Maintaining Financial Security for a Growing Community
Development and Real Estate:
Since July 2022, 102 new homes have been completed and sold in Issaquah Highlands and 37 homes are still under construction, bringing the total number of IHCA-owned units to 3,581. When combined with the current 958 rental units, our community is at 99.9% of “Total Allowable Residential.” There were also 102 resales throughout the year.
Annual Audit:
We have completed another year with a “clean” audit (unqualified opinion), while maintaining strong controls over the accounting environment. By providing complete and accurate audit schedules to our auditors, we keep our audit fees low and our auditors happy.
Investments:
We analyze our cash deposit positions persistently to attain the highest interest yield while maintaining 100% Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) insurance on all of our deposits.
Our interest income for 2022–23 is estimated to be $65,000, which is about $5,000 more than last year due to interest rates increasing later in the year. We have a very effective CD purchase program with our bank, enabling us to be efficient with cash management while receiving very competitive CD interest rates compared to other banks. Our master reserves remain funded at 118%, which is a phenomenal achievement.
At the end of February, $4.7 million in CD’s were purchased for the IHCA master and eight supplemental neighborhoods. The monthly interest income will increase from roughly $3,000 per month to $11,000 per month. Terms range from 1–4 years, with interest rates ranging from 4–5%.
Master Assessments:
Master assessments for the upcoming 2023–24 fiscal year will increase by $12 annually ($1/month) to $972. This is needed to cover increasing costs for our aging community. We have continued to encourage the participation of the monthly auto debit payment (ACH) program for collecting assessments, in which 86% of our homeowners participate. This keeps our cash flow even throughout the year and our delinquencies low at a rate of 1.5%.
How We Do It:
The community managers and accounting manager work tirelessly for months on creating the budgets for 14 supplemental neighborhoods and the master community. Many of them have a high level of complexity, and the managers spend countless hours researching costs and reviewing to ensure the numbers are accurate and fair to all homeowners in the community. These budgets are then reviewed and approved by the IHCA Finance Committee and IHCA Board of Directors.
Lastly, we always want to thank the incredible Finance Committee and Board of Directors for their determined support all throughout the year. The Finance Committee meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. The board meets every fourth Monday at 5:30 p.m. All meetings are open to the public. Find more details on the Issaquah Highlands calendar.
Kristyn McKinnon is the IHCA accounting manager.
