Martin Romjue : December 2007 Archives

SOUTH BAY INFO: Check out this comprehensive analysis of the South Bay real estate market, sans the rosy, puffed-up, Pollyana-talk from Realtors who have been consistently wrong in their predictions and assessments of housing prices. South Bay Home Center

JAMES DERK: Get the right goodies for your gizmos

HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTIES: Rule No. 1: Don't get drunk; Rule No. 2: Learn how to network nicely. A new book offers some tips on how the dreaded, obligatory holiday office party, full of potential mine fields, actually can be a constructive event.

SAVORY COMMISSIONS: Despite the real estate doldrums, real estate agents are set to reap more income and commissions than ever before during 2007.

ForSaleByOwner.com, a Web site for consumers who want to save money when selling and buying real estate, said Monday that real estate commissions are expected to total $55 billion in 2007, up $19 billion from 2000.

During this time, commissions paid on an average home has spiked 43 percent, going to $13,900 from $9,700. ForSaleByOwner.com also has released its top real estate trends for 2008.

For the complete report, read below. Web site

Microsoft to sell online display, text advertising for CNBC.com

SEATTLE (AP)— Microsoft Corp. said Monday it will provide online advertising for CNBC’s financial news Web site. The software maker said it will be the exclusive third-party seller of contextually driven text ads on the site starting later in December, and display ads beginning in March 2008.

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Jon Tinter, a general manager at Microsoft, said the company plans to offer advertisers the option to buy ads on CNBC.com together with ads on Microsoft’s own financial site, MSN Money. CNBC.com, part of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal division, gets about 2.6 million unique visitors each month, according to a company statement. Microsoft said it plans to aggregate information about CNBC.com visitors’ Web surfing habits to better target advertising in the future. CNBC will maintain its own ad sales team, which will focus on selling video ads online and on CNBC TV.

REAL STATE: of the Manhattan Beach housing market can be found on this clever, analytical blog called Manhattan Beach Confidential

FLAMING NAME: Read the tawdry tale of a trademark tiff between Toyota and a gay-maleporn star. For the titillating details, click here

LESS THAN ZERO? Homeowners leveraged to the max may have lots of gadgets, toys and goods, but nothing of the house. Amid falling property values and home prices, what is a house really worth? The following article helps describe what it's like to watch a house's worth dissolve brick by brick.

FALLOUT: Foreclosure effect can linger long after the house is gone.

NEWS FLASH: Governments make bad investments.

HOGTIED HOTLINES: As expected, government phone lines were jammed after the Bush Administration announced its quasi-bailout plan for subprime homeowners strapped with rising mortgage rates. They were told to be patient.

What about the patience of investors, home-seekers and home-traders who now must wait even longer for housing prices to drop back to reality? This pacifier of a plan now creates a bubble on a deflating bigger bubble, artificially propping up home prices and enabling the irresponsible homeowners WHO CHOSE TO GRASP FOR MORE THAN THEY COULD AFFORD.

Here's a more effective action plan for the subprime parasites: Hang up the phone. Sell your house for what you can get. Move to an apartment. Eat your losses. Admit your fault. Learn your lesson.

BusinessWeek magazine offers a complete analysis on the Bush housing plan.

Click here

CRYSTAL BALLS: Is the U.S. headed toward a major financial and real estate crisis?

Business expert Dick Kazan, a former corporate chairman and CEO, current real estate investor, motivational columnist and Redondo Beach resident, offers his recent assessment and advice about the state of the global economy and real estate market. He provides some practical tips for protecting your assets and preparing for the future, both long- and short-term. Please see his analysis below.

You also can learn more about Kazan at
his business advice site
his topical discussion site

Boeing says 737 replacement plan due by 2012

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing Co. will decide on a plan to replace its popular 737 aircraft by 2012 at the latest, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press Thursday. Last year, the company started seriously considering a successor for the 737, for which Boeing has won more than 6,000 orders since its 1967 debut.

Sandy Anger, a Boeing spokeswoman, said the company “must ensure it has the right set of breakthrough technologies in engines, aerodynamics, materials and other systems” to top the 737’s efficiency. Anger said Boeing estimates it will be ready with a replacement for the 737 “sometime in the middle of the next decade — give or take a couple of years.” The 737 competes with Airbus’ hot-selling A320, which went into service in 1988. Toulouse, France-based Airbus says it has sold more than 5,500 A320s.

SOUR LOANS = SWEET OPPS: Fannie Mae set a share price today to for an investment opportunity designed to shore up its losses from home loans gone bad. The bursting of the housing bubble can offer savvy, patient investors ways to harness the housing bear market. Story below.

EQUITY DOWN: As the housing market heads toward a freefall, it will take owner equity with it. For the first time since 1945, U.S. homeowners could collectively owe more than they own by December 2008.

Homeowners most at risk are those who bought over-priced homes in recent years with no-money down, adjustable rate, subprime mortgages, and then immediately leveraged any equity gains from the home into lines of credit and/or cash-out loans to fund spending sprees.

Guess what: They're going down in financial flames. As equity and property values fall, credit dries up, the bills come due, and the homeowner actually owns nothing and owes a whole lot.

Squatters, anyone? See story below.

HYBRID HYPE? The Santa Monica-based Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank, recently analyzed the dynamics of hybrid mortgage loans, and found some surprising facts that challenge conventional media wisdom. Milken experts wrote an article about the findings in today's Wall Street Journal. See article below.

BACKLASH: Homebuyers are becoming better informed about the still-inflated home prices nationwide. Many are waiting, and the patience is showing up in the profits of homebuilders, homesellers, Realtors, lenders and everyone else who got excited about the housing bubble and helped drive the housing market off a cliff.

Toll Brothers reports $81.8M 4Q loss in housing downturn; calls 2007 WORST YEAR IN FOUR DECADES

NEW YORK (AP) — Toll Brothers Inc., the nation’s largest builder of luxury homes, said Thursday it swung to a loss for its fourth fiscal quarter during what the company calls the worst housing downturn in decades. It is the first quarterly loss recorded by the builder in 21 years.

Research firms foresee U.S. economic slowdown taking a bite out of technology industry

BOSTON (AP)— Weakness in the U.S. economy figures to take a bite out of the technology industry’s growth rate in 2008, when analysts expect tech spending to slow worldwide.

The picture is not exactly dire: A forecast released Thursday by analyst firm IDC calls for the worldwide information-technology market to grow 5.5 percent to 6 percent in 2008, the lower end of what has become a usual range. In the U.S., the market is expected to expand 3 percent to 4 percent.

ECONOMIC FORECAST: From City News Service: The sagging real estate market will further drag down the California economy, but it will not be severe enough to cause a state or nationwide recession, UCLA economists reported today.

For more details, see breaking story below and tomorow's Business section in the Daily Breeze.

MORE SUBPRIME SLIME POLITICS: President Bush has come up with a quasi-bailout plan for homeowners who willingly took on troublesome mortgages. Some subprime mortgage holders would get their rates frozen for five years to help them avoid foreclosure.

So, can other Americans facing difficult personal financial circumstances get their rates frozen at the expense of the taxpayers and independent financial institutions? For example, if you have maxed out your credit cards, should you get the rate frozen for five years at, say, 9.9 percent instead of 24.9 percent so as to avoid personal bankruptcy? Or if the stock market is tanking and your 401k is hurting, should you nevertheless be guaranteed a 10 percent annual rate of return on your investments so you don't have to delay your retirement?

Read about the proposal below. You decide if it is absurd.

HAVING A CLUE: Those most tuned in to the state of the economy -- business leaders -- feel pretty good about the economy’s prospects, despite the housing slowdown and mortgage and credit crunches.

By JAMES DERK
Scripps Howard News Service

Although designed as the “Iphone killer”, the new Voyager from LG doesn’t quite hit that lofty target. However, it surpasses the Iphone in some ways and surely makes for an overall great texting device and a pretty cool phone.

FOOTSIE WITH THE ORIENT: Manhattan Beach-based Skechers USA Inc., a footwear maker, said today it will expand its sales and distribution in China through a joint venture, called Skechers China, Luen Thai Enterprises, a conglomerate based in Hong Kong with investments in various industries in Asia, North America and the Pacific Region.

During the next three years, Skechers China expects to open more than 1200 points-of-sale for the brand across China. In addition to Skechers footwear, Skechers China will design and market a collection of branded men’s and women’s fashionable active and leisure wear. The apparel, expected to reach market in 2009, will be designed as an extension of the footwear and should further grow the brand in China.

The first shipments of Skechers products by Skechers China is planned for the Chinese New Year, February 2008. The offering will include all of the Skechers lines for men, women and kids – including lifestyle sport, casual and molded footwear. The footwear will be supported by a marketing campaign that includes print, TV and point-of-purchase materials and displays.

For statements from executives, read below.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says an agreement is near on efforts to freeze mortgage rates for strapped sub-primers facing higher mortgage payments. Here's a summary of an upcoming story in tomorrow's Business section in the Daily Breeze:

By The Associated Press
HOME STRETCH: Paulson Monday said officials were near an agreement to help at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosures.
TIMEFRAME: The proposed plan would temporarily freeze their mortgage rates, but how long rates would remain frozen is still unresolved.
NEGOTIATIONS: Federal regulators have been trying to strike a deal with some of the country’s biggest banks, mortgage investors and consumer groups.

PUNCH BOWLS OF LIABILITY?: Learn how companies are coping with alcohol and amorous aggression at their annual employee Christmas parties. Do human resources director have to be holiday grinches?

RECOVERY MODE: A foreclosed home may be a bargain, but it will need to recover from neglect. As the housing market tanks nationwide, house rehabbers are poised to work this growing industry niche. Story below.

By TERESA F. LINDEMAN
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Listening to Jessica Simpson wasn’t required. This is relevant because the goal was to go shopping in the real world -- not online -- without having to interact with human beings.

Practically-person-free technology is moving far beyond ATM machines and pay-at-the-pump gas stations. Last year, consumers spent more than $137 billion in self-checkout transactions at retail stores, up 24 percent over 2005 as a result of new machines installed at super centers, warehouse clubs and hardware stores, according to IHL Consulting Group in Franklin, Tenn.

And the survey says ...

By JOE BEL BRUNO
The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Wall Street was populated by optimists this past week after a big rebound gave investors the hope that stocks might actually enjoy a year-end rally — one that might even thrust the volatile Dow Jones industrials back over 14,000.