Yesterday I received a challenging reference question that pertained to property values of homes in New Hampshire. Without going into all the details, I did come across a few information resources that I would like to share with you. The first is a reference book titled State Rankings 2006, a statistical view of the 50 United States, (call number is REF 973.0728 S). Amongst the numerous statistics included for households and housing was a chart including percent change in house prices from 2001 to 2005. As it turns out, the figure for the entire state of New Hampshire was 68.8% increase (as opposed to the national figure of 55.3% increase.)
The source of the chart's data was the "House Price Index" which is published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. OFHEO's mission is to promote housing and a strong national housing finance system by ensuring the safety and soundness of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal ree accHome Loan Mortgage Corporation).
As you may know, Fannie Mae has been in the news recently for having its charitable work and related tax deductions scrutinized by the Internal Revenue Service. You can read about this in the article "Philanthropy Fannie Mae Style" found in the April 2nd edition of Business Week. Provided you are a Nashua Public Library cardholder, you have free access to this article through the Library's EBSCO database subscription.
Just click on this link, enter the last 5 digits of your library card number, and then click on the "General Magazines Resources" link. Once you are at the search screen, type in Philanthropy Fannie Mae Style just like it is in this picture and click on 'Search'. (You can click on the picture below to see an enlarged version.)
So, if you would ever like to know how New Hampshire measures up statistically to the other 50 states in topics including agriculture, crime, economics, education, employment and much more, drop by the reference desk and ask to see State Rankings 2006. And for free access to any Business Week article since January 1997, use the llibrary's EBSCO database.