| Home prices slip in October as inventory swells
It's becoming a classic buyer's market across Western Washington, with plenty of homes available and prices slipping slightly in some places, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service's October home sales report released today. There were 14,240 single family homes and condominiums on the market last month in King County, about 44 percent more than a year ago. Prices, meanwhile, dropped about 1 percent from a median of $391,300 a year ago to $387,500 in October. In Snohomish County, the number of homes listed increased even more in October compared with last year, rising 51.6 percent to 6,857. Median home prices in that county increased 5.8 percent to $352,874, according to the report. Median means half the homes sold for more, half sold for less.
Short of money and support, McGrody ends bid for District 23 seat
Retired businessman James McGrody has dropped his candidacy for the Republican nomination in Congressional District 23, saying his largely online campaign died from lack of money and supporters. McGrody's departure — his second in six months — leaves San Antonio attorney and real estate investor Francisco "Quico" Canseco as the only announced candidate for next March's Republican primary. It also highlights questions about Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson's intentions. McGrody, of Fair Oaks Ranch, relied heavily on collecting voters' e-mail addresses and feeding them electronic newsletters on his positions. "I wasn't getting there — I wasn't getting the readership I needed to get," said McGrody, 68. "Overall, Bexar County was speaking." Canseco, who moved into District 23 from his native Laredo in 2006, received some of his potential support.
Van Fletcher: A strange matter
With housing starts experiencing a historic pullback and reasonable predictions that it will take several years for the credit crunch and resulting real estate issues to work out, this may be a time for pause on white elephant projects in the community.I'll also go out on a limb with a prediction that I hope proves wrong. If the current beetle kill continues as predicted this may not be a place that folks will find as beautiful and as desireable in the relatively near future.I also agree with Mr. Fletcher that this will open the door to future property taxes and therefore should be killed right now to send a strong message that we will not tolerate additional tax pipelines. .
Moreno Valley woman nourishes the minds and bodies of students in the ...
Alisha Ellis says her former employer would find it ironic that she teaches teenagers how to work hard. After all, her bank fired her 22 years ago for being absent too much. "I had just started my one-woman janitorial service," Ellis said, "and I had to service my customers. When I couldn't find help, I had to take off work to keep my business going. After taking off one time too many, I lost my job." Ellis, now 44, says it was a difficult decision to walk away from a $25,000-per-year managerial position to clean toilets and mop floors. However, her company, A&W Industries, a commercial janitorial service in Los Angeles, has been successful enough that it funds much of her charitable work. .
Societe Generale trader could face multiple preliminary charges of ...
Since the bets greatly exceeded the amount of capital he was allowed to risk, Kerviel entered fake and offsetting trades in Societe Generale's computer system that appeared to minimize the odds of big losses, the bank said. The trades were purposely chosen to avoid detection because they did not require cash contributions nor were subject to margin calls, which would require putting up more money if the fake bet soured, it said. Societe Generale said Kerviel's positions were unwound last week over three days in a "controlled fashion." Societe Generale said Kerviel used other people's computer access codes, falsified documents and used other methods to cover his tracks _ helped by his previous experience in other bank offices that monitored traders. Kerviel's downfall started in the days before Friday, Jan.
Heavy early voting spurs high turnout expectation for primary
Party and elections officials said Florida's moving its primary from March to January this year has engaged voters who feel like the race is still undecided, and a heavily publicized property tax cutting amendment is likely fueling interest. More than 1 million of the state's 10.2 million registered voters had already cast an early ballot through Sunday, state officials said. That includes just more than 500,000 Republicans and about 435,000 Democrats. For Democrats, that's a more than fourfold increase from the March 2004 presidential primary, when 97,000 Democrats voted early. There was no Republican presidential primary in 2004, because President Bush ran for re-election. The turnout figures for the 2004 and 2000 primaries were about 20 percent. The heavy participation by Democrats surprised even party officials, because the Democratic National Committee punished Florida for moving its primary earlier by stripping all its delegates in the nominating process.
Techbooks Acquires Whitmont Legal Technologies, Inc.
FALLS CHURCH, Va., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Techbooks, Inc., a global leader in integrated content transformation solutions, has signed an agreement to acquire Whitmont Legal Technologies, Inc. (Whitmont), a leading litigation support and eDiscovery services company. This purchase places Techbooks squarely in the rapidly growing market for electronic data discovery (EDD) services driven by the move toward outsourced legal services. The EDD market alone is estimated to be growing at a compounded annual rate of 50% and is expected to reach $2.9B in 2007, according to the 2005 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey. Techbooks purchased Whitmont's assets to strengthen its content transformation solutions and expand its domain expertise into the outsourced legal services market.
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