Milliken - The "Hub of Northern Colorado", is a fast growing vibrant community in Weld county, which sits six miles east of I-25 on Colorado Highway 60. Milliken offers a pristine quality of life to its residents in a true rural Colorado setting. The Town offers a variety of amenities to residents including beautiful parks and open space, recreational activities, top-notch public services, and local educational convenience with both an elementary and middle school within the community.

Milliken's history started with the settlement of Hillsboro in the 1860's which was the trade center for the immediate area. The town was officially established in 1907 and was named after Judge John D. Milliken, a pioneer lawyer who helped establish the Denver, Laramie and Northwestern railroad.  In the early years, Milliken grew by leaps and bounds, and soon boasted several churches, a school, and thirty businesses including; two lumberyards, a 16 room hotel, a bank, drug store, telephone office, and its own newspaper, The Milliken Mail.

The first of several disastrous fire hit the town in 1911 - destroying three businesses. Subsequent fires coupled with the decline in railroad transport dealt their blows to the community. Many changes have happened in Milliken in the last 20 years. The streets were unpaved even into the early 1980's. The Town continues to grow and still benefits from the land that first drew settlers and developers.  Today Milliken is a growing community, with a population of over 5,700.  The town offers prospective residents the opportunity to choose a home in a variety of master planned communities at a far better value than in many of the surrounding larger cities without sacrificing quality.

Kendall Brook subdivision located three miles north of Highway 34, on the northwest side of Loveland on the northwest corner of North Taft Avenue and West 43rd Street.  Fully developed single family lots are still available in second and third phase.  Price includes water, sewer, gas, electric and cable TV stubbed to each finished lot. The neighborhood has paved streets, curbs, gutters, entry monumentation, landscaping, streetlights and sidewalks.  Other amenities in this subdivision include:

• Tremendous open space
• Soccer field
• 4 Parks with playground equipment
• 1 Park without playground equipment
• City trail system along the Louden Canal
• Excellent views of the Rocky Mountains 
• Professionally managed & landscaped community
• Close to shopping, entertainment and recreation
• Convenient to downtown Loveland and Lake Loveland
• 6 miles south of the City of Fort Collins

Currently, R&R Homes have 5 spec homes to choose from!  Stop by the model home at 4850 Georgetown Drive.  Open Saturday & Sunday from 1:00-5:00 pm.

Or for more information check out our website at:  www.randrnewhomes.com

Building a better home for you & the environment!

• Stunning four bedroom, three bath ranch style home in desirable Kendall Brook subdivision
• Custom tile with granite accents entry
• Tall solid Alder wood interior doors throughout
• Beautiful slab granite countertops in kitchen below a full custom tiled backsplash
• Stainless steel built-in convection oven & microwave PLUS refrigerator are included.
• Open living room with corner accented gas fireplace
• Spacious master suite offering: Patio Access, 5-piece bath with skylight & walk-in closet
• Dedicated dining room with spectacular mountain views
• Finished basement offering full wetbar with dishwasher, microwave & full size refrigerator
• Beautifully landscaped with  fire pit in backyard great for those cool fall evenings

During the 2008 Best Places to Do Business study that was conducted by INC.com - Colorado ranked pretty high!  Our highest ranking city was Grand Junction - coming in at #11 overall and # 9 on the small cities list.  Greeley was ranked 25^th overall (18^th on small cities) which was a huge jump from last year's rank of 64^th.   Fort Collins came in 53^rd overall (31^st on small cities) another huge jump from last year's rank of 141.  These rankings were based on non farm employment, manufacturing, financial services, business and professional services, educational and health services, information, retail and wholesale trade, transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, and government.  According to INC.com, the list focuses on short and long term job growth - showing where jobs are being created and to where momentum is shifting - and identifies the best places to locate or expand business.

Below is a chart of how Colorado cities ranked on this 335 city list:

The Northern Colorado area is hold on strong on the national "best of" ranking!  In the recent Money Magazine's 100 Best Places to Live for 2008- Fort Collins was ranked 2^nd This was just one step down from it's 1^st place ranking in 2006.  In the article Money magazine praised Fort Collins for it's bike friendliness, microbreweries and restaurants in Old Town, biosciences and tech companies, employment, Colorado State University, the future downtown solar energy projects, health care and schools.  Another Northern Colorado city that came in at 33^rd was Loveland for it's Valentine Remailing Program, sculptures and Budweiser Event Center.  Other cities in Colorado that were on the list was  Highlands Ranch at 12^th, Westminster at 44^th, Longmont at 50^th. 

The hardest part of saving for a new home for many people is putting away the money for the down payment. If you have less than 25% of the purchase price to put down you will likely need to purchase mortgage insurance from whatever lender you have chosen.  The reason for this is simple.  It's protection for the lender against default if you can't keep up the payments.

Remember that we all need a personal banker, someone who lends a friendly face to the giant financial institutions that dominate our lives. With your personal banker on your side, you can get discounted loan rates and better repayment terms.  It's all about getting and maintaining a decent credit score so that you be able to qualify for conventional bank loan. 

There are several things that you can do to rebuild a damaged credit score or start a new one. One of the first things you might want to try especially if you're younger is to start off on the right foot and build a credit history with your first credit card. Of course that doesn't mean that you should spend foolishly on your first card , but it is all about showing the banks that you can be responsible with the credit that they have sought fit to give you.

Remember too that this is not a situation where more is better.  While the banks like you to try and establish your credit rating, they are not interested in seeing that you've taken every credit card that's been offered to you. Instead they would much rather see that you have started off small and are acting in a responsible manner. By showing them this kind of accountability, you'll be on your way to either repairing or establishing the kind of credit that will get you a conventional mortgage.

Ask anyone who owns their own home about the obvious advantages and they'll more than likely tell you that there's an immense amount of pride in being able to say that they've got their own space. But there are many other pluses as well, and some of these are good tax advantages.

For instance, most times any capital gain from the sale of your principle residence is usually non-taxable. You home also represents excellent collateral. This means that you can often go to the bank to borrow other money for different projects that you might want to embark on, or the collateral in your home represents the ability to borrow for other purchases.

As well, you can deduct the cost of operating a business out of your home. These deductions also often include a proportionate amount of household expenses. Still, it should be mentioned that the best way of avoiding trouble is not to overextend yourself with credit. It's essential that you determine what you can afford and then stay within those means. Still, all the experts suggest that the best way for you to look after your finances is to cut costs in your mortgage wherever possible and there are several ways to do this.

First of all you should consider what it means to have a standard mortgage that's usually not tax deductible and will usually run a term of 30 years. All the experts agree that there are several other ways to pay this down, and one of the best is to get a short term variable rate mortgage. Also, if your cash flow is strong and your job secure, you can save literally thousands of dollars in interest payments by changing your amortization rate from 25 to 15 years.

Here's another suggestion that will increase your equity and bring the principle down. When you go to renew your mortgage, make sure to dump a fair amount on the principle so that you owe less in the long run. Many institutions allow you to pay extra once a year, or add an extra payment once a year, or pay a lump sum annually instead of monthly.

 Remember that the equity that you've got in you home will quite often dictate how you live in you later years and what kind of retirement you will have. It's always a good idea to plan to increase your equity by paying your mortgage down as often as you can.

If you think that you are paying an arm and a leg at the pump then take a look at gas prices in other parts of the world at the end of May:

Gas Prices Around the World 

*Does not include taxes

Those of us who own their homes know that we've got it, but we don't always understand what it means or why it's so important. The term equity has many of us confused but really there's no need for that. Simply put, equity is the difference between the value of your home and what you still own on it. All the experts agree that this is one of the matters that should be at the heart of all you financial planning. It is one of if not the only way that some of us have of acquiring wealth.

There are many ways that you can borrow against your equity and if any type of emergency situation arises, it can come in handy against unexpected doctor's bills and the like. Remember too that having equity in your home improves your credit rating and this means that you'll be able to borrow more from a bank with better terms.

One of the tricks to getting this equity is having patience. Equity isn't something that you can build up overnight. Often it takes years of paying that mortgage down before you see any results, but once you get past the first five years of a mortgage, generally all the payments that you make after that start to make bigger dents in what you owe. As well, there is always an element of equity planning involved with any retirement plan as one of the goals there is to own your home with a small or no mortgage at all.

With this plan in place shelter for the remaining years of your retirement is guaranteed. A mortgage free home also takes the pressure off the need to use retirement income to pay for shelter. One of the other reasons to improve the equity in your house is so you can do the renovations that will further enhance your equity.    

At one time or another almost all home owners have dwelled on the possibility of paying down the mortgage early, if only because they are disgusted with paying so much interest over such a long period of time. Remember that in the early years of the mortgage, roughly 90% of each payment goes towards the interest on the mortgage loan.  In other words, for the first few years that you have a mortgage, you are not paying any of the amount you owe off. Unfortunately, few people actually institute programs for quickly paying down the mortgage on the family home, and even fewer understand why this is such a good investment.

It's important to remember that almost all conventional mortgages have the possibility of paying up to 10% down on the anniversary of the mortgage date.  In other words, on the exact date that you signed the paperwork every year you're allowed to make a payment on the principal that has no interest attached to it. You can also pay off any amount of it that when you renew the mortgage itself.

However over last few years, most of the financial institutions that offer mortgages have made it even easier for you to discharge your debt quickly. Some offer open mortgages that allow you to pay off any amount of the principal at any time. A number of mortgages also permit more than one payment in a month, and these weekly or semimonthly payment schedules increase the amount of interest that is paid down annually. As well several institutions offer you the option of doubling up on any monthly payments of both personal and interest and in this way the extra payment at the end of the year will be applied to the principal.