Triangle, North Carolina.  Average Pay For Full Professors At Duke And UNC Ranks High Nationally.  There is no doubt about it: top dollar draws the top talent in any field or business you care to name.  Academia is no different.  Top professorial pay is important to universities for their ability to draw top talent, to business and industry for the products and quality of students they produce, to the cities and immediate areas they serve for the business and quality of people they attract and, in many cases, the business they produce and businesses they draw to their respective states.

The average pay for full professors at Triangle universities during 2007 was: Duke - $152,600, University of North Carolina - $138,500, North Carolina State University - $110,800, North Carolina Central University - $99,300 and Meredith - $72,500.  Since 2000 these figures represent a 34.3 percent increase at Duke, a 37.3 percent increase an UNC, and a 21.1 percent increase at NCSU.  UNC now ranks third in the nation, for public schools, for average full professor pay behind the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. 

It is a tough job to try and remain competitive with the top private schools such as Harvard and Stanford.  Harvard’s average was $184,400 and Stanford’s was $173,700.  While a number of private universities may pay more than the Triangle universities, the cost of living in North Carolina is enough less than the cost of living in California and in East coast communities to make the overall pay at Triangle universities about equal to them.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com 

Durham, North Carolina.  Components For General Purpose Lighting Expand Cree Sales.  Cree is the LED lighting company that I have talked about several times.  While earnings declined they had a substantial increase in sales of components used for general purpose lighting.  While the production of light-emitting diodes reamins an important part of their business the ability to produce products that save energy is becoming more and more important to the company and certainly more important to the end users.  LEDs are more expensive than fluorescent and incandescent lights but prices are coming down as their markets widen and the technology improves.

Cary, North Carolina - SIEMENS BUYS MACGREGOR PARK BUILDING.   The 30,000 Square Foot Building Brings $4.1 Million.  The building, at 211 Gregson Drive, is part of Siemens plan to add 300 jobs in the area during the next five years.  Siemens is a German electronics company.  Their medical solutions unit makes patient-monitoring systems and medical gear.  That unit is where the job growth will occur.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website:  www.JohnFish.com

Triangle, North Carolina.  March Sales Of Existing Homes Down 28 Percent Vs. 2007.  Wake, Durham, Johnston and Orange county sales totaled 1,875 homes.  That’s the ninth month of declining sales is a row.  Unfortunately, future sales indicators are not very promising either.  Pending sales for March were down 27 percent.  Unsold home inventory, swollen by foreclosures, increased 24.4 percent to 14,492.  That number is equal to a nine month supply.  Wake building permits slid to 510 for the month.  That’s a high dive of 47 percent.  Showings were down 15 percent.  Furthermore, 42 percent of owners dropped prices on their listings.  Last year that figure was 32 percent.

On the plus side the average Triangle home sale price squeezed out a 0.6 percent increase to $235,175.  Not too surprisingly spec inventory, despite lending problems and everything else, was up almot 12 percent year to year.  Why?  National builders have been cutting back on starts for quite some time but local custom builders have existing loans to repay as well as paying for lots that have contracted for.  They know the gamble but they each hope their homes will be the ones that sell.  Average spec home prices are a far cry from the average sale price of Triangle homes.  The average spec home price in March was $608,822 in Orange county, $434,810 in Wake County, $289,091 in Durham county and $249,213 in Johnston county.  Homes selling for under $300,000, in particular, are still enjoying strong demand.  During several prior blogs I have discussed home staging and the wisdom of seller’s doing it.  Those who are doing a good job of it are reaping the rewards of better sales prices and faster sales.  So, those of your trying to save money by just “straightening up” take notice.  In this market that is penny wise and pound foolish thinking.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

U.S. Senator Wants Capital Gains Tax Increase From 15% to 28%.  So, you work your backside off, buy a home, improve it and it appreciates in value.  Then the time comes when you want to sell it.  If your profit is $35,000 (a nominal figure based on the past few years) your current capital gains tax is $5,250.  Certainly a tidy enough sum for your “Uncle” to swipe from you.  If that isn’t bad enough and if the Senator in question has his way you would pay $9,800 or an increase of $4,550!

In a debate with another Senator it was pointed out that historically every time the capital gains tax is lowered the government receives more revenue because of increased investing.  When the taxes are increased revenue to the government declines because investments decline.  The Senator’s only response was that it would be a “fair” tax.  It was also pointed out to him that 100 million people in the U.S. own stocks.  They would ALL be negatively impacted by this tax increase.  What’s fair about that?  The Senator with this lack of economic understanding is Barack Obama. 

It is both interesting and unfortunate that comments about an elected official’s standing (or lack thereof) on any issue seems to be taken by many as a personal attack on that official.   While I highly esteem the office of The President of the United States, the person holding that office is, after all, just another elected official and as such we should all care about what his (or her) policies REALLY are.  If you would like to see what, in my opinion, the President and all other officials should face on a regular basis, go to a shareholders meeting of a large company where the CEO tries to explain why the company did this or that, why the earnings went into the tank and why the dividend was cut.  That’s how it should be from the President on down.  Unfortunately, the media won’t do it so, for the most part, it is up to you.

When people ask for your vote two things should happen:  (1) You should demand that they explain their policies and then be certain you understand what they mean.  (2) - You should write and raise hob when they don’t live up to them or when they change course after elected.  Do my comments about Obama mean that I am “for” Hillary?  Not hardly.  Much of the platform she is running on is as bad is Obama’s and the political background she comes from is not one any thinking person would want to be associated with.   With regard to the war, you probably don’t like it and I don’t like it.  Should we be in Iraq?  I don’t know and frankly I don’t think you know.  We may never know!  At least the future, as always, will provide us with more information and insight than we have now.  Would we have had more incidents like 9/11 if we had not gone into Iraq?  Will we have more if we get out?  I don’t know and you don’t know.  The folks in the middle east have hated one another for about as far back in history as you can go and it’s not our business, in my opinion, to mess about in that unless it threatens us directly.  With all the sects that like to run around with masks on, waiving weapons and ready to shoot anyone on site - perhaps it does.  All of which brings up the subject of oil.  One thing I do know is that a heck of a lot of oil experts say we have all the oil we can use for hundreds of years locked up in oil shale.  They also say that at it is profitable to produce that oil when oil prices hit $60 a barrell.  Since we are now paying twice that amount why  isn’t the government getting the oil monkey off of our collective backs by seeing that the oil shale resource is put to work?  They talk about energy alternatives and that is all well and good but when you bring up the subbject of oil shale the only answers you get are all political.  So, the next time you are inclined to get mad at me or anyone else who doesn’t agree with you political views why not ask yourself what you REALLY know about your candidates and existing officials and what their views actually mean and are going to mean  to you!  I know that I work for a living and so do you.  Your individual economics are what counts.  If what you are looking for is simply a handout there are certainly politicians ready, willing and able to provide it at the expense of those who work for what they get.  If you don’t like it get vocal.  The only thing officials seem to respond to is voters who get in their face!

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com  Website: www.JohnFish.com

Triangle, North Carolina.  North Carolina Companies Raise Record Amount During 2007.   The $910 million of venture capital funds investors coughed up during 2007 was an increase of 72 percent over 2006.  The Council for Entrepreneurial Development says this represents 87 deals.  Of the funds raised 87.5 percent was raised in the Triangle.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Nearly Sixty-Five Percent of Planned Downtown Hotel Rooms Threatened.  Bob Winston, president of Winston Hospitality says the credit markets are in a deep freeze.  This deep freeze might mean that 500 of the 850 rooms currently planned for the downtown area might never be built.  This at a time when the opening of the new convention center is only six months away.  Winston pulled the plug on a 25-story hotel and 200 condos at Hillsborough and Harrington streets.  The other credit crunch casualties are the 136 room boutique by Reynolds Co. and the 22-story condo-hotel by Empire Properties.  Whether or not these projects are just delayed and not down for the count remains to be seen.  Either way it causes convention planners to rethink whether or not the Raleigh Convention Center can continue to be in the running as a site for their conventions. 

With the inclusion of the new 400 room Marriott hotel the downtown inventory of rooms will soon rise to 950.  That is enough rooms to handle a convention of 1,200 people.  As the convention center will be able to handle conventions of 5,000 people the shortfall of hotel rooms could prove very costly to the center’s convention business.  Convention planners say 600 more close-in hotel rooms are needed to attract mid-size trade shows.  While other hotel companies and developers are giving serious consideration to building hotels near downtown Raleigh, “maybe”, “perhaps” or “we’ll see” is not rooms you can count on.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Boston Company Buys Raleigh Data Storage Firm.  ABRY Partners, a Boston private equity firm purchased Raleigh’s Hosted Solutions for $140 million.  Hosted Solutions is a data storage company with data centers in Raleigh, Cary, Charlotte and Boston.  It has 80 employees.  ABRY indicates it will keep the company’s headquarters in Raleigh and add workers in the two Triangle centers. 

CARY - Cary Raising Impact Fees.  Surprise, Surprise, impact fees are going up in Cary.  On July 1, the city is raising water and sewer impact fees.  Developers will have to pay 21.1% more for a 2,500 square foot home or $5,261.  On the commercial side a 150,000 sqare foot office building will have an increased cost of 20.6% or $22,230 making the total price $130,200.  Just what we need at this time in our economy.  Of course, those costs will be passed along to the consumers.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com 

Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.  Fuquay-Varina Shopping Center Sold.  A partnership managed by RCC Ventures II paid $3.3 million for the center.  The 49,000 square foot center is located at 718 N. Main Street.  At the end of 2007 the center was fully leased.

You know the vacant look that gets in everyone’s eyes when someone says something like “Did you know elephants have green eyes?”.  Well, there was a comment made in a TV program I saw last night that I will pass along for your use the next time conversation you are having with someone lags.  Last year the average American used 20,805 sheets of toilet paper.  I can think of several directions you could go with that information but I will let it go at that.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Triangle, North Carolina.  The first quarter sales of apartment complexes in the Triangle totaled $706.7 million.  That is nearly equal to the total volume of sales during all of 2007!  Demand for aparments and increasing rents are the reasons that are driving the demand to acquire them.

WACHOVIA - BAD LOANS COST JOBS.  During the all heat and very little light lending period of making subprime loans Wachovia not only made them BUT they compounded the problem by purchasing Golden West Financial of California who made a truckload of those loans.  It was something they admit they should not have done.  Now, when they are looking for ways to cut expenses, who gets it in the neck?  Their employees.  Wachovia will be cutting some 500 jobs. 

I recently said that the major banks could lose hundreds of billions of dollars in this subprime debacle and still smile “all the way to the bank” because smaller banks and other mortgage lenders would be driven out of the business which they could then take over and control.  In today’s News and Observer there is an article in which Ken Thompson, the bank’s CEO, talked about the bank’s commitment to the mortgage industry.  It is reported that he said, “We see mortgage as a big opportunity for us.  We think it’s a market that’s going to be dominated by a few large banks and we see Wachovia being a part in that.”  I don’t see how he could have stated the situation more clearly than that.  The follow-up is - who cares?  Unfortunately, not very many and certainly not the politicians who are tied to the banking industry. 

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com

Raleigh, North Carolina.  Credit Market Problems Don’t Deter Genworth From Signing Letter Of Intent For New Building.  The company’s 500 employees now work in the Northchase office complex on Six Forks Road in north Raleigh.  It is reported that under the agreement, Dominion Realty Partners will build a new 130,000 square foot building For Genworth at the corner of Six Forks and Monument Roads.  That is about two miles north of their existing facility and adjacent to the Forum office complex.  In October of 2009 Genworth’s lease for the two buildings they have in north Raleigh expires.  At that time they expect to have their new building ready to occupy.  Genworth’s mortgage insurance unit specializes in insurance that protects mortgage lenders from home loan defaults.  With the problems now plaguing that industry it would seem that going ahead with such a project might be very risky for them.  However, they report that they are in position to handle the problems with the loan defaults they have coverage on and therefore are going ahead with plans for the new headquarters.

John Fish (919) 696-3474   Email: Marvmax@mindspring.com   Website: www.JohnFish.com