RAA Group

Twenty-five percent of homes listed for sale in Miami have had their prices reduced at least once between June and December, according to Trulia. The national figure is 22 percent.

The San Francisco-based real estate Web site found the average price reduction in Miami was 15 percent, while the national figure was 11 percent, up slightly from 10 percent in the previous quarter.

Statewide, 23 percent of listings had price reductions in the last quarter, with an average reduction of 13 percent, or $53,591.

Nationwide, total listings fell 9 percent in December from the previous month, with the total amount slashed from home prices falling to $24.7 billion in December from $28.1 billion in November.

“The tax credit extension has provided sellers with a much bigger window of opportunity, creating significantly less pressure to sell now,” Trulia co-founder and CEO Pete Flint said in a news release. “With economic indicators showing positive signs during the past couple months, many sellers will be poised to wait to sell. They want to sell at the highest price possible and, as inventory levels are seeing a 9 percent decrease from the previous month, there will be less competition amongst sellers, leading to less price reductions in the near term.”

Cities that have experienced significant increases in percentage of listings with price reductions in the third quarter include:

• Kansas City, Mo. – 40%
• Omaha, Neb. – 39%
• Houston – 32%
• Minneapolis – 29%
• Arlington, Va. – 28%

Cities with the highest percentage of declines for listings with price reductions between June and November include:

• Las Vegas – 30%
• San Jose, Calif. – 30%
• Long Beach, Calif. – 25%
• Honolulu – 23%
• Albuquerque, N.M. – 22%

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that state governments took in nearly $1.7 trillion in total revenue in fiscal year 2008, a 15.8 percent decrease from 2007.

The largest share of the state revenue came from taxes ($780.7 billion), which made up 46.5 percent of the total. The Census Bureau said the decline was primarily because of a decrease in insurance trust revenue, which fell by $377.7 billion (72.7 percent).

Insurance trust systems include public employee retirement systems, the unemployment compensation system, state government workers’ compensation programs and other state social insurance trusts.

Florida’s total revenue was $69.2 billion last year, of which $35.8 billion came from taxes. Total expenditures were $76.9 billion, up from $72.7 billion in 2007. By function, the biggest chunk came from education, at $23.1 billion, followed by welfare, which totaled $18.06 billion, up from with $17.3 billion in 2007. Welfare expenditures comprised 23.5 percent of the state’s total expenditures in 2008.

Other findings:

• Total state government expenditures increased 6.2 percent from fiscal year 2007, totaling $1.7 trillion in 2008. Education ($546.8 billion), public welfare ($412.1 billion) and highways ($107.2 billion) represented the top three outlays, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all state government total expenditures.
• Eleven states spent more than 25 percent of total expenditures on public welfare, with Tennessee (32.8 percent), Maine (30.5 percent) and Rhode Island (29.8 percent) spending the highest percentage of their total expenditures.
• Public welfare spending, used to support people based on need, includes such items as old-age assistance, temporary assistance for needy families, and commodities and services provided under welfare programs, including medical care or burial services.
• Hawaii (11.5 percent), Alabama (10.1 percent) and South Carolina (9.9 percent) led in spending on public health and hospitals as a percentage of total expenditures.

The findings come from the 2008 Annual Survey of State Government Finances, which includes data on revenue, expenditures, debt, and cash and security holdings for each state, as well as a national level summary.

Click here to access the report.

South Florida ranks among the five markets in the country with the biggest home value losses – down $45.9 billion in 2009, according to the latest statistics from Zillow.

Still, that’s better than the $137.2 billion in value lost in 2008.

The improvement also is reflected on the national level, where U.S. homes lost $489 billion in value during the first 11 months of the year, significantly less than the $3.6 trillion that was lost in 2008.

Forty-eight of the 154 markets tracked by Zillow showed gains in home values this year, with the Boston metropolitan statistical area showing the largest gain, at $23.3 billion. The Providence, R.I., MSA was second, with a $12.4 billion gain.

Fewer single-family homeowners also were underwater in the third quarter – 21 percent, down from 23 percent in the second quarter, according to Zillow.

“Most housing markets across the country had a good summer, spurred largely by the government’s tax credits for homebuyers combined with very low mortgage rates,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, in a news release.

However, he noted that demand is expected to drop as mortgage rates creep back up, and the number of foreclosures remains high.

On Tuesday, Condo Vultures reported that there were 7,000 foreclosures last month in the tri-county area.

Florida dealmakers said merger and acquisition activity is all but dead this year, but an Association for Corporate Growth/Thompson Reuters poll found 71 percent expect the market to pick up in 2010.

Ninety-five percent of dealmakers polled characterized the current M&A market as fair or poor, but 71 percent said they expect activity to increase next year.

The dealmakers said it remains a buyers’ market for strategic investors. They identified the hottest areas for mergers: health care and life sciences (22 percent), financial services (19 percent) and business services (19 percent).

The survey is conducted twice each year. The most recent poll, undertaken in October and November, was completed by 921 association members and Thompson Reuters customers, including 38 in Florida.

Click here to read more.

Florida had six unemployed people for every online job advertised, according to The Conference Board.

In the South, November online advertised vacancies were up 6,100, reflecting increases in all of the most populous Southern states, except Virginia and Maryland.

Florida gained 10,300 and Texas was up 10,00, offsetting October declines. Online vacancies in Florida dropped in October by 8,300.

Nationwide, the report said online openings rose by 106,500 to 3.38 million in November.

“Since April, when labor demand bottomed, monthly gains can only be described as sluggish,” said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board, in a news release. “We have yet to see a significant increase in employers’ demand for labor, and, until we see job openings pick up, it will be hard to bring down the unemployment rate.”

Florida ranks sixth in the nation when it comes to being entrepreneur-friendly, according to a new report by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

The council’s 14th annual Small Business Survival Index, released Tuesday, considers 36 costs to small businesses that are imposed by or reported by the government. Most factors are taxes, including personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, property taxes, unemployment taxes and health insurance taxes.

Also factored in are energy costs and crime rate.

The five most entrepreneur-friendly states are South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming and Washington.

In the bottom five are Vermont, New York, California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia.

Click here for the full report.

“If government corruption is a fact of life, how can government agencies be held accountable? Business can be fined; why not agencies and those convicted?”

Two days after rejecting his petition, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday gave thumbs up to a request by Gov. Charlie Crist to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate public corruption statewide.

The state high court selected Broward County Judge Victor Tobin to preside over the grand jury proceedings.

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It will be the grand jury’s job to investigate crime and return indictments.

Crist first petitioned the court in October noting that there was “good and sufficient reason” to investigate criminal activity pointing to the recent indictments of Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher, and Alan Mendelsohn, a prominent Hollywood eye surgeon on public corruption charges.

On Monday, Crist filed an amended petition with Florida justices, after they rejected his first request because it failed to meet the minimal allegations as required by state law. In it, he noted that since taking office he has removed 33 public officials from office as a result of wrongdoing

Florida ranked 12th in the nation in the number of borrowers 60 days or more past due on their auto loans in the third quarter, according to a report by TransUnion.com.

The delinquency rate slipped to 0.99 percent from 1.1 percent in the same quarter last year. However, it rose slightly from the second quarter, when it was 0.92 percent.

Floridian’s average auto debt burden was $13,448, ranking 13th in the nation.

Nationwide, auto delinquency was highest in Mississippi, at 1.53 percent, and California, at 1.33 percent.

The lowest rates were in the District of Columbia (0.26 percent) and North and South Dakota (0.35 percent and 0.37 percent, respectively).

The nation’s average auto debt in the third quarter fell to $12,542 from $12,560 in the same year-ago quarter.

Nevada had the largest auto debt burden, at $14,721, followed by Texas, at $14,425.

“As in recent quarters, both the availability of funding in the market, consumer demand for auto financing and tighter lending standards have contributed to a significant decrease in the number of auto loans in the market, resulting in upward pressure on delinquency rates,” said Peter Turek, automotive vice president in TransUnion’s Financial Services Group, in a news release.

He added that TransUnion’s forecasting models indicate that the national 60-day auto delinquency rate will rise to almost 0.9 percent by year-end, a 7.5 percent increase over the prior year.

Miami ranked among the 10 worst cities for job seekers in November, moving to fifth place from fourth in October, according to an index by CareerCast.com and JobSerf, which measures U.S. managerial recruitment activity.

Tampa Bay replaced Miami in the No. 4 spot. Topping the worst cities list was Riverside, Calif., followed by Detroit and Memphis.

If you’re looking for a job, Washington, D.C., is the place to be, topping the list of best cities to find one. Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta round out the top five.

Nationwide, after two months of declines, there was some positive job growth, as the national volume of managerial openings online increased by 5.9 points to 73.7.

The index scores against a base year of 2007, in which the number of job listings available online during each month of 2007 equals 100 points. That means that a score of less than 100 indicates the number of job listings for a given month is less than during the same month in 2007, while a value greater than 100 means that more jobs are available than were during the same month in 2007.

Florida had the second-highest incidence of credit card delinquency in the country in the third quarter, at 1.47 percent. Only Nevada’s was higher, at 1.98 percent, according to the latest statistics from TransUnion.com.

The report looks at the ratio of bankcard borrowers who are 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their credit cards.

Nationwide, the rate fell to 1.1 percent in the third quarter, down 5.98 percent from the previous quarter.

The lowest credit card delinquency incidence rates were found in North Dakota (0.66 percent), South Dakota (0.7 percent) and Alaska (0.73 percent).

Florida ranks fourth in credit card debt per borrower for the quarter totaling $6.361.

Nationwide, average credit card borrower debt fell to $5,612, down 1.87 percent from the previous quarter’s $5,719, and down 1.71 percent from $5,710 in the third quarter of 2008.

“For the first time in 10 years, third quarter national delinquency rates showed a decrease from the previous quarter, indicating a departure from the usual seasonal patterns,” said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy in TransUnion’s financial services group, in a news release.

Becker noted the recession has caused consumers to keep debt to a minimum and bring debt repayment under control. In addition, many lenders have modified credit card rules and their fees in the third quarter in advance of the Credit Card Act, which will take effect in February. The act is designed to protect consumers from abusive practice and beefs up disclosure requirements.

Looking ahead, TransUnion sees the 90-day credit card delinquency rate remaining steady at 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter, with a possible increase in the beginning of next year.