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November 9th, 2009
The number of people and business owners filing for bankruptcy protection in October shattered local records since the federal government made it more difficult to discharge debts in 2005.
In October, there were 307 filings in Boone, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties, easily topping the previous post-bankruptcy change high of 271 back in July.
The all-time high was in October 2005 when a new federal law took affect significantly raising the standards for people looking to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where you liquidate your assets and debts. In that month there were 1,388 filings.
October 19th, 2009
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released its annual bank deposit market share data and AMCORE Bank again dominates the Rock River Valley.
AMCORE has been the No. 1 bank locally every year that the FDIC has the information available on the web, which dates back to 1994. In Boone, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties, AMCORE had $2.24 billion in deposits at 16 locations. AMCORE commanded 26.7 percent of the market at the end of June.
Even with all of the negative headlines surrounding AMCORE, which has lost money the past 18 months, its local deposits grew by nearly 4 percent.
There is a new No. 2 in the market. Alpine Bank, which now includes Belvidere National Bank deposits, had $824.3 million at the end of June, a 14.7 percent surge. Alpine and Belvidere National Bank were owned by the same bank holding company and executives there decided to merge the two into one bank to market the bank more effectively.
An interesting side note. The total amount of money deposited at area banks grew from $7.99 billion at the end of June in 2008 to $8.38 billion at the end of June in 2009, a 4.9 percent increase and the largest year-over-year jump since 2006 when the economy was in the middle of the housing bubble.
September 28th, 2009
CNBC’s Phil LeBeu wrote last week that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne will unveil his plan to revive Chrysler Group LLC in November.
According to LeBeu, the key will be clearly differentiating the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep plans. Marchionne plans to make Chrysler more upscale, trying to compete with Lincoln and Cadillac. Marchionne sees Dodge as its mass market brand, while he’s mostly happy with Jeep’s branding.
In terms of models, LeBeu believes Marchionne is going to offer a “flurry” of new models for the C/D segment to replace the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot, which are assembled in Belvidere.
September 17th, 2009
This from the wires:
NEW YORK (AP) Toyota Motor Corp. will pour $1 billion into a major U.S. marketing campaign in the fourth quarter, as the Japanese automaker bets on a recovery in the ailing auto market here.
The sum is “more than we’ve spent before” in the period, spokesman Irv Miller said. The fourth quarter is typically a strong sales season for automakers, who often launch big end-of-the-year promotions to drum up sales of new model-year vehicles. Toyota rolls out its “Toyotathon” marketing and sales blitz in November.
“We see the economy is starting to strengthen a bit,” Miller said. “We’ve stopped playing defense. It’s time to go on the offense.”
The marketing push, which Toyota unveiled to dealers at a Las Vegas convention on Tuesday, comes a week after General Motors Co. announced its own new campaign. GM’s effort features TV ads starring Chairman Ed Whitacre and a 60-day money-back guarantee program designed to draw skittish consumers back to its vehicles.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, has been pummeled by the worldwide downturn and posted its first-ever loss for the fiscal year ended in March. It expects a second consecutive loss in the current fiscal year.
The automaker has responded with aggressive cost cutting efforts and a renewed push to sell more green cars like the Prius hybrid. Toyota rolled out a redesigned Prius earlier this year and the car remains the top-selling hybrid in the U.S.
September 16th, 2009
A story that just appeared today onCNNMoney.com quotes Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne as saying he was “surprised by how little had been done in the past 24 months.”
Marchionne was talking to reporters in Frankfurt, Germany.
Under the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler did precious little research and development and has little to offer buyers in terms of new offerings.
An analyst quoted in the story found it hard to believe Marchionne didn’t know what he was getting into. Instead, the analyst believes Marchionne is laying the groundwork for drastic action.
Chrysler Group LLC has a plant in Belvidere that employs 1,700 people. The company announced plans to temporarily bring back a second shift in October and boost the payroll by 850. Those plans have been pushed back to November.
September 15th, 2009
I just talked to a former Syncreon worker. That’s the plant that sequences parts for Chrysler’s Belvidere assembly plant.
He has a dilemma that probably a few hundred others are facing. He was laid off when Chrysler eliminated the second shift. He found another job. It doesn’t pay as well as Syncreon, but it is a job and there are 27,000 people out of work.
Syncreon has called him back to work when Chrysler temporarily restores the second shift — which has been moved back to mid-November — to pump out an additional 10,000 Dodge Calibers.
He said if the second shift is going to produce Calibers only then they can pump out 10,000 of them in about four weeks. This would gibe with the production schedule another Chrysler worker sent me, which shows two shifts of production for just five weeks.
If he goes back to Syncreon he’ll lose the job he has now obviously. Syncreon does pay better. But the Syncreon job likely will last no more than five weeks and then he’s back looking for work in a 15 percent unemployment market.
If he doesn’t go back, he is fired from Syncreon and loses his seniority which means he’s out of luck if Fiat puts new products in the plant and brings back the shift permanently in 2010 or 2011.
I didn’t know what to tell him. What would you do?
September 10th, 2009
The average advertised rent for apartments in Boone and Winnebago counties declined for the seventh straight month in September.
The Register Star tracks rents by charting the advertisements in the Register Star on the first Sunday of each month.
The declines have been consistent throughout the area. Apartments ads for northeast Rockford properties peaked at $782 in December and were down to $708 in September. Southeast side apartments have fallen from $592 last November to $559. Belvidere asked rents are down from $675 last October to $606 and Roscoe/Rockton apartment ads were asking $749 last November but just $636 this September.
The average for nine areas peaked at $638 in November and were at $629 in February. The average in September was $581.
September 9th, 2009
I just dropped off what is becoming our annual challenge of our property tax assessment.
My house is located in the Loves Park section that is in Rockford Township. That township had a multiplier of 3 percent, meaning the assessor’s office basically took what the fair market value of your house in 2008 and added 3 percent.
I looked up our assessment and saw that the county believes our property is worth nearly $132,000.
We’ve challenged our assessment on three other occasions. We’ve won twice and lost once.
I am fairly confident of this year’s challenge. We tried to refinance our house earlier this year and as part of the process paid $300 for an appraisal. That appraisal came back with an estimated fair market value of $124,000.
Since the appraisal was completed in May and the assessment is what the house was worth on Jan. 1, 2009, it’s not automatic that the board of review will accept the appraisal. But all four of the comparables houses the appraisor used were sold in 2008 so I’m confident the appraisal will win out.
Ironically, because the appraisal came in so low we were denied the loan. We owe about $125,000 on the house. We had to borrow heavily in 2007 after the Labor Day flood to repair our basement. Now, that appraisal may save us that $300 back in taxes next year.
The deadline to challenge your assessment is Sept. 14.
September 4th, 2009
Chrysler Group LLC will begin advertising for temporary employees to fill the second shift for the Belvidere assembly plant this weekend, Chrysler spokesman Max Gates said in an e-mail.
Interested employees can go to www.hourlychryslerjob.com to begin the application process. Good luck figuring the site out. I haven’t figured out how to apply yet, so the company may still be setting up the process.
Chrysler announced Wednesday that it was restoring the second shift — and 850 workers — at the plant where Dodge Calibers, Jeep Compasses and Jeep Patriots are assembled.
September 3rd, 2009
The annual Parade of Homes kicks off next week, Sept. 12, and the most signficant thing about this year’s parade is how small it is.
Just 12 local builders entered 14 homes. All were in Boone or Winnebago counties. The parade featured 47 builders and 64 homes as recently as 2005.
Dennis Sweeney heads the Home Builders Association of the Greater Rockford Area and he doesn’t try to spin things. He didn’t this time. I could have done it for him. Here’s a positive. When there were 64 homes spread out over four counties, it was impossible to visit every one. This year, you might be able to knock it out in a day.
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