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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: johnsto1 who wrote (28049)	6/20/2000 1:33:00 PM
From: Shroom37	Respond to of 57584

OT/ Kind of nice to see some good press about a big company for a change. Guess if there are any teachers here that want to move to the Bay Area nows the time. Shroom Silicon Valley Doesn't Appeal to Everyone June 20, 2000 10:55 am EST SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - Silicon Valley may be a magnet for the brightest minds from around the world, but its staggeringly high real estate prices are driving away some of the people it needs most: teachers. On Monday, Intel Corp. and the Santa Clara Unified School District unveiled a new mortgage assistance fund aimed at helping the nation's high tech heartland attract and retain school teachers by making it easier for them to buy homes. "We expect a lot from our school teachers in preparing today's youngsters to be tomorrow's workforce," Steve Nachtsheim, vice president of Intel Capital, the giant chip maker's investment arm, said in a statement. "Intel is pleased to be able to help teachers stay in our community and enjoy the benefits of home ownership." Those benefits have seemed increasingly out of reach for school teachers around the San Francisco Bay Area, where the high tech and stock market booms have created some of the most expensive real estate in the country. The average teacher's salary in Santa Clara County is $37,744, while the median home price in the county recently topped $500,000 -- an almost insurmountable gap that is driving experienced teachers out of the region and stopping new teachers from moving in, officials say. The Intel Teacher Housing Fund, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, is aimed at narrowing the gap. Under the program, the fund would pay $500 a month toward each eligible teacher's mortgage for five years, effectively allowing them to qualify for a home as if their salaries were $1500 per month higher than they actually are. Annual pay raises over five years are expected to bring teachers up to the level where they can carry the mortgage payments themselves, officials said. District officials hope the $1.25 million fund, which Intel is putting together by buying a $10 million bond from the district at below-market interest, will prevent an outflow of teaching talent from the region's classrooms. In Santa Clara County, 24 teachers who resigned this year cited the high cost of living -- three times the number who left last year for the same reason. "We have an attractive package for recruiting new teachers, but once they have two or three years of experience and are ready to 'drop anchor' in the community and buy a house, there is nothing they can afford," Superintendent Paul Perth said. The housing fund, which Intel says may be expanded to include other regional school districts if the Santa Clara program is successful, joins a number of other efforts now underway to keep teachers in the community. Santa Clara County has already slated plans to build a 40-unit partment complex which will be rented to teachers at below market rates, while San Francisco recently announced a similar plan which will be funded with help from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.