Financial Reasons for Supporting Phase 2 Renovations

There are many reasons to vote for Phase 2. If the reasons of adequacy, safety, and equal educational opportunity aren't enough for you, consider the following financial impacts:

1. Research by the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that school bonds result in a 6 to 7 point increase in housing prices by the third year after a school bond is issued. This far surpasses the tax investment in the bond. Even if we assumed a conservative estimate of 4 percentage points, we could expect that average home values in Salem would increase by about $10,000 as a direct result of a school bond by the third year of the bond. The tax investment in Phase 2 of a $300K home after three years would be about $256. Investment=$256, Return=$10,000. ROI = staggering.

2. Local real estate experts point to the fact that more families are choosing Windham over Salem, and a significant consideration of these families is the school facilities. As long as more people are buying somewhere else, our property values will lag behind those communities.

3. The cost of waiting could be significant based on conservative estimates of increases in construction costs and bond rates. Construction costs are already starting to inch up - if we wait longer to renovate our schools, we will pay the price. If costs go up even 3 to 5 percent from here, and bond rates increase to a level above 5 percent, we will pay close to $6 million more for the same plan over 20 years, not to mention more on our other school renovations that get pushed out even further.

Whether we have kids in public school or private school, or no kids in school at all, we live in a community. We are not an island. Property values are impacted by the quality of the public schools and are HEAVILY influenced by facilities. We have to compete with surrounding communities. It's about our future.