change that gets banks to lend again or get out of the way.

Sign petition "no bailout" for auto industry

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:04:58 -0600

Sorry but I don't think we need or can afford any more of these bailouts. What the entire country needs are more buyers of real estate, and a whole bunch of people in our industry need to stop talking the market down just to slam easy price cut deals. Sorry that's my opinion, I won't ever be working with an agent that slam-talked the market on the way down personally.

Sign "no auto industry bailout" at #dontgo

Remember the excitement of this summer's #dontgo Revolution? When Republican Congressional members debated in the dark, demanding that Speaker Pelosi let them vote on oil drilling. She kept the lights and microphones off, so technology kicked in and members with phones twittered using the #dontgo hashtag to get the word out to all of us.

Well that same group, of dedicated conservative activists, #dontgo movement is hosting a petition drive to say "NO AUTO INDUSTRY BAILOUT" to Congress, the President and the President-elect.

Go to #dontgo Movement to sign the petition and while there check out the activities and action network.

I have reprinted from my Red County Porter County Indiana Blog

Looking for FHA loan in Northwest Indiana?

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:35:00 -0600

FHA loans are available in Northwest Indiana

From First Financial Trust Mortgage:

FHA loan limits for Northwest Indiana

$417,000 in Porter County for a single family home
$417,000 in Lake County for a single family home
$417,000 in LaPorte County for a single family home

This is good news, in some parts of the country with declining home values these loan limits were reduced this week for 2009 FHA loans. This means even less people will be able to access FHA loans.

FHA is the most solid lending source right now. If you are looking to purchase or refinance you may very well need an FHA loan. FHA loans are guaranteed by the government but are not owned by the government, this is a popular misconception. The loans are pooled into bonds, the very bonds that were the hype of many financial sector stories this fall, and sold into the securities markets. You can get a loan, trust me, but we should talk soon so we can iron out any issues prior to you making an offer on a house.

Email Today

One possible problem for Obama Campaign

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:58:06 -0600

Will Obama campaign be audited by Feds?

From the Foundry:

According to federal election law, any presidential campaign that participates in public financing is automatically audited after an election. When Barack Obama broke his promise to the American people, by forgoing the public financing system, his campaign became the first since public financing became law to have a chance of not being audited. Federal election law does still allow the FEC to audit a presidential campaign that does not participate public financing, but at least four of the six FEC Commissioners must first vote to pursue an investigation ‘for cause.‘ There is no doubt that there is great ’cause’ to be concerned about Obama’s fundraising efforts ...

Morning Bell: the most fraudulent election

How John McCain can win tomorrow

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:10:45 -0600

The McCain Upset Win

From NextGenGop.com

Final Electoral Predictions: What a McCain Upset Would Look Like

Nov 3rd, 2008

by Aaron Marks.

At this point, I don't think that any of us can effectively predict what the outcome of tomorrow's elections will be. Quite frankly, I'm not even sure that we'll know the who the next President of the United States is going to be for many hours, if not days, after polls close. That said, it seems that there are three possible scenarios that could play out in tomorrow's Presidential election:

Barack Obama wins in a huge landslide.
Barack Obama wins in a close race.
John McCain pulls off an historical upset in a close race.

Analysis of each scenario, along with an electoral map prediction, after the jump.

Barack Obama Wins in a Huge Landslide (go to article for this scenario, I'm not interested in that one!)

Barack Obama Wins in a Close Race (most likely scenario, if you believe the polls, again go to link, since I'm more interested in the McCain upset win)

John McCain Pulls of an Historic Upset in a Close Race

I am extremely hopeful that John McCain can pull off an upset tomorrow. Unfortunately, looking at the electoral maps above, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which he can accomplish such a difficult feat. However, if it's going to happen, I think that in addition to Ohio and Florida bucking the current polling trends, so will Pennsylvania and, out of necessity, another state with a couple of electoral votes. Based on current RCP averages, I'm of the opinion that Nevada is the other state most likely to swing.

First, let's talk about Pennsylvania. I'm Pittsburgh born and raised, and so I've lived in Pennsylvania my entire life. As a former Santorum 2006 staffer, I know that accomplishing a statewide victory in Pennsylvania is an incredible challenge for Republicans. However, I also believe that the dynamics of Pennsylvania's electorate make it the next most likely state to flip from polling projections after Ohio and Florida. No, this isn't because we're racist or a bunch of rednecks (although I believe that Murtha's comments may drive an increased number of Republicans in his district to the polls tomorrow, which is undoubtedly in McCain's favor). Rather, I believe that the blue collar voters of Pennsylvania, although reliably Democrat, find it extremely difficult to swallow Barack Obama's "spread the wealth around" policies - and as a result, they may either decide to not vote at all, or to pull the lever for John McCain. Additionally, there are a number of highly competitive Congressional races in PA in which an outcry of Republican voters could help turn the race in favor of McCain. Specifically, I look to William Russell's race against John Murtha (which I mentioned above), but also to Lou Barletta's race against the filthy Paul Kanjorski, in which I think Lou will defeat Kanjorski. With Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida going against polling trends, the electoral college stands at 270 for Obama-Biden to 268 for McCain-Palin, requiring one more state to flip for a McCain-Palin victory.

In my eyes, there are two other states that potentially could end up becoming red despite polling that indicates otherwise: Virginia and Nevada. Winning in either of these states will prove difficult for John McCain. However, he only has to flip one of them from its polling trends in order to win. So a McCain-Palin victory might look something like this:

The roadmap to victory for the McCain-Palin ticket is enormously difficult and quite improbable, although certainly not impossible. Some important questions to ponder over the next day or so: Can Barack Obama close? Will the GOP's vaunted GOTV machine have the success we've seen in previous elections? Will young voters turn out in droves, and if so, will they really disproportionately vote for Obama? And, most importantly, does John McCain's campaign have the ability to pull off an unprecedented and historic electoral victory?

Please check out NextGenGOP for great articles during election, and then post-election as we all discuss the future of the GOP going forward.

A powerful endorsement of John McCain

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:12:55 -0500

From the Ornery American and science fiction writer Orson Scott Card the powerful words of his most recent article: What Really Matters as we Vote.

The highlights, since now that I know who's writing these I find it unimaginable to copy the whole thing:

The air is now so full of floating feathers that it's hard to see the furniture, and the media isn't helping, as they blow the fluff around.

But he goes on to say there are solid issues important enough to ponder.

Without ensuring safety for America and its allies, nothing else a president does matters at all. And on this subject, Obama has promised us that his regime will be even more disastrous than Clinton's was. On National Defense

But if you're not paying a tax today, and the decisions of Obama and the Democrats in Congress cause your taxes to rise, that's a tax increase. When you factor that in with Obama's supposed "cuts," working people will be paying a lot more.

Now comes the clincher: Obama is a true believer in "income redistribution." He thinks that the rights granted by the Constitution and the courts are only "negative" rights -- what the government is forbidden to do. He wants to mandate what "what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf" -- and that is "redistributive change." On the Economy

Are you getting the gist? Please go read the entire article, send to friends and relatives.

A great morning read for all of us

Orson Scott Card's Powerful McCain Endorsement

How do you feel your personal life experiences shaped your political views?

Steve Dalton - Northwest Indiana (First Financial Trust Mortgage ) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:21:17 -0500

This question was posed today on FriendFeed, here's the link to the article: How do you feel your personal life experiences shaped your political views?

If you haven't joined Friend Feed, please do so, and join the conversation which is very interesting tonite. The responses are very telling and I'd like to get some real estate professionals to join what is normally dominated by very liberal techie types.

It will only take a few minutes, trust me.