Business, Stock Market, Commodities and Real Estate News
We knew it had to happen sooner or later. Nothing lasts forever, not even the low housing prices in Los Vegas. The investors are coming out of the woodwork and have snapped up about 60% of the homes in Vegas for cash. Read more about it here:
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-vegas-home-sales-20120328,0,3278002.story
The banks are reporting lower foreclosure numbers for the last quarter of 2011. Some of that can be attributed to the robo-signing fiasco and some to the new programs that the banks have put in place to help the home owner keep their home. The banks have become a little more flexible in dealing with these delinquent mortgages mainly because the tactics they were using before simply wasn’t working. You can read more about it here:
Retirement! It’s something that most of us look forward to. A time that we can finally tell our boss to shove it, if we feel like it. Just think about it for a minute. You give your boss ample notice that you’re going to retire, or maybe not. Either way, the big day finally gets here and you’re walking out the door with your personal belongings for the last time. You leave behind all the stress, the headaches, the politics, the 5AM wakeups and the traffic jams. Now you can play golf all you want, go fishing or just stare out the window. Everything is great. Or is it? Have you done all the planning necessary for your retirement? In other words, do you have enough money to keep on being retired? Here’s a few things to consider before you take that big step.
The other day a reader left the following comment;
I read a lot and figure someone needs $2M to really have a good shot at living well and retiring with few worries. Roger your thoughts?
The reader also shared that he is 58 with the implication that he is close to retirement age. Another reader left a comment on a Seeking Alpha post of mine agreeing that $2 million is the figure. Between the two comments I feel like I am being asked in part for my personal views and choices.The best generic advice I can give is to live below your means, don’t accumulate debt, save a lot and if you ever do need to fund your expenses/lifestyle out of your savings take no more than 1% per quarter. My use of the word generic is not meant as a slight, I believe the above combo is an essential foundation to a successful financial plan and we live by the first three now (we are a few decades from the withdrawal stage).
Assuming the 4% rule, a $2 million portfolio would allow for $80,000 in portfolio withdrawals. Are you then going to assume getting social security or not? How does the $80,000 (plus social security or not) compare with how much you live on now? Not how much you earn but how much you live on.
There are several types of expenses that we have to contend with and try to plan for one way or another. I’ve written about these before; things that probably can be easily planned, those that cannot and one-offs–things like vet bills, new tires and home repair.
Our recent three foot snow storm lead me to come up with another category which is things we probably will need. At some point I may not be able to shovel out a three foot snow storm. If we want to stay where we are then at some point we will need either a snow blower or an ATV that we put a plow blade on. These are not disastrous expenses but also not $100 to go to a baseball game either. We have a long uphill driveway which probably rules out a snow blower– the cheapest option. A more expensive option would be the ATV and blade and an even more expensive option would be moving. Where we are it would not be wise to rely on being able to hire someone to do this for us.
There’s a lot to consider when contemplating retirement. If you haven’t done so yet, now may be a good time to talk to a Financial Planner.
A lot of new business owners, and I mean brand spanking new never been in business before new, make a lot of mistakes when first starting that new business. They’ll look back sometime down the road and realize that things could have been a lot easier for them in the beginning if they only had a little more insight. The video below will help you get through some of the rough parts with a few less bumps and bruises.
All the experts will all tell you that a sound business plan is an absolute must if you’re going to make it in the business world. Forget about the info-commercials and ads that show you the mansions, expensive cars and suitcases full of money. All of that is just a sales pitch to get you to buy into a program that promises that you’ll be filthy stinking rich almost overnight with very little work. Unfortunately the real world just doesn’t work that way. As they say, if it was that easy then everybody would be doing it and it wouldn’t have any value. To get on the right track to a real and successful business, watch the video below.
Most small business owners have the same goal and that is to increase revenues with new business. In an average or stable economy there are already enough road blocks to make that a difficult undertaking. With today’s economy it’s even worse. But now there is a different way to increase your business and quite possibly increase it a lot. You’ll have to jump through some hoops but it may be worth it
IBM and several other large corporations have launched a directory where small businesses can get listed to do business with large corporations.
Called the Supplier Connection, the site is open to U.S. small businesses.
If you are wondering what “small” means, it means your business has to have less than $50 Million in revenues or fewer than 500 employees. You have to provide products or services in chemicals, construction, consulting, financial services, auto parts, HR services, information technology, marketing communications, market research, printing, software or security (for the full list, see the Supplier Connection website).
Some of the large corporations that are involved along with IBM include JP Morgan Chase, Kellogg’s, Pfizer, Caterpillar, Citi, JohnDeere, AMD and Facebook. The U.S. Small Business Administration has also gotten behind it.
But Is It Realistic for Small Businesses?
When I first heard about this from Laurie McCabe’s site, I thought it was a great idea. I was excited and decided to try it out.
What I discovered is that the paperwork and requirements are daunting.
First, let’s talk about the paperwork. Bureaucracy is a huge barrier to growth for small businesses — even the perception of heavy bureaucracy is a barrier. According to the Wall Street Journal, one business owner reported that completing a Supplier Profile is “not a one-hour routine” but takes commitment.
Most small businesses don’t have anything near the 500-employee limit for this program — instead, think 5 employees. That is a much more common size for a small business. In a 5-employee small business, there’s rarely anyone you can assign who will have all the knowledge to complete the paperwork. The business owner will likely be handling the paperwork himself or herself, probably in the evening (since that’s the only time available).
Beyond the paperwork is the whole issue of whether you can meet the system’s mandatory requirements. I started filling out the application and managed to get through the first four steps out of 9, in 20 minutes. ”Hmm, that’s not so bad,” I thought.
Then I got to step 5, the Environment section. It stopped me cold. For instance, how many of you could say “yes” to the following?
- Does your company have a Corporate Responsibility and Environmental Management System, which measures performance, sets goals, and discloses results?
- Does your company define, deploy, and sustain your corporate responsibility and environmental management system through your engagement with your suppliers?
- Does your company cascade this set of requirements to your suppliers who perform work that is material to the products, parts and/or services being supplied to your customer?
In all, there were over 20 questions about environmental, ISO9001 and ISO14001 compliance, 16 of them required fields to answer.
Very few small businesses with under say, 20 employees, could say yes to the above questions. And what if you answer “no”? Well, you are required to specify the exact day, month and year when you plan to be in compliance. In our business we have no plans to create environmental policies and systems. Being an Internet publisher we shut off lights when we don’t need them, recycle paper and soda cans, avoid printing emails and documents unless absolutely necessary, and use power management options on our computers and other equipment. But we do not write corporate policies about those actions — we just do them.
Our suppliers (other small businesses and entrepreneurs) would laugh — or cry — if we asked them if they complied. There’s no way that even if we wrote policies and systems, that we could “cascade” that requirement to our suppliers.
So that was the end of my attempt to complete the application. I gave up.
Some Bright Spots
On the other hand, I do see positives with this program:
Foreclosure properties. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It seems like it was only yesterday that when an investor wanted to purchase a property through the short sale process, two things that the Banks demanded were that the homeowner was not to receive any cash and that they were not allowed to stay in the property after the sale. All of that has now been turned on it’s head. Some banks are now offering cash to homeowners for the keys to the property and now BoA will allow some owners to stay on as tenants. The idea is to eventually sell the properties off to investors. Good news for investors and it’s been a long time coming.
Bank of America Corp. has tentatively joined a nascent housing industry movement in which homes in or near foreclosure are sold to investors as rental properties.
The bank on Friday began a test program for 1,000 homeowners headed into foreclosure in Nevada, Arizona and upstate New York — borrowers it has been unable to help with loan modifications but hopes to keep on as renters. If successful, the program could be tried in California and rolled out nationally.
Consumer advocates maintain it often would be better for homeowners, communities and the banks themselves to keep troubled borrowers on as renters rather than kick them out. Seizing and selling empty homes creates neighborhood blight and accelerates downdrafts in housing prices, they contend.
Bank of America doesn’t plan to become a longtime landlord for borrowers turned tenants. In the pilot, it hopes to take possession of homes for no more than three months before selling them to investors making a bet on the recovering housing markets. If the program becomes established, the goal would be for the investors to take over as soon as the occupants relinquish ownership and pay the first month’s rent.
Whether this scheme can work is to be determined by the pilot, the first such test announced by any major mortgage company. The bank wants to find out whether getting a loan off its books with a quick sale at a deep discount is a better deal financially than the foreclosure process, which can drag on for months or even years in highly regulated states such as New York.
“This pilot will help determine whether conversion from homeownership to rental is something our customers, the community and investors will support,” said Bank of America’s Ron Sturzenegger, who oversees about 1 million troubled loans inherited from aggressive mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp., which Bank of America purchased in 2008.
Homeowners can’t apply for the program themselves, a bank spokesman said.
The trial is limited to a tiny slice of the 1 million loans that Bank of America owns outright. It is not testing any of the additional 8 million home loans on which it provides customer service but which are owned by investors in mortgage bonds.
Bank of America executives said the 1,000 homeowners selected are all at least 60 days late on their loans and are not qualified for or not willing to accept other alternatives to foreclosure.
They will be offered one final deal: hand their property titles to the bank, which would cancel their mortgages in what’s known as a deed in lieu of foreclosure, and sign contracts agreeing to rent the home for up to three years at or below market rates.
Hopefully this program works out for all parties and the foreclosure backlog starts moving again.
Foreclosure Funding (Photo credit: niallkennedy)
It’s hard to open the newspaper or watch the news without hearing something almost daily about foreclosures. Maybe you’ve even looked at some of these properties either for your own use or as an investment property. If you have been looking than you’ve probably noticed that most of these houses need a lot of work, with roofs, kitchens, heating systems all seeing better days. Makes you wonder how all that work will get done, especially if you’re not all that handy. It just so happens that the Fed’s have a great program to cure what ails these rundown houses.
There are some great bargains right now in foreclosed homes but they often aren’t in the best of shape. Fortunately, the FHA’s 203(k) program allows you to both buy a house and fix it up with a single mortgage loan.
The FHA 203(k) mortgage is designed for fixer-uppers. You can borrow up to 110 percent of the expected value of the property after renovation to pay for both the purchase and home improvements. You can even do the work yourself, provided you’re qualified to do so, although the FHA will likely insist that you hire professionals for more demanding projects.
Many foreclosures need repairs
Foreclosed properties can be in poor condition for a number of reasons. To begin with, if the previous owners couldn’t make their mortgage payments, they probably didn’t keep up with routine maintenance either. Second, foreclosures often stand vacant for a long time before they are purchased, and may deteriorate during that time. Finally, homeowners facing foreclosure sometimes remove appliances and other items of value, or simply damage the property to spite the bank.
On the plus side, these are some of the reasons why foreclosures sell at a discount in the first place. Quite often, they can be purchased and put back into shape for considerably less than you would spend on a conventional home purchase with only minor upgrades needed.
Streamline option for basic improvements
There are two types of FHA 203(k) loan. If the home only needs modest improvements, like a new roof, new appliances, kitchen remodeling, repairs or upgrades to heating, electrical and plumbing system, floor repairs, basement refinishing and the like, you can apply for a streamlined 203(k), also called a modified 203(k). This will allow you to borrow up to $35,000 with more simplified application requirements than on the standard 203(k).
The standard FHA 203(k) is used for more extensive improvements, those costing more than $35,000 or involving structural work. This might include adding an addition, repairing structural damage, moving a load-bearing wall or any kind of work that involves detailed drawing or architectural exhibits.
Borrow up to 110 percent of improved value
In either event, the maximum you can borrow is either 1) the total of the purchase price and planned improvements, or 2) the estimated improved value of the home plus 10 percent (110 percent of the improved value), whichever is the lower of the two. In any event, you’ll need an appraisal done to calculate what the improved value will be.
In addition, you’ll need to prepare a work plan showing what you plan to do and the cost of the materials and labor. You can do the work yourself, but must show that you are qualified to do so. In addition, you must include a provision for the cost of the labor, so that you can pay to have the work completed by professionals if you are unable to do so in a timely manner – you’re allowed six months for do-it-yourself projects.
Limited to owner-occupants
The FHA 203(k) loan program is limited to owner-occupants – you must live in the home once renovations are complete. However, the loans can be used to purchase and improve multiunit homes of up to four units, provided that you make one your residence. The loans can also be used to divide a single-unit home into multiple units, or turn a multiunit property into a single-family residence.
Not all FHA lenders deal in 203(k) loans, so you may have to do some looking around to find one who knows how to handle them. You can also expect a somewhat longer closing period than on a regular FHA mortgage, usually about 45-60 days.
So now you have no more excuses. Get out there and start making offers.
It’s a story that’s not new because we’ve all heard it so many times before over the years. Only the names have changed. New guy takes over the top spot in the company. Results are nothing to write home about or brag about at the golf course, but top guy still gets super achiever raises. Any manager below him would have been fired a long time ago, or money taken out of his check for poor performance. Where’s the justice?
Let’s hear it for the corporate boss who gets a 20% raise — or maybe 88%, depending how you count — when his company lost shareholders 6.4% for the year, saw returns trail the S&P 500 by 8.5 percentage points, and has seen returns trail its industry by 12 points over the last three years.
This man of steel — whose compensation can withstand the slings and arrows of muddled performance — is none other than the chairman and chief executive of steelmaker Nucor (NUE), Daniel R. DiMicco. According to the proxy filed this morning, DiMicco’s total compensation rose to $8.1 million for 2011, from $6.8 million in 2010. The biggest chunk of that change came from his cash bonus, which rose to $1.5 million from $540,000.
That’s using the standard compensation calculation required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But like many companies chafing at the comp-disclosure bit, Nucor offers an “alternative” calculus — and one that is even more eye-opening: By Nucor’s measure, DiMicco’s 2011 pay rose a whopping 88% over the prior year, to $5.3 million from $2.8 million. (The chief difference between the two measures is that the “alternative” attempts to exclude “compensation that may possibly be earned but is not guaranteed” by ignoring options and reducing the stock-award value by some voodoo the company doesn’t explain very clearly.)
Shareholders, meantime, would have done better to invest in just about any major stock index during 2011 (the period covered by the proxy). The one place shareholders would have done worse, on a total-return basis, is the rest of the steel industry, and we do have to give Nucor some credit here. Nucor outstripped the steel industry by 28 points in 2011, after trailing it by 9 points in 2010 and by 107 points in 2009. DiMicco has run the company since 2000, and has been chairman since 2006; looking over the past three, five and 10 years, the company’s total return has trailed the steel industry’s by between 5 and 12 percentage points, and the S&P 500 by even more.
One of the hardest things to accomplish with today’s economy is for the small business owner to get financing for business expansion. Staying in business is tough enough but financing a new startup or securing funds to grow your business is difficult at best. Here’s a video about a company that specializes in finding those needed funds in a very unique way, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re located in Africa or America.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck…
The same is true for picking stocks. When you see a stock like this that’s showing consistent positive results, it’s not a duck. It’s a winner and the thing to do now is to jump on it and grab it with both hands.
Wesco (WCC) delivered three consecutive positive earnings surprises that have shown earnings acceleration. Add in some higher estimates and you have all the components of a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy).
Company Description
Wesco International, Inc. is a leading provider of electrical products and other industrial MRO supplies and services in North America. The company is also a provider of Integrated Supply services. Their Integrated Supply solutions and outsourcing services fulfill a customer’s industrial MRO procurement needs through a highly automated, proprietary electronic procurement and inventory replenishment system. It operates 400 branches and 8 distribution centers located in North America and internationally. WESCO International, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
WCC Tops Expectations Three Straight Times
WCC has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last three quarters. One of the beats, in the September 2011 quarter saw the company post earnings of $1.13, $0.09 ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.04. The stock then moved higher by 10% after that 8.6% beat.
The string of beats started in the June 2011 quarter when the company posted EPS of one dollar, but that was seven cents ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.93. The stock moved higher by nearly 7% following the report.
WCC Recently Reported Earnings
On January 26, 2012 the company reported revenue of $1.59 billion roughly $63 million more than the Zacks Consensus Estimate and up from the $1.33 billion reported in the year ago period. EPS of $1.12 was $0.15 ahead of the estimate or a 15% beat. As a result the stock moved higher by about 6.5%.
Aggressive growth investors love to see beats, but they love it even more when the company increases the acceleration of earnings momentum with stronger beats on an absolute and percentage basis. WCC has done just that in its last three beats.
Earnings Estimates Bumped Up
Following the most recent earnings report, analysts bumped up their earnings estimates for 2012. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2012 EPS moved from $4.34 in December 2011 to the current level of $4.70.
This stock is rated a strong buy by Zack’s. If you would like to see more of these winners Get #1 Strong Buy Picks from Zacks
Foreclosed Self Storage Facility
Attention Commercial Investors! Here's a rare opportunity to acquire a Self Storage facility in Southern California. These things don't come along every day. The property has been foreclosed and is now in the hands of the lender.
Bancap Self Storage Group, Inc., the “#1 Self Storage Broker in California,” recently announced that it has begun marketing and sales activities for the lender owned self storage property known as Newport Mesa Self Storage in the city of Costa Mesa, California. The firm was selected as the exclusive listing broker for the Orange County facility.
Newport Mesa Self Storage is a three-story self storage property located on Newport Boulevard in the city of Costa Mesa in Orange County, California. It is currently operating under the Storage Direct trade name. The property is located on a busy frontage road with freeway visibility along the busy 55 (Costa Mesa) Freeway. This freeway is the main connection between Newport Beach and the rest of the Orange County metropolitan area.
The project contains approximately 37,870 net square feet of storage space in 480 rental units. The property is currently at 62% occupancy by unit count and 72% occupancy by rentable square footage. Economic occupancy currently stands at about 65% of the gross potential rental income. As the average occupancy in the area is approximately 90%, it appears this property has significant upside potential to increase value with higher occupancy and income.
“There have been very few storage properties available for sale in Southern California and especially in Orange County,” said Dean Keller, President of Bancap Self Storage Group. “This is a rare opportunity to purchase a well located facility in a very desirable market, with tremendous upside potential.”
Costa Mesa is well known for its retail (including the renowned South Coast Plaza), higher education (including Orange Coast College and Vanguard University) and its arts and entertainment (including the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.) The city is ideally located with close proximity to commercial, industrial and residential districts around the Orange County / John Wayne Airport area. It is also closely associated with its coastal neighbor, the world famous Newport Beach.
The property was recently obtained through foreclosure and the foreclosing lender/owner is represented by LNR Partners, LLC as the special servicing agent for the note-holders. LNR Partners has engaged Platinum Storage Group to provide professional property management services for the property. LNR has previously engaged Bancap Self Group as its exclusive broker – most recently in the sale of the Casino Self Storage property in Moorpark, California.
Bancap Self Storage Group is the top selling broker of self storage facilities in California with over $900 million in completed sales. The company has specialized exclusively in self storage properties for over 25 years. The firm has recently brokered several lender-owned “REO” properties, as well as several first-class high occupancy properties that were very profitable. The firm has also facilitated numerous self storage portfolio sales in the state.
For more information contact Dean Keller, President of Bancap Self Storage Group at (949) 888-5355 or visit the company web site at www.bancapselfstorage.com
FHA Loans-Image via Wikipedia
For some would be home buyers, the FHA loan is the only option that these buyers have. The FHA claims that the new guidelines will only increase the total monthly mortgage payment by a few dollars, but any increase will surely eliminate a lot of new buyers from the market place. Not exactly a great move to stimulate the housing market.
The Federal Housing Administration will raise mortgage insurance premiums this April in order to repair the health of its emergency fund.
The FHA upfront mortgage insurance premium will increase to 1.75% from 1% of the base home loan amount. This will apply regardless of the term or loan-to-value ratio beginning in April.
The annual mortgage insurance premium will increase by 10 basis points for loans under the $625,500 limit beginning April 1 and by 35 bps for home loans above that amount starting in June, the FHA said Monday. Authority for these raises come under the payroll tax cut extension agreed to last fall.
The FHA said the changes will boost the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund by $1 billion.
The UFMIP can still be financed into the mortgage. The increase to the upfront premium will cost new borrowers roughly $5 more per month.
Reverse mortgages and borrowers in special loan programs would be exempt from the changes, according to the FHA.
Last week at the Mortgage Bankers Association servcing conference in Orlando, FHA Commissioner Carol Galante said there would be upcoming insurance premium changes for the streamline refinance program. An FHA spokesman said these changes would be included in a letter to lenders due soon.
The new changes don’t go into effect until April 1, so if you’re thinking about purchasing that new home, you might want to move a little quicker to some to save some money.
Florida Foreclosures-Image via Wikipedia
It looks like the enormous logjam of foreclosures in Florida isn’t going to be cleaned up anytime soon. With almost 400,000 cases backlogged at this time and more coming in every day, some are estimating that it may be ten years before this mess is completely cleaned up. There’s enough finger pointing going on as it is with regard to who is responsible, but now the homeowners themselves have figured out a way to delay the process even more, insuring that they can stay in the house for up to a year longer.
Florida courts continue to struggle with a backlog of more than 368,000 pending cases, according to Jane Bond, a Florida foreclosure attorney at McCalla Raymer. It’s a nightmare, attorneys say — one with no end in sight.
“It’s not as bad as it seems. It’s much, much worse,” said David Rodstein, a foreclosure attorney with the Rodstein Law Group.
Bond and Rodstein chaired a panel at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual mortgage servicing conference in Orlando, Fla. The state is suffering from an ailing housing market. Home prices dropped 41% from 2006. Nearly half of all borrowers are underwater. Distressed properties abound. Unemployment is at 9.9%. And as it tries to clear the backlog of foreclosures, the state is going nowhere fast.
“The judges are frustrated. The attorneys are frustrated. The servicers are frustrated. Everyone is frustrated,” Bond said.
The average foreclosure in Florida takes nearly 800 days to complete, more than twice the national average, according to RealtyTrac.
Rodstein said 40% of foreclosures filed by servicers are contested by the borrower because of a very efficient bar system in the state. It’s helped create a cottage industry of delays, displacing an earlier system not any fairer.
“Borrowers can hire these attorneys for a small monthly payment — much less than the mortgage — and the attorney can come in and easily delay the case for year plus,” Rodstein said.
But the delay recently has much to do with some attorneys’ own mistakes.
The story of Florida’s foreclosures will be one for the History books. The final chapter hasn’t been written yet and won’t be for a long time.
taxes (Photo credit: 401K)
As the election year wears on we’re constantly being bombarded by the political machines of the candidates. They all think that they have the best plan to fix the economy, cut taxes, put more money in your pocket and create more jobs. They all promise the voters the best of all worlds but the stark reality after the election is always somthing a lot different. Here’s one take on reality…
A number of proposals on taxes and the budget have come out recently, one by President Obama, one by Mitt Romney, and one by a friend, John Mauldin.
Every one of the proposals are fatally flawed, most of the for multiple reasons. Before one can fix a problem one must understand it.
In general, Democrats want to raise taxes and spend money.
Republicans on the other hand generally want to cut taxes and spend money. Military spending and Medicare spending both soared under Republican. Bush signed a disastrous Medicare bill.
Both parties claim to be against deficit spending. However, if neither party wants deficit spending then why are their deficits?
Before we get to what’s wrong let’s take a short look at some recent proposals.
Tax Cuts to Prosperity
Mitt Romney proposes A Tax Reform to Restore America’s Prosperity
First, I will make an across-the-board, 20% reduction in marginal individual income tax rates.
Second, I will reduce the corporate tax rate to 25% from 35%, transition from a world-wide taxation system to a territorial one, and make the R&D tax credit permanent.
Third, I will promote savings and investment by maintaining the low 15% rate on capital gains, interest and qualified dividends, and eliminate the tax entirely for those with annual income below $200,000.
Fourth, I will take long overdue steps to correct failures in the tax code. I will abolish the death tax, whose primary effect today is to foster elaborate schemes for transferring wealth. I will also repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was intended to make the code simpler and fairer but has accomplished precisely the opposite.
Fifth, I will bring stability to the tax code by making these changes permanent.
A Simple Question
Excuse me for asking a simple question: How the hell are you going to pay for this?
What spending cuts would Romney make? He did not have the decency to say.
Take another look at point number 5. It’s a blatant lie. There is no way to make changes permanent. Any Congress at any time can make tax changes undoing prior Congressional actions.
So who are we to believe? Your guess is as good anybody’s. Just put all the names in a hat and pick one. Works every time for me.
Rare coins, especially those in high-grade condition, performed well in 2011, according to various independent analysis by numismatic experts. “Blue chip” coins rose over ten percent in value last year, according to one tabulation, and the top 100 rare coins sold at public auctions last year brought over 27 percent more money than the top 100 a year earlier.
“Rare coins are an enjoyable hobby and part of some people’s long-term portfolios, but buyers — and sellers — should remember the important adage: If you don’t know rare coins, you better know your rare coin dealer,” said Jeffrey Bernberg, President of the Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.com).
Founded in 1955, the PNG is a nonprofit organization composed of the country’s top rare coin and paper money dealers who must adhere to a strict Code of Ethics (http://www.pngdealers.com/category.php?category_id=6) in the buying and selling of numismatic merchandise.
“Some experts estimated the 2011 U.S. rare coin market at over $10 billion, not including the sales of modern bullion coins or items sold directly by the United States Mint. Like stocks, bonds, artwork or real estate, numismatics is a highly specialized field with its own terminology and ‘rules of the game,’ and prices can go up or down. In the past, the greatest financial gain has accrued to those who have taken the time to read about coins and learn the basics before making a large investment,” Bernberg advised.
“Select a reputable dealer. PNG members must demonstrate knowledge, responsibility and integrity in their business dealings, and must agree to binding arbitration to settle any unresolved disagreements over numismatic property.”
The Professional Numismatists Guild has 270 members in the United States and seven other countries. A complete list of PNG members can be found online at www.PNGdealers.com.
Several authoritative sources all reported increased prices in 2011 for high-grade U.S. rare coins.
Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (www.NGCcoin.com), the PNG’s official authentication and grading service, annually tracks the top 100 prices realized for NGC-certified rare coins sold at public auctions conducted by four of the largest US numismatic auction companies. There was a 27.3 percent increase in the average price for the top 100 at auctions in 2011; an average of $204,355 per coin compared to $160,571 in 2010, according to NGC Auction Central.
PNG member-dealer and certified public accountant Patrick A. Heller of Lansing, Michigan, Editor of the “Liberty’s Outlook” newsletter (http://www.libertycoinservice.com/images/stories/lcsnewsletter/current/currentnews.pdf), annually tracks the numismatic market in a half dozen different categories. He calculated that high-quality rare coins (“Investor Blue Chip Coins”) increased 10.6 percent last year. “In general, I found the 2011 results to be encouraging for overall market direction in 2012,” he wrote for CoinUpdate.com.
The rare coin index compiled by the weekly magazine Coin World (www.coinworld.com) gained 4.98 percent last year. The index is composed of 82 rare, significant coins, and the combined value of those coins has grown from $7.7 million in 2005 to nearly $13.7 million at the end of 2011. Coin World Associate Editor Steve Roach wrote: “…the high end (of the rare coin market) should continue to appreciate, and the key factors seem to be in place for 2012 to build on the success of 2011.”
The PCGS3000® Index compiled by Professional Coin Grading Service (www.PCGS.com), indicated that $1,000 invested in rare coins in 1970 would have been valued at over $66,000 at the beginning of this year.
For a copy of the informative pamphlet, “What You Should Know Before You Buy Rare Coins,” or a printed directory of PNG member-dealers, send $1 to cover postage costs to: Professional Numismatists Guild, 28441 Rancho California Rd., Suite 106, Temecula, CA 92590. Phone: (951) 587-8300. Email at info@PNGdealers.com, or visit the web site at www.PNGdealers.com.
CONTACT: Jeffrey Bernberg, +1-630-654-2580, or Donn Pearlman, +1-702-868-5777
Web Site: http://www.PNGdealers.com
Phila. Law Firm Commits to 7 Year Lease-Image via Wikipedia
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP (Morgan Lewis) and Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE: LXP) announced today that Morgan Lewis extended its lease for 289,432 square feet of Class A office space at Six Penn Center in Philadelphia, PA which is owned by a joint venture controlled by Lexington Realty Trust. Morgan Lewis, one of the 15 largest law firms in the US according to The National Law Journal’s NLJ250, leases 100% of the office space at Six Penn Center consisting of floors six through 18. The lease now expires on January 31, 2021. The building also contains prime ground floor retail space and four levels of structured parking.
Morgan Lewis was represented by W. Whitney Hunter and Peter Talman of Jones Lang LaSalle. Locally-based Pitcairn Properties Management Co. LLC will continue to be responsible for the management of the building.
ABOUT MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP
With 22 offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia, Morgan Lewis provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, labor and employment, regulatory, and intellectual property legal services to clients of all sizes—from global Fortune 100 companies to just-conceived startups— across all major industries. Its international team of attorneys, patent agents, employee benefits advisors, regulatory scientists, and other specialists—nearly 3,000 professionals total—serves clients from locations in Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Harrisburg, Houston, Irvine, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Princeton, San Francisco, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington. For further information about Morgan Lewis or its practices, please visit: www.morganlewis.com.
ABOUT LEXINGTON REALTY TRUST
Lexington Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust that owns, invests in and manages single-tenant office, industrial and retail properties leased to major corporations throughout the United States. Lexington also provides investment advisory and asset management services to investors in the single-tenant area. Lexington’s common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “LXP”. Additional information about Lexington is available on-line at www.lxp.com or by contacting Lexington Realty Trust, Investor Relations, One Penn Plaza, Suite 4015, New York, New York 10119-4015.
This release contains certain forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors not under Lexington’s control which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Lexington to be materially different from the results, performance, or other expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, those factors and risks detailed in Lexington’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lexington undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to those forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the occurrence of unanticipated events. Accordingly, there is no assurance that Lexington’s expectations will be realized.
CONTACT: Investor or Media Inquiries for Lexington Realty Trust, Patrick Carroll, CFO, Lexington Realty Trust, +1-212-692-7200, pcarroll@lxp.com, or Media Inquiries for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Frances Marine Bravo, Director of Public & Media Relations, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, +1-215-963-5835, frances.bravo@morganlewis.com
Web Site: http://www.lxp.com
Google Tops Mergers & Acquisitions List for 2011-Image via CrunchBase
Berkery Noyes, an independent middle market investment bank, today released its Full Year 2011 Mergers and Acquisitions trend report for the Information Industry.
The Information Industry report, which Berkery Noyes defines as all media, software, and online companies, analyzes M&A in 2011 and compares it with activity in 2009 and 2010.
The median revenue multiple increased from 1.7x in 2010 to 2.1x in 2011, while the median EBITDA multiple increased from 10.5x to 12.0x. Total transaction volume in 2011 increased by 17 percent over 2010, from 2639 to 3098.
The most active acquirer for 2011 in the Information Industry was Google with 25 acquisitions, including 5 in the Fourth Quarter: Clever Sense, RightsFlow, Apture, Katango, and SocialGrapple. Overall, Google had 58 Information acquisitions from 2009 to 2011.
“Large tech players were heavily involved in intellectual property M&A,” said James Berkery, Chief Information Officer at Berkery Noyes. “Strong strategic interest in the sector was evident in 2011. For instance, Nortel sold 6,000 wireless patents in July 2011 for $4.5 billion to a consortium that included Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony, Ericsson, EMC, and Apple.”
In several 2011 transactions, Google acquired a wide range of patents from IBM. Technology companies such as Google are likely to increase their patent portfolios for several reasons, principally to drive product innovation and to hedge against the increasing prevalence of patent litigation. Google’s acquisition of RightsFlow in December 2011, which will help with music licensing concerns on YouTube, shows that the search giant is determined to be a key player in the IP space.
Berkery Noyes specializes in Mergers & Acquisitions advisory services, in addition to structuring debt and equity transactions in the $25 million to $500 million range. Unique among investment banking firms, Berkery Noyes combines independent strategic research and industry intelligence with senior information technology banking expertise. Long having been an innovator in database and research technology in M&A, Berkery Noyes has committed itself to providing more expansive and more current information. The firm’s research teams publish acquisition activity in the respective sectors they follow on MandAsoft.com.
A copy of the FULL YEAR 2011 INFORMATION INDUSTRY MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS REPORT is available at the Berkery Noyes website.
About Berkery Noyes
Berkery Noyes is an independent investment banking advisory firm servicing the information industry. Focused on middle-market corporations and financial sponsors, Berkery Noyes is committed to delivering a comprehensive array of industry-leading advisory services. Since its founding by Joseph W. Berkery in 1983, the firm has worked with corporate clients to grow through acquisition, divest non-core assets, and maximize shareholder returns through strategic transactions and restructurings. For private owners, Berkery Noyes helps create liquidity and execute timely exit strategies that achieve the personal and professional objectives. For more information, visit www.berkerynoyes.com.
Contact Information:
Peter Wilson
Berkery Noyes
646-442-7966
peter.wilson@berkerynoyes.com
Web Site: http://www.berkerynoyes.com
Landowners Turn to Watchdog Group for Help-Image via Wikipedia
We want to make certain property owners get the best value for their mineral rights, or oil, and gas rights, and at the same time we want to make certain the property owner is protected in every possible way
After watching a virtual gold rush to gobble up mineral rights, that in fact are oil, and gas rights in Pennsylvania, and Ohio, the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog is in the final stages of assembling teams of the best oil, and gas mineral rights attorneys, along with geologists, and other vital players needed to insure, when a landowner sells the mineral rights to their Ohio, or Pennsylvania property, there are proper safeguards built into the mineral rights sale, designed to protect the landowner, and to insure they are getting fair market value for their mineral rights. The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog says, “At this moment we have the atmospherics of the Wild West, when it comes to landowners selling away the rights to oil, gas, or mineral rights, and we think unfortunately many landowners are selling their mineral rights for less than they should. Further, we think the potential US natural gas boom is not limited to just Ohio, or Pennsylvania, so we are trying to assemble national, or regional legal teams, that have the expertise to protect the landowners for unforeseen issues that might develop, such as environmental issues, or restoration of the property after drilling, or fracking has been completed. At the same time, we want to make certain property owners in Pennsylvania, Ohio or other US states get top dollar for their mineral, or oil, and gas rights, provided the property is located in an area with established reserves, or anticipated reserves.” For more information landowners in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or other states are encouraged to contact the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog anytime at 866-714-6466, for their unparalleled real estate services, designed to protect property owners, who could literally be sitting on a gold mine. http://WallStreetFraudWatchdog.Com
The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog believes the future of America’s energy future is in its natural gas, or coal reserves, and the group believes it makes extremely good sense to exploit these resources to diminish, or all together eliminate our need for oil from the Middle East. The group believes in win, win situations where property owners in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania and many other states have the ability to sell their mineral, or oil, and gas rights for top dollar, and at the same time have the assurance the oil, or gas companies will provide the landowner, or owners with proper safeguards for the use of their property. The group says, “We want to make certain property owners get the best value for their mineral rights, or oil, and gas rights, and at the same time we want to make certain the property owner is protected in every possible way. We also believe in collaborations, where oil, or gas exploration companies can have the largest possible field, for their exploration, and development, so that it makes economic sense for them as well.” The Wall Street Fraud Watchdog says, “Part of the problem right now with states like Pennsylvania, or Ohio, is you have middlemen mineral rights grabbers, who are not providing property owners with anything close to fair market value, and the mineral rights purchase agreements are a joke, that offer little protection for the landowners. We intend to change this, by leveling the playing field for everyone from the landowner, to the oil, or gas exploration company.” For more information interested parties can always call the Wall Street Fraud Watchdog, to learn about their unsurpassed real estate services at 866-714-6466. http://WallStreetFraudWatchdog.Com.
Public Speaking Help for the Tongue Tied Exec-Image via Wikipedia
Why are leaders with prestigious pedigrees, proven track records of success, and great visions for the future spending sleepless nights worrying, preparing, over-preparing their speaking?
“What’s really ratcheting up the anxiety is not only the visibility afforded by today’s broadband, YouTube environment, but the demand that leaders be out there capitalizing on these media,” says Anett D. Grant, president of Executive Speaking, Inc., a global speaking company founded in 1979 and headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. “Leaders today need to be out front articulating their vision and demonstrating their leadership presence – on demand. The option of managing this anxiety through avoidance is gone.”
While many anxious leaders choose to tough it out, charge forward, and just get through it, this approach is perilous, says Grant. “Anxiety does not just make executives feel uncomfortable; anxiety has many unconscious impacts on their behavior – anxiety can definitely derail performance and even kill careers.”
One of the most significant impacts of anxiety is on facial expression. Anxious speakers often have fixed facial expressions – brows that stay furrowed, smiles that remain frozen. Anxious speakers wear these expression masks unconsciously – oblivious to the impact these expressions have on their ability to project authenticity and engagement.
Another one of the impacts of anxiety is on coherence and focus. Like a spiral that accelerates around a vortex, anxious speakers get into a speaking spin, and then go into a detail, then into another detail, and then into more detail about the detail about the detail about the detail – unconsciously. They begin talking, they feel uncomfortable – they talk more. “The more they talk in an unconscious attempt to feel better, the less they engage their audience. The less they engage their audience, the more they accelerate their rate of speaking and gesturing. At this stage the speaker often feels better, but the impact of the behavior is disastrous,” says Grant.
“I had a senior leader who spoke three languages, had led a major innovation in medical device technology, and had a history of success sent to work with me because his company said, ‘He speaks like a buffoon.’”
Another one of the unconscious impacts of anxiety is on sentence structure. Anxious speakers tend to speak in long, complex sentences as if they were reciting an article. As the length and complexity of each sentence increases, the anxious speaker loses all sense of phrasing and rhythm. Their speaking becomes increasingly punctuated with “ahs,” “ers,” “you knows,” and other dis-fluencies. “As anxious speakers strive to arrest this arrhythmic pattern, their speaking becomes even more halting and disjointed. As I explained to one client who had no awareness of his repeated pausing and sputtering,” says Grant, “if he skied like he spoke, it would take him four hours to get down a hill.”
What these unconscious impacts demonstrate is that leaders today have to reach new levels of self-awareness and understanding in order to reach authentic, powerful levels of performance – on demand.
For insights and strategies for mastering speaking anxiety for senior executives, call Anett D. Grant, President, Executive Speaking, Inc. at 612-338-5748.
Executive Speaking, Inc. coaches leaders from around the globe from companies including DHL Express, National Public Radio, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., MasterCard, Inc., Medtronic, Inc., BP, Bank of America Corporation, Polo Ralph Lauren, UnitedHealth Group Inc., Nestle, HanesBrands, Inc., L3 Communications Holdings, Inc., Estee Lauder Companies, Inc., Symantec Corporation, General Electric Company, PepsiCo, Inc., Dell, Inc., General Mills, Inc., Cargill, Inc., Bank of America Corporation, 3M Company, Ford Motor Company, Motorola, Inc., HP, Adobe Systems, Inc., SABMiller, Coca-Cola Company, SABIC, Verizon Communications, Inc., and Pfizer, Inc.
Website: http://www.ExecutiveSpeaking.net
CONTACT: Jennifer Hilton, +1-917-803-8921, Jennifer.hilton@admetechfoundation.org Web Site: http://www.ExecutiveSpeaking.net
Unemployment Rate Predicts Super Bowl Winner-Image via Wikipedia
With the Super Bowl matchup set, serious fans will be poring over all kinds of statistics for clues as to who will claim the Lombardi Trophy on Feb. 5. But a RiseSmart analysis shows that one of the most accurate predictors for the past two decades has come from an unlikely source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment data.
The team whose metropolitan area boasts the lower unemployment rate during the previous calendar year has won 17 of the past 20 Super Bowls – a remarkable 85 percent success rate. Based on this correlation, the New England Patriots should claim the NFL championship over the New York Giants. Through November, the 2011 unemployment rate for the Boston metropolitan area was 6.8 percent, compared to 8.5 percent for the New York metropolitan area.
“Is economic prosperity a predictor of victory? The data would seem to suggest it,” said Sanjay Sathe, founder and CEO of RiseSmart, a leading provider of next-generation outplacement solutions that annually highlights the correlation between jobless rates and winning it all in the NFL. “You could make the case that a fan base with higher employment is more likely to buy team apparel, attend games, and cheer their team on at local sports bars and restaurants. By contrast, a metro area struggling with high jobless rates might subtly but negatively impact its team’s morale.”
On January 26, 1992, the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI; that year, the Washington, D.C. metro area’s unemployment rate of 4.6 percent was substantially lower than Buffalo’s 7.2 percent. So began the string in which 17 out of 20 times, the Super Bowl winning city had a lower unemployment rate than that of the losing hometown. The predictor has been correct in the past three championship games, including Super Bowl XLV, in which Green Bay (7.7 percent 2010 unemployment) defeated Pittsburgh (8.0 percent).
Other facts of note:
“Correlation does not imply causation, of course. And there are exceptions to every rule,” Sathe said. “But one should never underestimate the power of having a job.”
About RiseSmart
RiseSmart is the leading provider of next-generation outplacement solutions. The company leverages a cloud-based technology platform, proven methodologies, and one-on-one support to help employers with their workforce strategies, and displaced employees with their career strategies. RiseSmart drives significant ROI to organizations by offering affordable pricing while reducing unemployment insurance taxes and severance costs. RiseSmart has received a wide range of awards and recognition from organizations including the Golden Bridge Awards, the Momentum Index, Red Herring, the San Francisco Business Times, SiliconIndia, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, the Stevie Awards and TiE. For more information, visit http://www.risesmart.com.
Contact
Scott Baradell
sbaradell@risesmart.com
972-235-3439
Web Site: http://www.risesmart.com
Currency Traders Can Try It On for Size-Image via Wikipedia
Vantage FX UK (http://www.vantagefx.co.uk) is committed to providing traders with the information and trading tools they need to become successful in the markets. With this in mind, read on for five ways Vantage FX UK can help to maximise your currency trading potential.
1. Demo Account
The MetaTrader 4 demo account provided by Vantage FX is an exact replica of the company’s live trading environment, allowing new clients to find their feet on the virtual platform before trading with real money. Traders who sign up for the 30 day Forex demo account [http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/get-trading/demo-account ] also receive a free copy of Vantage FX’s MetaTrader 4 User Guide eBook to help get them started.
2. Expert Advisor Test Lab
Exclusive to Vantage FX, the Expert Advisor Test Lab [http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/ea-labs/what-is-it ] allows traders to assess two Expert Advisors every month through demo account testing, detailed monthly performance stats and trade-by-trade descriptions. The lab is designed to help traders seeking to automate part or all of the Forex trading process to select the software robots that best suit their trading style.
3. AutoChartist Pattern Recognition Software
Vantage FX UK offers pattern recognition from Autochartist.com to help traders detect currency market trends as they form, saving time and effort for the user. With a 70% accuracy rate of forecasts, Autochartist is considered one of the most advanced intraday tools for the automatic identification of Chart and Fibonacci patterns. The free-to-use software comes as standard with Vantage FX UK’s MetaTrader 4 trading platform [http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/metatrader-4-platform ].
4. Daily Newsletter
The Vantage FX UK newsletter is a free daily email which keeps traders in the loop with market-moving developments. Head of market analysis Jay Mawji is a key contributor to the Vantage FX Market Wrap email [http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/index.php?cID=260 ], which is sent out at the end of every trading day with a summary of the key news and events set to shape market activity in the near future.
5. Mobile Trading
Finally, Vantage FX UK allows traders to manage their Forex trading from the palm of their hand with real-time Android and iPhone trading apps [http://www.vantagefx.co.uk/why-vantage-fx/mobile-trading ]. Vantage FX droidTrader and Vantage FX iTrader are free applications which can be used to manage orders, monitor trades and set stop loss orders just like on an online platform. Mobile traders can also take advantage of a host charting packages, an economic calendar and a range of trading calculators.
Trading derivatives and Forex carries a high level of risk to your capital and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose. Forex trading may not be suitable for all investors, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.
About Vantage FX UK
Vantage FX UK is an internationally recognised currency trading broker based in the City of London, providing foreign exchange trading services to clients in the UK, the EU and the rest of the world.
What sets Vantage FX apart is its wide range of services and outstanding level of customer support. The company strives to provide an intuitive, interactive Forex experience by continually innovating and taking advantage of the latest trading technology, such as MetaTrader 4 and Expert Advisors.
Vantage FX also offers extensive educational resources to help give traders their edge, keep up with daily market commentary and try a Forex trading demo account.
Learn more about Forex trading with Vantage FX at http://www.vantagefx.co.uk
Contact: Robert Berkeley, Vantage FX, robert.berkeley@vantagefx.co.uk, +44(0)2073324954
Furnished housing landlords say they are optimistic about their future profitability, reports the third annual By Owner Corporate Housing survey sponsored by CorporateHousingbyOwner.com (CHBO), an online marketplace dedicated to connecting individual property owners offering short-term furnished and unfurnished rentals with potential tenants worldwide. The purpose of the survey is to provide key insights into the
do-it-yourself — or “by owner” — corporate housing marketplace.
The survey found that nearly 40% of corporate rental landlords say they believe 2012 will be a “more profitable year.” Plus, despite continued news about the declining housing market and global recession, still more than 50% of the survey respondents say they made a profit on their rental properties in 2011 while 35% say they only broke even.
Additionally, the survey reports that do-it-yourself (DIY) property management is on the rise. In fact, more than 86% of the survey respondents say they do their own property management rather than using outside resources, a slight increase from last year.
Kimberly Smith, the founder of CorporateHousingbyOwner.com, says DIY landlording is nothing new, but obviously an increasingly popular option these days.
“The prolonged recession compounded by unlimited access to resources online has exploded the do-it-yourself landlording world,” says Smith. “My hope is that this report will continue to help ‘by owner’ corporate housing landlords become more educated, knowledgeable and profitable as it allows them to deep-dive into emerging rental trends and how such trends will impact them personally.”
Other key findings from the survey include:
Corporate housing has gone to the ‘burbs. Counterintuitive to previous corporate housing trends where properties were located in “city centers,” according to the majority of private corporate rentals who responded to this survey, “by owner” corporate rentals tend to be located in suburban areas on residential streets (43%), followed by outer urban areas (22%) and then central urban areas (20%).
You’ve Got Pets. Many long-term business travelers are arriving with pets in tow. Fifty percent of survey respondents say they accept some type of pet in their corporate rental. Why? Of those who accept pets, about 69% say they take pets because it “gets their properties rented.”
About Corporate Housing by Owner (CHBO)
CHBO was founded in 2006 out of a need to connect private homeowners and real estate investors offering furnished, short-term rentals with corporate housing seekers such as traveling executives, relocated professionals, traveling nurses, actors, athletes and more. The company provides individual homeowners and investors resources and guidance to help them strategically manage their corporate housing rental properties as well as exposes their properties to thousands of potential tenants worldwide who are seeking short-term housing options. Please visit http://www.CorporateHousingbyOwner.com for more information.
Contact:
Jenny Finke
Red Jeweled Media for CHBO
303-815-4043
Jenny@MyCHBO.com
Web Site: http://www.CorporateHousingbyOwner.com
Staying true to course to bring every day value to its cardholders, Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) announced today that as of January 15, 2012, the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express® Card and Visa Platinum Cash Card now feature a new, lower variable 9.99% purchase APR*.
The lower purchase rate will be capped at 9.99% APR* on new purchases until June 30, 2014 and will apply to both existing rewards cardholders, as well as all new cardholders.
For all new cardholders, the 9.99% purchase APR became effective on January 15, 2012. For existing cardholders, the lower purchase rate will be “rolled out” by billing cycle, beginning with the January 15, 2012 effective date.
“PenFed is very proud of its diverse and dynamic credit card portfolio,” says Kevyn Myers,Executive Vice President, Collections and Card Services, PenFed. “Where other reward card programs have exorbitant APRs to fund their reward programs, PenFed’s do not. Our reward cards are packed with value, and the new, lower purchase rate is just one more reason why these cards should be a top of the wallet choice for our cardholders.”
PenFed was the first credit union in the U.S. to offer an American Express® Card to its membership. Since the Card’s launch in 2009, the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express® Card has been recognized as one of the leading travel reward cards available today. Cardholders enjoy 5 points for every $1 spent on airfare, 1 point for every $1 spent on everything else*.
The PenFed Visa Platinum Cash Card has experienced continual, award-winning success as one of the best cash rewards cards available. Cardholders enjoy 5% cash back on all gas purchases made at the pump*, and since cash back rewards are automatically credited back to the statement each month; this card has become a “no-fuss” favorite for these cardholders.
Additional features such as no annual or foreign transaction fees, and no caps on the rewards cardholders can earn, make the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express® Card and Visa Platinum Cash Card both highly competitive contenders when compared to other reward programs currently available in the industry.
For more information about PenFed membership, the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express® Card and Visa Platinum Cash Card, or to apply for a credit card, visit www.penfed.org or call 800-247-5626.
About Pentagon Federal Credit Union
Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is the third largest credit union in the United States with over a million members, and more than $15 billion in assets. The credit union provides worldwide service to Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security personnel, employees or volunteers of the American Red Cross and military associations, and many others in the defense community and their families.
CONTACT: Amy Doane, Direct: +1-541-225-6606, E-mail: amy.doane@penfed.org Web Site: http://www.penfed.org
Student debt has surpassed credit card debt for the first time in U.S. history, and the amount of outstanding student loans is expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2011. College seniors graduated with an average of $25,250 in student loans in 2010, up 5 percent from the previous year, according to The Project on Student Debt.
The issue has prompted U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to call on higher education officials to work with greater urgency and creativity in reducing college costs, and spurred the Occupy Wall Street movement to set up a campaign focused on student debt.
Sourcebooks, a leading provider in college-bound resources for students and educators, recognizes the need for sound financial advice and guidance when it comes to the college search process. The publisher recently formed a new education division, Sourcebooks EDU, which made its first acquisition on Friday of managingcollegecost.com and myfinancialfit.com. The online financial aid resources were founded by veteran admissions and guidance counselor Frank Palmasani, to help families conquer college costs.
“The economic impact of the student debt crisis is one of the big unknowns that we are facing today in this country,” Palmasani said. “The Financial Fit College Search Program is intended to engage students, parents, and high school counselors in a unified quest of finding affordable college options. The ultimate goal is to help families manage their college costs without excessive debt.”
Every year, thousands of college-bound students and parents face the complexity and anxiety associated with filing for and receiving their college financial aid packages, as well as making decisions that will affect them financially for years to come. In a process fraught with myths and misinformation, families often find out at the last minute that the colleges of their choice come with unexpectedly high financial burdens.
“Frank starts with the college search process and provides tools to support families all the way through choosing and paying for college,” Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah said. “Guidance counselors are telling us they cannot act as financial advisors and have no resources available to direct families to as they begin the college process. We’re finally going to be able to provide help.”
Managingcollegecost.com is a free, subscriber-based website that utilizes Palmasani’s vast and varied 25 years of experience to create a valuable resource for students, parents, and college admissions counselors. As users navigate the site, they will see features and links, along with 33 videos dealing with a wide range of issues pertaining to the financial aid process. Palmasani’s blog keeps parents up-to-date on the financial aid timeline while teaching them how they can help their student select the best AND most affordable option.
Building on this vision, Palmasani also created myfinancialfit.com, a subscription-based website designed to help families match their affordability threshold with the net price of colleges. Myfinancialfit.com offers a 10-item confidential and anonymous questionnaire that evaluates tax credits, cash flow, available savings, and reasonable borrowing, and then provides families with a college affordability range.
Sourcebooks EDU plans to make these tools more widely available, as well as enhance these resources with additional video, content, webinars, seminars, books, interactive ebooks, and software tools.
About Frank Palmasani
Frank Palmasani, founder of managingcollegecost.com and myfinancialfit.com, began learning about the financial aid process in 1976, his first year as a high school counselor. In 1981, he moved to the college level eventually becoming a director of admissions. After a twelve-year stint, he returned to the high school arena to a position that he continues to enjoy today, serving as a guidance counselor. Palmasani also has also delivered seminars on the college financial aid and planning process to an estimated 100,000+ people since 1985.
About Sourcebooks
Sourcebooks is an independent publishing house dedicated to sharing our passion for books in a wide variety of genres. We publish over 300 new titles each year, and are honored to have 28 New York Times bestsellers. Sourcebooks is one of the largest woman-owned book publishers in the country. Visit www.sourcebooks.com for more information.
CONTACT: Liz Kelsch of Sourcebooks, +1-630-536-0595, liz.kelsch@sourcebooks.com
Web Site: http://www.sourcebooks.com
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of NYMEX Brent 25-Day (Platts) futures and options contracts to begin trading December 12 with February 2012 being the first listed month. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of NYMEX.
“Our new NYMEX Brent 25-Day contracts will offer customers a critical hedging solution to manage their price risk, at a time when the Brent market is undergoing a significant transformation,” said Gary Morsches, Managing Director, Energy Products, CME Group. “Customers have expressed strong interest in a transparently settled Brent futures contract that more closely reflects the hedging needs of the underlying physical Brent market. We’re confident our new contracts are well aligned with the Platts 25-day basis and will provide market participants with transparency and superior convergence against the physical Brent market to enable them to begin managing their price risk today.”
Final settlement of NYMEX Brent 25-Day (Platts) futures and options contracts will be based on the Platts 25-day Brent (BFOE) cash assessment and use the Platts Market on Close (MOC) methodology, which is the industry standard for Brent pricing. Options to be listed will include an average price option and underlying calendar swap, as well as American-style and European-style options. These contracts will be listed for electronic trading on CME Globex, open-outcry and over-the-counter clearing on CME ClearPort.
CME Group will work with Platts on an ongoing basis to maintain contract specifications in close alignment with the Brent (BFOE) cash market, including adopting a revised expiry schedule beginning in March 2015.
The CME Group Energy complex offers the most benchmarks in its asset class, with market participants trading an average daily volume of 1.8 million contracts on CME Globex, CME ClearPort and the trading floor.
As the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME
Clearing, one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.
CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.
CME-G
CONTACT: Media, Damon Leavell, +1-212-299-2547, or Allan Schoenberg, +44.203.379.3830, news@cmegroup.com, www.cmegroup.mediaroom.com, or Investors, John Peschier, +1-312-930-8491
Web Site: http://www.cmegroup.com
ETF and Alternative Funds Growth Double Since 2008-Image via Wikipedia
It’s something that a lot of investors are looking for but seems so elusive. Something different. Something more stable. Something that won’t keep us up at night. A lot of investors have moved from the traditional roller coaster ride of the Markets to the world of ETF‘s and Alternative Funds. Many will never look back.
In these tough times, investors want alternatives to traditional asset classes that are now so disappointing — investments that will zig while everything else is zagging.
“Alternative” funds aim to deliver consistently positive returns by eliminating or substantially reducing market risk. It’s such a compelling pitch for investors seeking havens from recent market volatility that Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company, says assets in these funds have grown almost 125 percent in the last three years to $531 billion.
“That’s astounding, especially when you consider that $249 billion — almost 85 percent of that growth — is inflows from investors, not performance,” says Matthew Lemieux, a Lipper research analyst. The number of alternative mutual funds and ETFs has doubled since the end of 2008, to 289 and 427 respectively, Morningstar, another fund tracker, says.
Clearly, alternatives are hot. But what exactly are they? If you don’t know, you have plenty of company. A recent survey of investors by Natixis Global Asset Management found 70 percent understood alternatives “only a little” or “not well at all.” More than two out of five had no idea what alternatives are.
Your adviser may not know, either. In a recent InvestmentNews survey, 52 percent of financial advisers said they don’t feel as knowledgeable about alternatives as they’d like to be — yet 88 percent are using them in client portfolios.
So, what is an alternative asset? It’s anything that isn’t a stock, bond or cash, which means that real estate, gold and commodities are all alternatives. When you buy an “alternative” mutual fund, you’re not actually buying an asset class, but rather a strategy — in fact, multiple strategies that are typically used by hedge funds.
These funds invest in a broad range of asset classes and derivatives (financial contracts whose value is based on the value of other instruments, such as stocks, bonds, currencies, or market indexes). And they don’t just buy assets they like; they also bet against those they think will perform poorly with short sales.
Morningstar has grouped alternative mutual funds into six categories: Currency, Market Neutral, Multialternative, Managed Futures, Long/Short Equity, and Bear Market.
A few things to consider before opting for alternatives:
As always, you need to do your own research in this market to determine if it’s really right for you. Just because investors added $249 Billion to these investments within the last few years doesn’t mean that they are without some kind of risk also.
SW Florida Home Sales Jump 20%-mage by haglundc via Flickr
Anybody that’s been looking at foreclosures in the SW Florida area knows that the market had pretty much dried up for several months. The Banks had been holding on to their inventory because of the Robo-signing fiasco, but that seems to have changed. Some parts of SW Florida have seen home sales increase by up to 20% but prices are down. Some are blaming the Banks for dumping more properties on the market which in turn is driving prices down. Of course, if you’re in the market for a house, lower prices are obviously a good thing.
Home sales in Southwest Florida jumped by double digits in October but pushed pricing to near its Great Recession low.
The renewed push by banks on foreclosures and their rising use of short sales could be undercutting prices.
After clearing up some of their mortgage paperwork, big lenders operating in the region have been ramping up again on distressed properties. Some have been offering clients cash for short sales on their homes, where the lender takes less than is owed on the mortgage.
Sales rose 20 percent in the Sarasota-Bradenton market during October when compared with a year ago, with 801 homes changing hands.
But the median sales price dropped to $137,100, pushing the value to only slightly above its lowest point since the recession, $136,300. The September median was $156,800, so the October price represented a 13 percent drop from the previous month.
Sales also rose in the Charlotte County-North Port market, by 7 percent to 236 homes, while the median price of $90,000 was a 6 percent drop from a year ago and an 8 percent drop from September.
Around the state, sales rose 13 percent in Florida’s combined 19 major markets, with 12,145 homes changing hands.
The median price statewide saw a drop but not as pronounced as in this region. October’s $131,200 was a 4 percent drop from a year ago and a 2 percent decline from September.
If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting for that good deal in Florida, now is probably the time to get out there and start making some offers. This could possibly be the bottom of the market and prices may not get any lower. Also, this is November and Winter is approaching quickly. They don’t call Florida the “Sunshine State” for nothing.
Maybe you’ve been thinking about buying a house in foreclosure and even though you have some money saved you still need to find a really good deal. If you’re at the point that you’re actually looking at these houses, you start to notice that most of these properties are in marginal neighborhoods. Now, that may be OK for the investors but you have kids and plan on living in the house and don’t want to send your kids to those school districts. A new study just released addresses this situation.
Highly ranked school districts may have been spared the worst of the foreclosure crisis, according to a new analysis, showing that the housing crash was akin to a tornado that tore through wide swaths, but hit with particular force in certain areas.
The analysis, conducted for Developments by Location Inc., a Worcester, Mass.-based company that mines local data for businesses and consumers, looked at six months of 2011 sales data collected by RealtyTrac Inc. It showed that the percentage of foreclosure (or “real-estate-owned”) sales went down as the school ranking went up in five metro areas – Jacksonville, Fla; Atlanta; Toledo, Ohio; Stockton, Calif.; and Seattle. Higher-rated school districts also maintained higher home-sale prices, and higher home prices per square foot.
“If you are looking to buy into one of these good school districts, it is very rare to find a foreclosure,” said Location Inc.’s chief executive Andrew Schiller, an expert in demographic analysis who conducted the research with his colleague Jonathan Glick. “It’s better to just go into a normal sale.” (The five cities were chosen to provide a general market overview.)
The finding is, to a certain extent, not a surprise. Schools have long been a driver for home buyers, whether in determining location or timing. So it would make sense that school ranking could serve as a kind of proxy for measuring the damage from the foreclosure crisis.
It’s also not that foreclosure sales don’t exist in highly ranked districts; they are just much less of a factor, and the reason could be income. Stan Humphries, chief economist for real-estate data company Zillow, said that it’s “likely both educational outcomes and foreclosures are ultimately linked to income, not to each other.”
The upper tier of homeowners saw less of an impact from the housing crash than the bottom tier, according to Mr. Humphries; the top third of homes dropped 26% from the recent high point; the bottom third of homes in value fell 37%. Some sought-after neighborhoods probably saw less severe price erosion, which in turn helped sustain property taxes and protect a vital funding source for schools.
Mr. Schiller said he sees school quality as both a result and a driver of income concentrations in parts of metropolitan areas. “Once in place, the higher-quality school systems reinforce this, causing higher demand for properties there, and higher values.”
Good schools may also be one of few factors keeping buyers in certain markets today, further bolstering prices and property-tax bases in sought-after districts like Newton, Mass. and Cupertino, Calif., said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of the online brokerage Redfin. “People always want to live in those school districts,” Mr. Kelman said. “And those school districts have remained well-financed even as neighboring districts have to cut costs.”
So, while it’s true that even million dollar houses sometimes go through foreclosure, it doesn’t happen that often. But when it does, the competition level goes way up and you won’t be buying that house for a mere pittance. Unless you have a lot of time and money, you’re better off with a traditional sale.
Are you kidding me? The Banks are just now paying homeowners to get out of a house they can’t afford anymore? They should have been doing this years ago instead of dragging out the short sale process and then delivering the big “No” months later. And then letting the house go through the foreclosure process, which eats up more time and costs them even more money in the process. Here’s one for you: ”The banks have realized, ‘We are losing more on the foreclosures than the shorts,’” Augustyniak said. “And they are even willing to compensate the sellers, to give the sellers money to vacate the property.” Wow! What a revelation! Any half-assed Real Estate investor straight out of a short sale seminar in 2006 could have told them that. Guess it takes a while to sink in.
Chase Puts Their Money Where Their Mouth is With Large Short Sale Cash Incentive
McGeough Lamacchia Realty and Dorner Law negotiate a $35,000 payment to their short sale client at closing.
Chase Bank sent a homeowner (name withheld) a solicitation letter offering up to $35,000 to do a short sale. Back in August the homeowner called McGeough Lamacchia Realty right away and the home was listed for sale within two weeks.
Once an offer was obtained the staff at McGeough Lamacchia Realty and Dorner Law submitted a short sale package to Chase along with their solicitation letter to remind them that this $35,000 was offered. After five weeks of negotiating Chase not only offered a short sale approval and waived the entire deficiency balance but they agreed to pay this homeowner the entire $35,000.
Over the past year more major banks have realized that paying distressed homeowners a substantial sum is a great way to incentivize them to move out of the home they can no longer afford. Chase has been sending out these solicitation letters of up to $35,000 for about a year. Citi Mortgage has been paying up to $12,000 for about 6 months and Bank of America has most recently agreed to pay up to $20,000.
McGeough Lamacchia Realty and Dorner Law have negotiated large sums for its clients before, but this $35,000 is a new record that they are proud of. These programs are only offered on the loans where these banks actually own the mortgage. Most mortgages are being serviced by the large banks on behalf of one of the three GSE’s: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA (Federal Housing Administration). FHA does offer a $1,500 incentive to do a short sale under their Pre-Foreclosure Sale program. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not currently offer any money unless the short sale is through the Treasury’s HAFA program.
Under the Treasury’s HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative) program which came out in April 2010, lenders are paying $3,000 to distressed homeowners who complete a short sale through the HAFA program.
“It is clear that the major banks have woken up and realized that a short sale is the best way to decrease losses and assist distressed homeowners in a graceful and dignified exit from their home. It’s unfortunate that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still haven’t seen the light,” says Anthony Lamacchia.
Short sales are increasing across the country for several reasons:
- They are becoming better known to distressed homeowners.
- Banks have realized that they save tremendous money through a short sale vs. a foreclosure
- Banks have finally hired more staff and are working hard to better their short sale processes
- All the major banks are now sending out letters offering short sales to homeowners who cannot qualify for a loan modification. Bank of America recently came out with a Home Transition Guide.
- Banks recognize that the sooner they get out of a non-performing loan the more money they save.
“I did my first short sale 20 years ago. They are a great alternative to foreclosure and it is nice to see more distressed homeowners are finally opting for them, especially now that these great incentives are being offered,” says Attorney Hillery Dorner.
Nationally short sales have increased 12% in 2011 and many believe they will increase by much more in 2012.
“One thing distressed homeowners need to know now is that banks will be foreclosing much faster in 2012 than they did in 2011 due to these robo-signing issues for the most part being worked out. Therefore it is important for people who cannot pay their mortgage to be proactive with an alternative such as a short sale,” says John McGeough.
For more on this story, visit the New England Short Sale Blog
About McGeough Lamacchia:
McGeough Lamacchia is the #1 Listing Agency in Massachusetts and named one of the Top 100 Real Estate Teams in the country by RealTrends and the Wall Street Journal. They are a full service real estate agency specializing in short sales in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
So there you have it. All you seminar graduates, go out there and make some money.
