Friday, July 25, 2014

Abq Breaks Bad

Find this news at http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-vice-capitals-of-america-2014-07-25.

The report said, "...according to an analysis by DrugAbuse.com of words mentioned in more than 450,000 tweets that were “geo-tagged” in cities with a population of at least 200,000. DrugAbuse.com is a site that provides resources and treatment on drug addiction...Albuquerque, N.M., was named the vice capital for crystal meth..."

Monday, July 21, 2014

Pending Home Sales Down from 2013

With the delay in getting the monthly metro Albuquerque real estate report posted (the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors released the report July 10; sorry ‘bout that), I will limit the report to noting that pending sales of single family detached homes have been down on a year-over-year basis for all six months of 2014 as compared to 2013.
Closed sales have been down for three months. There were 800 closed sales during June, up three from May but 59 units, or 6.9%, behind June 2013.
The homes that closed during June were n the market an average of 60 days, the quickest sales period of 2014.
As compared to 2013, average and median prices have increase as compared to 2013 for five of the six months of 2014.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Job Numbers Up and Down: Ambiguity Appears

That the New Mexico job (non)production situation is not quite the nation’s worst is the takeaway from the job numbers for June released this afternoon. Ambiguously bad might be a good description. By the seasonally adjusted figures for June 2013 to June 2014 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, New Mexico can claim being the nation’s third worst state economy with a loss of 400 wage jobs or less than 0.5%. Alaska, down 0.7% seasonally adjusted, led the nation, followed by Vermont, down 0.1% and then New Mexico. From May into June, Alaska again led, minus 1.7%, with West Virginia, at minus 1.2%. New Mexico and New Hampshire followed, tied with a 0.6% job loss.
The ambiguity came with the seasonally unadjusted numbers. Here New Mexico gained 2,500 job on the June-to-June basis.
The release from the Department of Workforce Solutions heralded this, saying “growth (in) positive territory for the first time in nine months.”
The DWS release continued the annoying administration policy of tucking reality under the rug by not mentioning the seasonally adjusted/not adjusted distinction. Nor, no surprise, did DWS mention the state performance comparisons.
A few sector figures: Seasonally adjusted manufacturing continued the sector’s disappearing act, down another 2,200 jobs, with the much larger professional and business services sector down 1,000.
Going to the seasonally unadjusted performances, mining added 1,700 jobs, finance continued the mystery growth with 1,700 more and jobs and government dropped 3,200 jobs.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Tennis and Tesla

All of 0.17% of New Mexico homes come with a tennis court, according to Trulia.com. Vermont has the most courts, tennis wise with 0.77%. The mention was in today’s Wall Street Journal, page M 12. I could not find the report at trulia.com.
Being electric, Tesla cars need things into which to plug. That much should be generally known. I hadn’t thought much about the details until seeing these stations this week at the Marriott TownePlace Suites hotel in Farmington. Hotel staff said the stations were installed last fall and have drawn traffic, as it were. The staff said Tesla drivers have stayed at the TownePlace specifically because of the electrical availability.
Tesla calls the stations “superchargers.” The only other New Mexico location, according to teslamotors.com/supercharger is at a Hampton Inn in Gallup.
Clever.
Hotel management did not respond to my email inquiry for more details.