http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:33:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/08/15/but-i-just-want-change/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/08/14/its-a-matter-of-perspective/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/08/04/why-you-should-hope-thats-a-rockton-officer-pulling-you-over/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/07/25/court-notes-earnings-and-the-real-real-estate-numbers/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/07/21/a-rare-look-at-real-estate-finances/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/06/27/three-hammer-construction-advertising/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/06/17/construction-announcements-coming/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/06/06/more-economic-indicators/ 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 ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/06/03/may-home-sales-numbers-up-and-down/ 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 -- ... http://blogs.e-rockford.com/getreal/2008/05/14/its-all-stimulus/