Banks, Counties and Towns boost rural population with housing, loans, and tax breaks
Instead, Lubkmen and his wife, Kirsten, are building their dream home in Franklin County. That's where he was born and raised. And that's where the couple has taken up Hampton State Bank on its offer of a 3.99 percent home loan to anyone who graduated from a Franklin County high school and moves back home.
Across the state, banks, rural electric cooperatives, economic development groups and governments are striving to stem the outflow of young talent and economic vitality. Just 29 of the state's 99 counties gained population between 1970 and 2000, and that trend continues. So, these groups are coming up with tax breaks, housing options and other incentives to try to stem the brain drain.
Here are some other programs that communities are trying:
- Worth County: Using funds channeled to it by the Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, the Worth County Development Authority wrote tuition subsidy checks for $4,391 this fall for each of 87 students who graduated from county high schools and went on to college. Countywide, the authority also has partly funded pre-school tuition, has paid $960 to each teacher to help defray expenses they incur buying classroom supplies, and has given every K-12 student a $50 gift card.
- Greene County: Economic development and housing groups are joining with employers to make a $1,000 relocation package available to people who move there. Community programs also are building spec homes that can be ready for occupancy as soon as someone is recruited to work in the western Iowa county.
Community development efforts are nothing new to rural Iowa. Banks typically play a key role in such undertakings, perhaps because they have money, managerial talent and a vested interest in seeing their community prosper.
Mark Reisinger, state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, said it's all for the better.
"Success of these banks and other lending institutions directly correlates with the success of Iowa's rural economy," he said. USDA Rural Development has during the past few years guaranteed $215 million worth of loans that banks across Iowa have made for homes, businesses and community facilities.
Economic development efforts have often concentrated on bringing a new business to town. But Kim Miller, executive director of the Worth County Development Authority, said she'd prefer to attract people, and then let them figure out how to add jobs.
In Jefferson, the problem with recruiting businesses was lack of housing, said Norm Fandel, director of marketing at the Midland Power Cooperative and a member of the Greene County Development Committee. "They say, 'I'd move here, but you don't have a house.' " "It's a very frustrating problem."
So local movers and shakers - such as bankers, realtors, contractors - have now joined with economic development groups to finance and build two houses. More could be on the way.
In Franklin County, Brad Davis, president and chief executive officer of Hampton State Bank, will bankroll a new home, as he is with the Lubkmens. Or he'll arrange financing on an existing property, as the bank did with Erran Miller and Roxanna Orr.
Miller had left the county to attend college, and after his 2004 graduation he moved to Mason City to work.
"But I kept my connections to Hampton," he said.
Eventually, Miller heard of the bank's program and moved to Hampton, where he bought a house. He's keeping busy. His main job is selling real estate, but he also is a substitute teacher at the high school, works part-time as a paramedic at the hospital and as a reserve police officer, and is involved with the youth group at his church.
Like Miller, Orr left for college after high school in 2001. Just about all of her family remained in the county, however, as did the family of her husband, Adam Johnson.
"It didn't take much convincing to get me back," she said.
Orr's move scored for the bank on several levels. Besides luring two natives back home, her move added to the population with the birth this summer of their daughter. And Orr has opened "Dancing with Roxie," two dance studios in Hampton and Mason City, adding economic vitality and culture that every small town seeks.
Davis said the idea for the promotion came as he was meeting with Hampton State Bank's marketing committee, brainstorming ways to energize the north central Iowa county.
"It just kind of popped into my head, this phrase, 'Come Back to Franklin County,' " he said. From there, it was a matter of coming up with a plan to match the theme.
Hampton State Bank committed $1 million to the project. So far, Davis said he has attracted seven buyers, who have requested nearly half that amount, and has one more nearing approval.
Lubkmen, who graduated from high school in Latimer in 1990, said he heard about the program through media reports shortly after it was launched in late 2005. His wife, Kirsten, is from Chicago, but both of them decided that they wanted to explore their options beyond Ames, where they have lived since 2001.
"We spent a year or two looking at acreages," Lubkmen said. They found the land they wanted, west of Latimer, and bought it in 2006 and started to build a geodesic dome home that the bank financed.
Most of the hammer swinging is being done by Lubkmen's father, Ken Lubkmen, who has decades of experience in construction.
"I've been learning from him for years," said Brian, 35.
Other people may have a chance to learn, too. The bank just announced that it will extend the program for at least one more year. The program has attracted seven households who have borrowed $481,000, which Davis said leaves him with $511,000 more to loan out.
