The number of banks listed by the FDIC as “problem banks” rose in the first quarter – up from 252 in the 4th quarter of 2008 to 305 in the most recent report. This item from Calculated Risk includes charts that show the problem is significant and still growing.
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Summer gas prices expected peak $2.50
According to this bankrate article, the decline in commercial demand for gasoline is the principally reason gasoline prices will remain $1, or more, per gallon below last year.
Existing home sales rise in April says NAR
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2009
Existing-home sales rose in April with strong buyer activity in lower price ranges, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – increased 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.68 million units in April from a downwardly revised pace of 4.55 million units in March, but were 3.5 percent below the 4.85 million-unit level in April 2008.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said first-time buyers continue to influence the market but there also is a seasonal rise of repeat buyers. “Most of the sales are taking place Read the rest of this entry »
Mapping your customer database
Several have expressed an interest in geocoding their customer database (that is showing your customers location on a map and sorting by attributes like sales). For a low cost software application, I like Microsoft Mappoint at about $200. Zeemaps is a free on-line solution that I ran across. I haven’t tried it but it looks well rated. Let me and other local business people know if you have some experience with ZeeMaps by commenting below.
Sunshine, temperatures and home shoppers all up last week
Real estate lockbox activity reported up more than 13% last week compared to week prior.
Sohn’s says Wyden’s timber proposal “makes matters worse”
From Rick Sohn
Senator Wyden’s “Oregon Forest Restoration and Old Growth Protection Act,” more aptly called the “Little-management and Forest Fire Destruction of Old Growth Act”
It’s no wonder neither the environmental groups nor the timber industry are happy with Senator Wyden’s proposed federal legislation. Some say that if no one likes a bill, it must be ok. More often, if NO ONE likes it, there are serious flaws to fix.
Senator Wyden’s proposed bill creates a new management roadblock for all Oregon federal lands, including BLM lands, discussed recently in the February column.
Senator Wyden’s proposed bill would do away with both regeneration harvests and the harvest of grade wood. No longer would the BLM be allowed the full range of site-specific harvest options to efficiently treat the land Read the rest of this entry »
May Timber report from Rick Sohn
From Rick Sohn
Timber Industry Report
May 22, 2009
US housing starts and permits have fallen to record lows again. See the 3-year price comparisons for lumber, logs, housing starts, permits, and unsold home inventories below. An analysis of Senator Wyden’s “Forest Restoration and Old Growth Protection Act” follows in a separate posting.
____Prices in Dollars per Thousand Board Feet____
| May.’09 | Apr. ’09 | Mar. ’09 | Apr. ‘08 | Apr. ‘06 | |
| Southern Oregon Studs ¹ | $155 | $160 | $142 | $225 | $325 |
| Southern Oregon Logs² | $346 | $356 | $474 | $720 |
______ Thousands of Housing units_____
| Apr. ’09 | Mar. ’09 | Apr. ’08 | Apr. ’06 | |
| US Private Housing Starts3 | 458 | 525 | 1,001 | 1,821 |
| US Private Building Permits3 | 494 | 511 | 991 | 1,998 |
____ Months of Inventory of Unsold Homes_
| Apr. ’09 | Mar. ’09 | Apr. ‘08 | Apr. ‘06 | |
| Portland OR Unsold Home Inventory4 | 11 | 12 | 10.3 | 2.4 |
What the numbers mean.
The signs of even deeper weakness in new housing are here. Housing starts fell to the lowest level since record keeping started 50 years ago – 458,000 units, eclipsing a revised January number of 488,000 units. Building permits, which usually start 1-3 months later, also fell to a new low of 494,000 units. Log prices are still dropping, albeit slower. Stud lumber prices have not sustained their rise and settled back to 155. In a typical response to the weak volume demand and prices, Swanson Read the rest of this entry »
Douglas County real estate May report ‘encouraging’
From Neil Hummel
Century 21
Housing prices nationwide are still on the decline and are adjusting to the mid 1990 price range. Price stabilization, with its positive implications for reducing foreclosures, will be a critical factor in the reduction of unsold inventories, according to the National Home Builder’s economists.
They go on to say the fundamental demand factors, as opposed to excess demand, will be the key factor in returning the housing market to its balance. However, it is still uncertain when that will occur. Their best estimate is to see positive numbers in 2012 and not until 2017 will it return to the 1.5 – 2 million housing start levels we saw in 2005.
In Douglas County, when you compare April 2009 to March 2009 pending sales grew by some 6.4% and over 18% since the first of the year. It is important to note that pending sales are headed in a direction which will lead to more closed sales. We did see a raise of 14.6% Read the rest of this entry »
5 mistakes people make in attempting to read body language at work
We all know that non-verbal communication is a powerful tool and a principal reason that e-mail and voice mail are less effective than in-person meetings. Here is a quick read the outlines common mistakes in reading body language.
Direct mail’s precipitous decline; USPS ad revenues will ‘never recover’
Direct mail advertising revenue is expected to drop nearly 40% by the end of 2013. In 2008 those revenues were nearly $50 billion and they are expected to drop to below $30 billion. The migration from postal delivery to Internet delivery of adverising messages, especially by e-mail, is cited int his Borrell report on MediaPost. Among the categories hard hit is coupon’s and coupon mailers. Expect the subsidies required for the post office to increase in light of this diminishment of the USPS principal revenue source – increasing the likelihood of a much smaller postal system in the future.
