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| Deal close, but no Florida state budget
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| As Florida lawmakers head toward their Friday deadline, it is not unusual to have major issues unsettled. What is unusual is to be approaching the deadline without any signs that the House and Senate can settle the $65 billion state budget -- the one bill lawmakers must pass each year. The Senate on Monday did back a bill to allow the 11 state universities to increase their tuition by as much as 15 percent a year, until they reach the national average for tuition. Five universities, including the University of Florida, the University of South Florida and Florida State University, already have that ability, with the bill extending the power to the remaining six.
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| @ | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Pilot program aims to halt foreclosures
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| Area real-estate professionals are hoping Fannie Mae continues a limited pilot program aimed at facilitating short sales, especially as local foreclosure filings continue to hit record highs. Since its January launch, the program has prevented at least a handful of homes in 11 Florida counties — including Manatee and Sarasota — from falling into foreclosure by making it easier to sell them for less than their outstanding mortgages.
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| @ Bradenton Herald | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Watch for office vacancy rates to jump in Tampa Bay area
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| Given the Tampa Bay area's higher-than-average unemployment rates, look for office vacancy rates in the metro area to spike to 20.7 percent by the end of this year from 15.9 percent at the end of 2008.
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| @ St. Petersburg Times | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Effort to Cut Florida Property Taxes Loses Steam
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| Three months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist said the gloomy economic times made it imperative to help homeowners and businesses by lowering property taxes. 'Now more than ever, as families are faced with historic challenges, we must reduce the tax burden on Florida homeowners and businesses,' Crist said then as he suggested five separate plans to cut property taxes. But after nearly two months of deliberations with a Friday deadline nearing, lawmakers have all but ignored the issue that dominated their campaign promises for years.
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| @ Lakeland Ledger | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Energy upgrades at home pay off on tax return, too
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| Energy Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. From the IRS directly Good read.
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| @ IRS | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Northern Trust raising $1.25B to redeem TARP shares
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| Chicago’s biggest bank holding company has hired Goldman Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. to handle the $750-million equity portion of the deal, the bank announced Monday. It also intends to raise about $500 million in senior notes in a registered public offering. Northern Trust will use the proceeds, plus other capital, to redeem the $1.6 billion in preferred shares it sold to the federal government last year under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
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| @ Crain's Chicago Real Estate Daily | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0400 EDST
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| The "Stress Test" methodology from the Federal Reserve Bank
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| The white paper is intended to assist analysts and other interested members of the public in understanding the results of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program, expected to be released in early May. All U.S. bank holding companies with year-end 2008 assets exceeding $100 billion were required to participate in the assessment, which began February 25. These institutions collectively hold two-thirds of the assets and more than half the loans in the U.S. banking system.
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| @ Federal Reserve Bank
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| Property in America Commercial break
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| $594 billion of commercial mortgages will mature in America alone between 2009 and 2011. Many of these borrowers will have a big problem when their loans mature. Just as in residential property, the financing terms that were available to property and construction firms got ever laxer as the bubble inflated. Loan-to-value ratios of 85-95% were common in 2006 and 2007. These have now tightened to 60-65% and below for new lending.
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| @ The Economist | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Hungarian Jobless Rate Hits Decade High on Recession
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| The rate rose to 9.7 percent, the highest since the current statistical methodology was introduced in 1998, from 8 percent in the three months through December,
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| @ Bloomberg News | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0646 EDST
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| Lithuanian Economy Contracts 12.6%, Worst in EU
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| Lithuania is in its worst recession since 1993 after a credit boom ended and the global economic crisis cut demand for exports. The government, with limited scope to borrow abroad because of the credit freeze, cut spending and wages in January, which led to protests and riots. More austerity measures, including a second round of wage cuts, were announced in April, amounting to about 3 percent of gross domestic product.
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| @ Bloomberg News | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0652 EDST
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| Hopes of UK housing recovery set back
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| Nascent signs of a recovery in the housing market suffered a setback as mortgage approvals to buy homes fell last month for the first time since November. Mortgage approvals in March fell by 7 per cent to 26,097 from 28,024 in the previous month, after rising from a record low of 17,895 in November.
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| @ Financial Times - UK | Posted: 04/28/09 at 0655 EDST
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