Tight supply of homes for sale stymies families and metro market ...

by Annie Baxter, Minnesota Public Radio

February 4, 2013

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MINNEAPOLIS ? The glut of homes that the housing crisis dumped into the real estate market has largely dried up.

By the end of last year the supply of homes for sale in the Twin Cities hit its lowest level in 10 years. Reluctant sellers are partly responsible for those low inventories. Many homeowners still feel uneasy about putting their homes up for sale.

At the Coleman family home in south Minneapolis, they count themselves lucky that no one has had an "accident" -- the kind children have when they cannot get to the bathroom in time because the only one in the house is occupied.

"The bathroom is going to give Mommy a nervous breakdown," said Karlyn Coleman. "It's not good. Someone ends up yelling every morning."

Coleman and her husband, Craig, have two sons, ages 13 and 8. They live in a gray stucco bungalow, which they share with a few dogs. (Their bathroom is outside, at least.)

The Colemans would like a bigger place with another bathroom, but they are hesitant to put their house on the market.

It's partly a financial consideration. Karlyn works part-time as a substitute teacher; her husband is a partner in a law firm. Karlyn would like them both to be drawing full-time incomes before they take on a bigger mortgage.

She also worries about how long it would take to sell. Some nearby homes have sold quickly, while some have not.

"There's a house across the street that hasn't sold. It's a beautiful house," she said. "I don't know if it's in foreclosure or what it is. And you hear things in the bigger picture that the market's getting better. But it's hard to drive past the 'for sale' sign that's been there for a year now -- two years."

Craig Coleman acknowledged that their plans to sell are more talk than action.

"There is a sense of inertia, being in your house and not facing the process of moving and all the transactions inherent in that," he said. "So I guess I haven't felt like I've been pushed past inertia yet."

That's a common situation: Potential sellers are still on the sidelines. Prices have been rebounding, but the supply of homes for sale is at lows not seen since before the housing crisis.

"Inventory is a problem," said Andy Fazendin, the president of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. "I would say it's slowing down the recovery of the market as we speak."

"Inventory is a problem. I would say it's slowing down the recovery of the market as we speak."

- Andy Fazendin, president, Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

A few years ago, Fazendin said, the Twin Cities housing market was overrun with homes for sale, many of them foreclosures. But the great recession made buyers scarce -- they were too scared to take on new mortgages when layoffs were rampant.

Then the economy improved.

"And at the end of 2011 we saw a flip, and all of a sudden now we find a place where there's a ton of buyers and not enough sellers," Fazendin said.

The law of supply and demand suggests that if inventory remains tight, buyers will wage bidding wars on the few homes that are for sale. And prices, which have been rising, will jump further. That could draw out more sellers.

But so far, prices are not rising as dramatically as the supply has fallen.

And Fazendin worries that low supply will actually just discourage buyers and curtail the market's recovery.

"And really, the only thing that's going to solve the problem is more listings," he said

Some analysts say more foreclosures could once again hit the market, but the number of people behind on their mortgages in Minnesota is declining.

For the Colemans, the family talked about why they would like to move. Eight-year-old Auggie is tired of sharing a room in the attic with his brother, Alex.

"Because you snore," he told his brother.

And Alex, 13, complained that the ceiling in the attic is too low.

"My friend jumped off the couch and hit his head on the ceiling and got hurt," said Alex, emphasizing that he wants a space "where you can stand up."

But the Colemans have a price ceiling they don't want to hit, either. And so far Karlyn Coleman hasn't seen any home listings that meet their price and space requirements.

Meanwhile, her husband doesn't mind waiting for the right house.

For now, it seems like many other homeowners are like Craig Coleman --- willing to get by with what they have until they are sure that something better is out there.

Annie Baxter covers business and the economy for MPR News.

Source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/02/03/business/few-homes-for-sale-twin-cities

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Conference on cruises in historic ports set for SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) ? From Mobile, Ala., to Venice, Italy, the same debate on the cruise industry is heard: How can historic cities balance the economic benefits of the industry with impacts such as congestion and pollution?

This week, Charleston ? where cruise ships have sparked headlines and lawsuits in recent years ? will host an international conference on the topic. The event is called "Harboring Tourism: A Symposium on Cruise Ships in Historic Port Communities."

"Our interest is to raise the dialogue and to really understand how do historic ports manage cruise tourism, how do they do that effectively and what are some of the challenges they face," said Erica Avrami, research and education director for the World Monuments Fund, a sponsor of the event.

The three-day conference begins Wednesday and also is sponsored by the Preservation Society of Charleston and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Charleston, which for years had seasonal cruises, became a year-round cruise embarkation point in 2010, when Carnival Cruise Lines permanently based its 2,056-passenger liner Fantasy in the city.

The growing industry and plans by the South Carolina State Ports Authority to build a $35 million cruise terminal have brought lawsuits in state and federal courts.

Plaintiffs are concerned that pollution and congestion threaten Charleston's historic district. City leaders say that the industry is being handled appropriately and that Charleston will never be a major cruise destination.

Concerns over the year-round industry prompted the National Trust to place Charleston on its "watch list" of endangered places and the World Monuments Fund to put the city on its Monuments Watch list.

Avrami noted that cruise tourism has been around for a long time and called tourism an "important partner with historic preservation," with tourist dollars helping historic cities thrive. "Our interest in Charleston is it is where the issue has been coming to a head," she said. "Because it was so polarized, it was a timely location and opportunity to push the dialogue forward."

Concerns about the industry also have been raised in Venice, where critics worry about accidents, air and water pollution, and the 2 million additional visitors that cruises bring each year to the city. UNESCO, the U.N. cultural organization, says the liners cause swells that further erode the delicate foundations of the city's historic buildings.

Sam Jones, mayor of Mobile, Ala., is scheduled to speak at the conference. In his city, $20 million was invested in a cruise terminal in 2004. But later, Carnival Cruise Lines moved the liner serving the city to New Orleans. Now, Mobile has the challenge of paying for a terminal no longer used for cruises.

John Hildreth, the director of the Charleston office of the National Trust, said the organization is not opposed to cruises. But, he said, cities and residents need to make sure rules are in place.

"The communities and the tourists alike benefit from proper management," he said.

Evan Thompson, executive director of the Preservation Society, said the conference will put Charleston in a global context.

"We want to build a network of the people who have been grappling with the various issues related to cruise ships in historic ports and people who can offer expertise as to what is the way forward," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/conference-cruises-historic-ports-set-sc-141754460.html

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Columbia anniversary sparks talk of Mars

Bill Ingalls / NASA

A commemorative wreath adorns a monument to the crew of the shuttle Columbia at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Friday, the 10th anniversary of the shuttle's destruction and the astronauts' deaths.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

President Barack Obama and NASA's leaders paid a 10th-anniversary tribute to the space shuttle Columbia's fallen astronauts on Friday ? and pledged that the lessons learned would be applied to future space odysseys, including eventual trips to Mars.

"As we undertake the next generation of discovery, today we pause to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the journey of exploration," Obama said in a statement released by NASA. "Right now we are working to fulfill their highest aspirations by pursuing a path in space never seen before, one that will eventually put Americans on Mars."

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The shuttle Columbia's catastrophic breakup on Feb. 1, 2003, killed seven astronauts, forced a two-year grounding of the three remaining space shuttles and led to stepped-up safety measures at the space agency. The disaster also led Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, to plan for the retirement of the shuttle fleet once construction of the International Space Station was complete. The last shuttle mission flew eight years later, in 2011.

Bush's space vision called for a new generation of vehicles to be built for trips back to the moon by 2020 ??but Obama shifted the focus of exploration to a near-Earth asteroid in the mid-2020s, with trips to Mars and its moons starting in the mid-2030s.

'We will never forget'
In his own 10th-anniversary statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the sacrifices made by the crew of Columbia's last mission will inspire future explorers.

"We will never forget these astronauts, nor all those who have lost their lives carrying out our missions of exploration ? the STS-51L Challenger crew; the Apollo 1 crew; Mike Adams, the first in-flight fatality of the space program as he piloted the X-15 No. 3 on a research flight," Bolden said in an agency statement. "These explorers, and their families, have our deepest respect. We work every day to honor and build on their legacy and create the best space program in the world ? to infuse it with the life and vitality that they worked so hard to achieve."

Bill Ingalls / NASA

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden looks on as Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin gives a salute during a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday. The ceremony paid tribute to astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 fire of 1967 as well as the 1986 Challenger explosion and the 2003 Columbia tragedy.

Retrace the final, tragic flight of the space shuttle Columbia, from its launch to its catastrophic end on Feb. 1, 2003.

On Friday morning, Bolden laid a wreath in honor of the agency's fallen astronauts at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where monuments to the Columbia and Challenger crews have been erected. Earlier in the week, he attended a spaceflight conference held in Israel to honor Ilan Ramon, that country's first astronaut, who died in the Columbia tragedy. The other victims included Columbia commander Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark.

Memorial ceremonies also were conducted in Texas, where the Columbia wreckage fell to earth, and at Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex in Florida. The focal point of the Florida ceremony was the Space Mirror Memorial, which bears the names of NASA fliers who died in the line of duty.

Roots of the tragedy
At that ceremony, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, acknowledged that the roots of the Columbia disaster went "all the way back to the first shuttle launch in 1981." Even then, NASA knew that ice and pieces of foam insulation could fly off the shuttle's external fuel tank and strike the orbiter?? but the fact that no severe damage was done "reinforced the idea that all was well," Gerstenmaier said.

That view changed dramatically when Columbia was felled. Investigators determined that the leading edge of Columbia's left wing was fatally damaged by a piece of flying foam during launch, setting the stage for the breakup 16 days later during atmospheric re-entry. NASA was reminded that "even small problems can surface as major failures," Gerstenmaier said.

"Ten years ago, it would have been easy to pull back from the frontier of space, and say it was too risky to pursue," he said. "Instead, we dedicated ourselves to improving how we pushed the boundaries of space exploration, and we vowed to continue with our eyes open. We cannot be afraid of risk, and we cannot be ignorant of it, either. Our lasting tribute to those we have lost is to carry on with the cause that they believed was worth the ultimate sacrifice."

Other speakers at the Florida ceremony included Evelyn Husband-Thompson, the widow of Columbia's commander, who has since remarried. She recalled how she and other family members anticipated the return of their loved ones on that fateful Saturday morning 10 years ago, only to be jolted into a nightmare of "fear, uncertainty and horror."

NASA

Evelyn Husband-Thompson, the widow of Columbia commander Rick Husband, speaks at a memorial ceremony conducted Friday at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex.

"The grief journey has been difficult, complicated and surprising," she said. Over the past decade, she has drawn comfort from her friends, her family and her faith. She noted that the Columbia crew's legacy includes educational initiatives, scholarships, museum exhibits, and even the name of the airport near her home in Texas: Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

"Just as a forest fire reduces beautiful foliage to ashes, those ashes ultimately become nourishment for new, healthy growth," Husband-Thompson said. "There are indeed small, green shoots of hope that are springing up in our lives."

More about Columbia:

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Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/01/16807729-leaders-look-back-at-the-columbia-tragedy-and-look-ahead-to-mars?lite

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Cops: Tips on Hadiya Pendleton's killer pour in

Courtesy the Pendleton family

Hadiya Pendleton and friends during their trip to Washington for President Obama's inauguration.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

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Chicago cops have been deluged with tips about who might have shot Hadiya Pendleton, the high school sophomore killed a week after she performed during President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities.

"Fortunately, the community is stepping up and giving us everything that they've got, from rumors to whatever they know," Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told NBC Chicago on Friday.

"Something's gonna pan out."

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has appealed to city residents to drop the no-snitching credo of the streets and come forward with any leads about Pendleton's killer.

---

Police also have offered a $24,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunman who opened fire on a group of teens gathered in a park after school Tuesday, apparently mistaking them for rival gang members.

Pendleton, 15, was shot in the back, collapsed a block away and died at a hospital. The honor student quickly became the face of Chicago's stubborn gun problem.

The city leads the nation in gun seizures, and its murder rate has been edging up while other cities have been trending downward. More than 500 people were slain there last year, and last month was its bloodiest January in a decade.

On Friday morning, a woman was shot and killed when a van pulled alongside her van on Lake Shore Drive and a gunman fired up to 14 rounds. Police said the shooting was related to gang and drug activity.

Related:

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/01/16808338-chicago-cops-tips-about-hadiya-pendletons-killer-pouring-in?lite

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Deadly storms move east after pummeling the South

ADAIRSVILLE, Ga. (AP) ? Kandi Cash trudged in rain through the splintered debris of her grandparents' home, hoping to salvage photos and other keepsakes after violent storms and tornadoes scoured the Southeast, leaving two people dead before the system advanced on the Northeast.

The demolished home was one of many in the Georgia city of Adairsville splintered by a massive storm front as it punched across the Southeast on Wednesday and then headed across the densely populated Eastern seaboard on Thursday.

The vast storm front stretching on a slanting north-south arc for hundreds of miles shattered homes and businesses around the Midwest and South with tornadoes and high winds earlier in the week. By Thursday, it had spread power outages from the Carolinas to Connecticut, triggered flash floods and forced water rescues in areas outside Washington, D.C.

In the Northeast, utilities reported power outages affecting 74,000 users in Connecticut, nearly 25,000 others in Rhode Island and some 24,000 in upstate New York. Authorities in Rhode Island said gusting winds blew the roof off a building in Central Falls. A wind gust of 63 mph was recorded in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York as temperatures plunged with the cold air mass creeping up behind the front. Forecasters said snowfall was possible from the Great Lakes to the Northeast ? some of it lake-effect snow.

Near the nation's capital, emergency responders in Virginia's Loudoun County said they conducted water rescues early Thursday after some flash floods. One Virginia motorist was plucked from a van's rooftop after veering into a water-filled ravine, WTOP radio reported. Water rescues also were reported in the Washington suburb of Montgomery County, Md.

Some flooding also was reported in North Carolina, where 13,000 utility customers were reported without power Thursday after thunderstorms rolled toward the coast. West Virginia authorities reported about 9,000 without power and some secondary roads blocked by flood water Thursday.

Some of the most fierce damage occurred in Adairsville, a town some 60 miles northwest of Atlanta. WSB-TV in Atlanta aired footage of an enormous funnel cloud bearing down on Adairsville. Winds flattened homes and wiped out parts of a big manufacturing plant. Insulation dangled from trees and power poles. A bank lost a chunk of its roof.

On the same Adairsville lot where Cash's grandparents had their house there also was a mobile home where her aunt lived and another small house her cousin was fixing up to move into after a planned May wedding. All three homes were demolished: Christmas ornaments, children's toys clothing, household items and just about everything else that makes up a home were strewn about.

"I'm just picking up pictures," the 28-year-old Cash said. "I've found the most important ones, like when my cousin was born and her late daddy, the ones that matter most."

Cash, who lives in nearby Cartersville, rode out the violent weather in a neighbor's basement. Once the worst had passed, she called her family in Adairsville and was relieved to hear they'd all made it to a cinderblock storm shelter under her grandparents' home.

"I just told them that the Lord was watching after them," she said. "The houses can be rebuilt. The most important thing was that they were safe."

Anthony Raines, 51, was killed when a tree crashed down on his mobile home, crushing him on his bed, Bartow County Coroner Joel Guyton said. Nine other people were hospitalized for minor injuries, authorities said.

The other death reported from the storms occurred in Tennessee, where an uprooted tree fell Tuesday in a storage shed where a man had taken shelter.

Near Adairsville, the storms easily flipped trucks on Interstate 75 onto their roofs, forcing the route to close for a time. Big rig trucks also were overturned by the winds.

"The sky was swirling," said Theresa Chitwood, who owns the Adairsville Travel Plaza.

A shelter was set up at a recreation center as temperatures plummeted to the 30s and 40s overnight and people had no heat or power. Georgia Power said some 9,600 customers were still without power Thursday morning, down from about 14,000 a day earlier.

Around the Southeast, meanwhile, authorities were investigating several reports of twisters.

In Tennessee, officials confirmed that a tornado with peak winds of 115 mph touched down in Mount Juliet. No serious injuries were reported even though the path of damage was about 150 yards wide. At least six other tornadoes were reported statewide. At a shopping center in Mount Juliet, large sheets of metal littered the parking lot and light poles were knocked down. One wall of a Dollar General store collapsed, and the roof was torn off.

Deaths from the latest storm ended the nation's longest break between tornado fatalities since detailed records began being kept in 1950, according to the Storm Prediction Center and National Climatic Data Center. The last one was June 24 in Florida. That was 220 days ago as of Tuesday.

The last day with multiple fatalities was June 4, when three people were killed in Missouri.

___

Associated Press writers Kristin M. Hall in Mount Juliet, Tenn., and Phillip Lucas in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-dead-storms-rake-south-aim-east-121814451.html

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Wall Street opens flat after mixed data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened flat on Thursday as economic data continued to paint a mixed picture of the economy and as investors sifted through a host of corporate earnings reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 16.05 points, or 0.12 percent, at 13,894.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 1.81 points, or 0.12 percent, at 1,500.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 0.55 points, or 0.02 percent, at 3,141.75.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-mixed-eyes-facebook-110715716--finance.html

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Would You Pay $6.2 Million for This Business? - NYTimes.com

From time to time, I intend to take a look at businesses for sale. We?ll examine them from two perspectives ? how attractive the business is at the asking price and what lessons the business may hold for the owners of other businesses.

The first business I want to look at is a heating, ventilation and air conditioning business in the southeastern United States. For obvious reasons, we cannot identify the specific business or owner. This listing was brought to my attention by the brokerage site, Bizbuysell.com. (Editor?s note: The author has no current or potential financial stake in the sale of this business, nor does the author certify the accuracy of financial or other information provided by the seller and/or seller?s broker.)

Normally construction companies are among the hardest businesses to sell. Buyers often look at them and pass. Why? If the buyer is a competing business, it will often think, ?Let them go out of business, and I?ll just take them over for free.? If it?s a financial buyer ? from outside the area or from a different industry ? the lack of recurring cash flow may be the stumbling block.

The seller of this particular business is being represented by a broker, Jim Dunmire, of the Murphy Business and Financial Corporation. Mr. Dunmire specializes in selling H.V.A.C. businesses, a subset of the construction industry that tends to be somewhat easier to sell than other construction businesses. Below is the basic listing information:

Type of Business: H.V.A.C.

Location: Southeastern United States.

Asking Price: $6.250 million, for the business and real estate.

Employees: 26 full-time, two part-time.

Furniture, Fixtures and Assets: $280,000.

Real Estate: 12,900 square feet, estimated value $800,000.

Intellectual Property: Training programs and a successfully developed niche.

Financials

Year	Sales	Free Cash Flow	Cash Flow/Sales
2009	$4.84 million	$1.78 million	35.5%
2010	$5.29 million	$1.97 million	37.2%
2011	$4.67 million	$1.69 million	36.1%

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Business Overview

The company has been in business for 14 years. Its founder is the owner and chief executive of the company, which services only homeowners. It does no commercial work and no new home construction work, which is unusual in the industry.

As a rule, the company says it does not bid for work. All of its projects have been negotiated with the customer, and the company policy is to not reduce prices to meet competition. In addition, the company takes only jobs that fall within a radius of 20 minutes from the company offices. There is a marketing plan in place that has been producing new business in a predictable manner.

The company trains all new employees in a training center at the main office. New employees aren?t allowed into the field until they have been fully trained in the operations and service skills the owner believes they need.

My Take on This Company

According to Mr. Dunmire, this is a company that has strong profits that are more than three times the industry average (it is 10 times more profitable than the average H.V.A.C. company, according to Robert Morris Associates, a database that analyzes company profitability). If I were a potential a buyer, I would be eager to look under the hood and find out how the company has produced those results.

The company appears to have a strong niche. The owner has learned how to say no to business that doesn?t fit his niche and only accepts jobs that work for his business model. As a result, it seems the company has become very efficient at serving these customers.

In addition, the company has eliminated two significant forms of waste that are common to the industry. By staying within a 20-minute radius, the company avoids having its personnel waste time driving around. And by training its employees at its facility, and not in the field, the company allows trainers to focus on getting a new person acclimated ? and not on getting a job done.

Challenges in This Deal

Mr. Dunmire told me the asking price for this business is 3.2 times its free cash flow. This is about a third higher than most companies in the industry ask.

In addition, it is likely that there is little chance for growth in the niche this company occupies. This means a buyer looking to grow would have to either expand lines within the footprint ? which I would not recommend ? or find a way to clone the business in other geographic areas.

It?s likely the owner has developed excellent systems and documentation for the results the company produces. During due diligence, it will be important to learn precisely how the profits are produced.

A first glance, this business looks like a great opportunity for a strategic buyer, such as a competitor. That said, some strategic buyers may be skeptical of the results ? regardless of the documentation provided. For that reason, a financial buyer may be more likely to buy this high-margin business.

My Suggestions to a Buyer

Any buyer of this company should hold off on making any changes in operations, marketing or training until it has spent a significant amount of time understanding the secret sauce that has made it successful. But a buyer looking for growth should come with a plan to duplicate the operation in other areas. (Here?s a guide to selling a business that Barbara Taylor wrote, and here is one from Bizbuysell.com.)

What questions would you want to ask if you were the buyer? Do you think the business is priced right? What would you pay for this business?

Josh Patrick is a founder and principal at Stage 2 Planning Partners, where he works with private business owners on creating personal and business value.

Source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/would-you-pay-6-2-million-for-this-business/

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