| ITEX Corporation Retains Two Top Chicago Marketing Firms to Expand ...
BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ITEX Corporation (OTCBulletinBoard: ITEX) , The Membership Trading Community(SM), a leading marketplace for cashless business transactions in North America, today announced it had retained two top Chicago marketing firms -- The Goodness Company and Sigale Public Relations -- to provide additional professional assistance to its franchisees in the rapidly expanding Chicago region by promoting member registrations. The Goodness Company will assist and support the ITEX franchise network in building their local businesses. The Goodness Company will begin by creating instrumental PR tools such as a PR Tool Kit and Press Kit, and will direct a monthly franchisee conference call in addition to developing tips on how to help franchisees secure optimal public relations and publicity for their businesses.
Home sale prices inch up in Illinois
Illinois home prices eked out a 0.7 percent increase in the third quarter despite a raft of negative trends, the Illinois Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Statewide, the trade group said, the median home sale price was $209,000, a slight gain from the $207,500 a year ago. The median price, considered a better yardstick than a standard average, represents the price at which half the homes that sold were at a higher price, and half were at a lower price. The average sale price rose 3.1 percent in the latest quarter, to $270,632. The number of homes sold in Illinois, including single-family homes and condominiums, dropped 16.3 percent, to 39,519. In the Chicago area, the median home sale price rose 4.2 percent, to $262,500.
Verdict against Sears
.
Magic's Adonal Foyle eager to cast vote
Oh my God, I've never voted in my 32 years of existence," Foyle says, his voice rising an octave or two and sounding nearly as fervent as Mike Huckabee discussing the disbandment of the IRS. "What an incredible time it is politically to be able to cast my ballot for the first time."
.
Home Foreclosure Rate Soars in 2007
Some properties may have received more than one notice if the owners had multiple mortgages.A late-year surge in the number of properties reporting foreclosure filings suggests that many are in the initial stages of the foreclosure process and could end up lost to foreclosure this year unless lenders or the government steps in, RealtyTrac said."It does appear that we're seeing a new batch of properties enter the process," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing.RealtyTrac is forecasting that the pace of foreclosure filings will remain steady, rather than accelerate during the first half of 2008."Assuming nothing else bad happens economically ... we will have exhausted the bulk of the worst-performing loans by the end of June," Sharga said, referring to adjustable-rate mortgage loans made to borrowers with poor credit.Many of these subprime loans defaulted last year, triggering a credit crisis and saddling major financial institutions with losses.More than 1.8 million subprime mortgages are scheduled to reset to higher interest rates this year and next.Last year's explosion in foreclosure activity came amid a worsening housing downturn, as falling home values ate into homeowners' equity, making it harder for many to refinance into more affordable loans or to find buyers.
Effects of lax lending standards settling in
There are increasing signs that the subprime home mortgage pain is spreading to other forms of consumer credit, economic observers say.
On Thursday, the American Bankers Association released data showing that for many types of consumer loans, delinquency has reached the highest rate since mid-2001, when the nation was in the embrace of recession. Delinquency is defined as payments that are 30 days or more overdue.
"There has been an increase in certain categories of delinquencies," said Carol Kaplan, senior manager of public relations for the American Bankers Association. "We are seeing stress in housing-related loans and we anticipate that trend continuing."
.
Auction gets royal treatment
The possessions of a Russian prince and princess who dwelled quietly in Grosse Pointe Farms ended up on the auction block last weekend. Bids came in from around the world for furniture, jewelry, art and other valuables that belonged to Marilyn Wall Obolensky and her husband, a colorful Russian prince who fled his country during the Bolshevik revolution and went on to live a life connected to some of the world's wealthy and famous people. .
National Domestic Violence Hotline Unveils 10-Year Blueprint to ...
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH), with support from the United States Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), unveiled today at the White House, a national blueprint to significantly reduce domestic violence by 2017. The Decade for Change Report is a culmination of four months of collective work by corporate, private and government leadership to develop bold ideas and unprecedented initiatives for preventing domestic violence in America. "Despite significant efforts over the past decade to address the problem of domestic violence in our country, 33 million American women continue to experience abuse every year," said Sheryl Cates, NDVH chief executive officer. "As a society, we can and need to do more to stop the cycle of violence before it starts.
|
