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August 15th, 2008
A few weeks ago I needed to break a $50 — which for a journalist is big money — and wandered to the nearest bank branch from the Newstower.
Since I was going to get change, I decided I’d buy a roll of the gold presidential dollar coins — by the end of the year the U.S. Mint already will be up to No. 8, Martin Van Buren.
But when I walked up to the teller and asked to break the $50, he asked me if I had an account there. I didn’t so I was told the policy was to only make change for people who have accounts with the bank.
What? I asked. I wasn’t looking to take any money away. I just wanted different kinds of money.
“That’s our policy,” I was told.
So I trudged back down State Street and, crossed the river, and found another bank.
Unfortunately, that bank had the same policy. I wondered if I was on to something big. Had a small courtesy to the public had gone the way of the full-service gas station.
Turns out I was just unlucky. There are 18 different banking institutions with branches in Rockford. I called a branch from each one and found 13 will make change without requiring an account. The five that told me over the phone that an account is required were JPMorgan Chase, Associated Bank, National City, Firth Third and Riverside Community Bank.
That’s not really a surprise because four of the five are very large regional or national banks. I looked on the Internet to see if any research had been done on this trend and couldn’t find any.
I’m not taking these banks to task — I assume it’s a guard against accepting counterfeit bills or a staffing issue. I’m just pointing it out in case you want to buy some of those gold dollars — the Andrew Jacksons are really sharp. To save time, you might want to hit a smaller, locally-based bank first.
August 14th, 2008
Realtors will readily admit that the real estate market of 2008 is much tougher than in the glory days of 2005 and 2006 when it seemed bidding wars were the norm.
It’s even much tougher than 2007, after the subprime mortgage bubble burst. Still, they stress time and time again that the market is much worse elsewhere.
That’s true even within Illinois.
The Illinois Association of Realtors publishes home prices by county quarterly, using both means and medians. In the second quarter, out of 16 northern Illinois counties, just five saw increases in the median price compared to 2007.
Fortunately, three of the counties were in the Rock River Valley — Boone, Ogle and Stephenson counties.
Winnebago County, though, was among the decliners. According to the state association, which bases its statistics off numbers received from the Rockford Area Association of Realtors, the median price in the second quarter for Winnebago County homes fell from $129,900 in 2007 to $118,500, an 8.8 percent increase.
That’s a tough drop, but Cook County homeowners had it even tougher. There median prices fell from $285,000 to $250,000, a 12.2 tumble.
To take a look at the report click here.
August 4th, 2008
Last week the Illinois Department of Transportation released its annual traffic stop data. The state has been collecting it since 2004 mostly to track whether certain departments are guilty of racial profiling when pulling someone over.
There’s a wealth of other information in there, though. One I thought was very interesting was the wide disparity in citation percentages. Not including the Illinois State Police, last year nineteen different police agencies in Boone, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties pulled over more than 500 motorists.
If you were unfortunate enough to be pulled over by a Winnebago County Sheriff’s Deputy, 86.8 percent of the time you received a citation. At the bottom end of the scale was the Rochelle Police Department. Out of the 1,507 motorists pulled over in Rochelle, only 601 — or 39.9 percent received citations.
There were strange disparities in several areas. Rockton, Roscoe and South Beloit are so intertwined that you can think you are in one town and actually be in another. If you are traveling on one of those in between roads and the lights go off behind you, according to the 2007 data, you should pray it’s a Rockton officer. Last year, Rockton officers gave tickets in just 51.1 percent of its traffic stops while South Beloit officers ticketed drivers 72.3 percent of the time and Roscoe officers issued citations 74.4 of the time.
The same issue pops up between Loves Park and Machesney Park. Machesney Park pays Winnebago County — and its 86.8 percent citation rate — to patrol its streets, while Loves Park has its own department and officers there ticketed drivers just 53.8 percent of the time.
There even was variation with the four sheriff’s departments. Stephenson County’s citation percentage was 82.7 percent and Boone County was 81.4 percent. But Ogle County deputies issued citations in just 1,157 of their 2,053 traffic stops — or 56.4 percent.
July 25th, 2008
My job here at the newspaper is morphing into one where my primary resonsibility is to chase statistics wherever I can find them.
Anyone who has read my columns know this is perfect for me. What you find boring I find fascinating as long as I can track it.
So if you like stats and data, come back here, that’s what I’ll be working on.
For instance, there’s a wealth of information you can get from the circuit clerk’s office if you ask for it.
The number of cases, for example, that have been filed in county courts peaked in 2004 at 109,751 then declined in ‘05 and ‘06 before turning upward in 2007 to 106,186.
Among the types of cases seeing declines — criminal misdemeanors, down from 12,004 in 1999 to 9,245 last year and Order of Protections peaked at 1,775 in 2004 and were down to 1,493 in 2007.
Some of the case types that have become more popular include small claims cases, mental health and chancery, which is a broad category that includes foreclosures.
Of those 100,000 or so cases that are filed each year, remarkably few ever go to trial. In the first three months of 2008, just 18 cases actually went to a jury verdict — three traffic cases, eight criminal misdemeanors, six felony cases and just one lawsuit. And the lawsuit shows how long of a road the court system can be, it was a medical malpractice case filed in 1999.
Starting in April, I began tracking the earnings of the companies on our Star 60 stock index. The index tracks companies important to the local economy. The theory being that if more of our Star 60 companies are reporting rising earnings than ones reported declines, that’s good for the area.
The second quarter was close with 32 of the 58 reporting increases in earnings compared to the same quarter in 2007. And the third quarter is off to a good start. Twenty eight companies have reported so far and 17 reported increases.
The earnings “winners” so far:
Ecolab, Union Pacific, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Exelon Corp., AT&T Inc., McDonalds, PepsiCo, Caterpillar, Paccar, SuperValu, Woodward Governor, Honeywell International, United Technologies, Danaher Corp., Reliance Steel & Aluminum, Textron Inc. and Landstar System.
The “losers.”
Ford Motor, AmerisourceBergen, National City Corp., Allstate Corp., UAL Corp., UPS Inc., AMCORE Financial, Associated Banc-Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.S. Bancorp and General Electric.
On Sunday, August 3, you will see the Register Star’s first real estate sales map by zip code based out of a real estate database we launched and have maintained since 2003.
Unlike numbers provided monthly and yearly by the Rockford Area Association of Realtors, our database includes all real estate transactions from the Boone, Ogle and Winnebago county area and only transactions from that area. The Realtors association figures are just sales that involve a Realtor and the sales can include sales from anywhere, as long as the transaction included a member of the Rockford association.
The big thing missing from the Realtors association data is foreclosures. There are a record number of families losing their houses because they can’t make the payments and when the lending institutions resell thoses properties they rarely use a Realtor.
Not surprisingly, areas all over the Rock River Valley are down in terms of number and in terms of median sales price. There were several bright spots where sale prices increased in the first six months of 2008 compared to 2007. You’ll have to wait and see the story to see where those places were.
Back to my first sentence, if there are things you think we should be tracking and have ideas on how to do so, please email me at agary@rrstar.com. I love numbers.
July 21st, 2008
If there is a group of professionals that like lawsuits as much as attorneys it would have to be journalists.
Especially business journalists.
The beauty of public companies is every three months they tell us how well — or how poorly — they are doing. But the vast majority of companies that we cover are privately owned and don’t have to tell us anything.
Except when those companies become involved in a lawsuit.
Last week Nate Legue wrote about a lawsuit involving Jeff Petry and Frank Wehrstein, the co-owners of Dickerson & Nieman Realtors, the area’s dominant real estate firm.
The suit is interesting just because of the people involved — including Greater Rockford Airport Authority Board Chairman Mike Dunn — but it also gives us a look at Dickerson & Nieman’s finances and hints at how the home sales slowdown is affecting the company.
According to one exhibit, Dickerson & Nieman’s gross revenues grew from $12.6 million in 2003, to $13.6 million in 2004, $14.7 million in 2005 and then hitting $15.3 million in 2006.
Through eight months of 2007, though, the revenues were at $8.6 million, or on pace for $13 million. That’s a generous estimate though. Through August of 2007 home sales were down 16 percent compared to 2006, but in the final four months they fell 25 percent compared to 2006.
The copmany’s net income was taking a hit even before 2007 though. In 2003, Dickerson & Nieman’s net imcome was $1.15 million. That increased to $1.35 million in 2004 and $1.43 million in 2005. In 2006, it fell to $1.18 million and it was $682,000 through August 2007 or on pace for just over $1 million.
With sales down 33 percent in 2008 compared just to 2007, obviously real estate companies — and not just the agents — are taking a hit and now we know, at least in one case, how much.
June 27th, 2008
I may be way off on this but I can’t remember seeing or hearing prominent Three Hammer Construction advertisements in the past few years.
The company, which has long been the most active home local home builder, didn’t need to. It was building subdivisions all over a five county area.
But I heard a Three Hammer ad on the radio the other day and spotted a billboard ad as well.
To me that’s just another indication of how slow things have gotten in the residential construction industry. For the past several years, Three Hammer wouldn’t have had to advertise. We have maintained a real estate database at the Register Star with every land transaction in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties since the beginning of 2003.
I went through it and found all of the Three Hammer Construction sales I was sure were homes built and sold and not vacant lots. Here is what I found:
2003 — 376
2004 — 387
2005 — 345
2006 — 404
2007 — 296
2008 — 64 through June 16.
These totals don’t include Three Hammer’s Stephenson County or Rock County, Wis., subdivisions. Still, as you can see it’s a long fall from 2006.
Still, if you add up the sales, the company has built and sold at least 1,872 houses in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties since the start of 2003. If you conservatively average out the house size to be three people, that’s 5,616 people living in Three Hammer houses built in just the last five years.
If Three Hammer were a village, it’d be the ninth largest in the Rock River Valley. There are more people living in those houses than in all of Oregon, Winnebago, Poplar Grove, Byron and Cherry Valley, to name a few.
Another thing about the company, they never talk to the media. I even grew up with one of the heirs to the Three Hammer kingdom and they don’t talk to me. I don’t take it personally. That’s just their policy. But maybe that will change as well.
June 17th, 2008
If you drive along North Second Street in Loves Park you’ll notice a large Ringland-Johnson Construction Co. trailer on the grounds of Woodward Governor and some digging going on.
Woodward is planning a news release next week announcing what will be going up on the landmark building that was built before Loves Park incorporated in 1947. Woodward has long been Loves Park’s largest employer.
Wisconsin-based Blackhawk Bank pulled a building permit June 5 for a new bank branch at 3101 11th St. Blackhawk bought the property from the city of Rockford at the end of January for $328,000. It was once the American Transmission Center, but has been vacant for years and was the site of a fire in 1999 where a Rockford firefighter was injured.
Blackhawk plans to talk more about the new branch next week as well. But back in March Blackhawk said it will feature drive-up banking, a 24-hour ATM, a full-service lobby, and a mortgage and business banking center.
Blackhawk Bank operates seven offices in Beloit, Wis., Rockford, Belvidere, Capron, Machesney Park and Roscoe.
June 6th, 2008
I’m always looking for more numbers to see if I can spot trends. Here’s a couple.
Between April 17 and May 29, 39 of the 60 companies on Star 60 stock index released quarterly earnings. I may have missed a few — there were days five and six were being released at a time. Of those, 21 reported year-over-year earnings increases, which overall is a good sign.
Among the gainers were some of the area’s largest employers, United Technologies, which owns Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford and Taylor Co. in Rockton, Woodward Governor and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Of the ones that reported decreased earnings, some were directly tied to the nation’s struggling real estate and construction industry, including Lowe’s Companies Inc., The Home Depot and The Valspar Corp.
Of course, just looking at whether net income went up or down compared to the year before is not a perfect indicator. For example, Reliance Steel & Aluminum, parent company of Liebovich Brothers Inc., made $107.4 million in its first quarter. That’s good money but down 4 percent from 2007.
Of the 39 companies that I kept track of this earnings cycle, there were five that outright lost money — Sears Holdings Corp., General Motors Corp., UAL Corp., our own AMCORE Financial and GateHouse Media Inc., which owns the Rockford Register Star.
So I’m definately on the wrong side of this economic trend.
Another thing I looked at this week is business bankruptcies. Through May, 13 companies in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties have filed for bankruptcy protection compared to just five in the first five months of 2007.
At least six of the bankuptcies this year have ties to the struggling real estate and construction market, including two of the three bankruptcies in May — Arco Pool & Spa Inc. of Rockford and W. Molitor Construction Inc. of South Beloit.
Glen Turpoff, executive director of the Northern Illinois Building Contractors Association, said that wasn’t a surprise.
“There isn’t a business in any industry that isn’t closely examining how it’s going to get through this economic cycle,” Turpoff said. “It may have started in real estate and construction, but it’s spread to every industry.”
June 3rd, 2008
Realtors sold 455 houses in May, that was a more than 30 percent increase from April, but still lagged May 2007’s total by 27 percent.
The month-to-month increase was the largest percentage jump since May of 2007.
The average sale price through May was $138,193, also down more than 3 percent from May 2007’s average of $142,778.
May 14th, 2008
When I see a penny on the floor I pick it up.
Not for good luck mind you, but rather because I have one of those plastic water cooler jugs that we’re using to collect change.
That penny, combined with a lot of other pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and gold dollars — I love the gold dollars, will be part of my family’s spending money when we go to Disney World in the fall.
This morning I checked our accounts online and noticed the federal stimulus money had been deposited. It was like finding a penny, just a lot more of it.
Now I know the federal government — and local retailers — want us to rush out and buy furniture, clothing and a computer with that money. But I think we’re like most people, we’re going to use it to offset our ever increasing expenses. We put some aside for the Disney trip and some aside for extra spending over the summer because the cost of entertaining a 5- and 9-year-old in the summer seems to go up exponentially each year. The rest are helping pay the bills this month
So in a way, we’re delaying the stimulus. The extra cash will filter back in slowly from June through October — but eventually all of it will make its way back into the economy. The smartest move would be to take all of it and put it in an IRA, but very few are in that kind of financial position.
That’s my story. What’s yours? Are you using it as mad money and buying that one item you’ve been waiting for or fixing something on the house that has needed fixing? Is anyone taking the ultimate gamble and using the entire check on the Mega Millions for that one shot at glory?
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