New-home sales tick up as builders slash prices

This Oct. 18, 2011 photo, shows new home construction in a development in Canonsburg, Pa. Sales of new U.S. homes rose in September after four straight monthly declines, largely because builders cut their prices. The Commerce Department said Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 that sales rose 5.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000 homes. Still, that's less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

This Oct. 18, 2011 photo, shows new home construction in a development in Canonsburg, Pa. Sales of new U.S. homes rose in September after four straight monthly declines, largely because builders cut their prices. The Commerce Department said Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 that sales rose 5.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000 homes. Still, that's less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

(AP) ? Sales of new homes rose in September after four straight monthly declines, largely because builders cut their prices in the face of depressed demand.

Analysts say the modest increase on the back of reduced prices suggests the struggling housing market is years away from a turnaround.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales increased 5.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 313,000 homes.

Still, sales rose after hitting a six-month low in August. And the annual pace remains less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.

A big reason for the gain was that the median sales price fell 3.1 percent to $204,400 ? the lowest since October 2010. The number of new homes on the market was also unchanged at 163,000, a record low.

"Numbers show that while the housing market still has a pulse, it will not be back on its feet until there is significant job growth," said Mitchell Hochberg, principal of Madden Real Estate Ventures in New York.

March through August is typically the peak buying season. But this year, Americans bought fewer new homes in that stretch than in any other six-month period on records going back to 1963.

The economy remains weak two years after the recession officially ended and the unemployment rate has been near 9 percent since then.

For many, buying a home is too big a risk, even with mortgage rates near historic lows. Others can't qualify for loans or meet higher down payment requirements.

While new homes represent less than one-fifth of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

In September, sales were uneven across the country. They increased 11.2 percent in the South and 9.7 percent in West. They fell 4.2 percent in the Northeast and 12.2 percent in the Midwest.

Builders are struggling to compete with foreclosures and short sales ? when lenders accept less for a house than a mortgage is worth. Those homes are selling at an average discount of 20 percent, and they are lowering neighboring home values. That's made many re-sales a bargain compared with new homes, creating an average 30 percent disparity in prices.

Home builders started projects in September at the fastest pace in 17 months, a hopeful sign for the economy. But most of the gain was driven by a surge in volatile apartment construction, a sign that many are choosing to rent rather than own a home.

Single-family home construction, which represents nearly 70 percent of homes built, rose only slightly. And building permits, a gauge of future construction, fell to a five-month low.

All home sales remain weak. The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes fell in September and home sales are on pace to match last year's dismal figures ? the worst in 13 years. With three months left to go in 2011, roughly 4.91 million homes are expected to be sold this year. Economists say roughly 6 million older homes need to be sold each year to sustain a healthy housing market.

Home prices have dropped more since the recession started, on a percentage basis, than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It took 19 years for prices to fully recover after the Depression.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-10-26-New%20Home%20Sales/id-7b4cda5e3a3a42429df0b89818037a4c

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DWTS Week 6 Elimination Night: Who Was Voted Off?

We say goodbye to yet another couple tonight on DWTS, it’s hard to believe that it’s already been six weeks since the show started. Last night we saw amazing performances from J.R. Martinez and Ricki Lake, both tying for first place, and at the other end of the leaderboard, Chaz Bono and Lacey Schwimmer had the lowest score, followed by Hope and Maks. Who ended up going home? Find out below! We started off the evening with Len’s take on last night’s performances, which he thought was filled with a ‘mix of fights and delights’, and see an encore performance from J.R. and Karina. I could watch these two dance over and over again, just love them! They have amazing chemistry, yes? We learn right after their performance that they are safe. Um, duh. Kristin Chenoweth graced us with her presence for the second night in a row, this time doing a cover of Carrie Underwood’s ‘Lessons Learned’, which is off of Chenoweth’s new country album, ‘Some Lessons Learned’, released last month. I’m a huge fan of Kristin, and love to see her perform. Will April Rhodes be back on Glee? *Fingers crossed*! Okay sorry, getting a bit off track [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/IKNrOoXr4KI/

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NC shooting victim changed to critical condition

Ta'Von McLaurin, 18, a student at Cape Fear High School, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Cumberland County, NC, Sheriff's Office. McLaurin, has been charged with felony aiding and abetting in the Monday shooting that injured a 15-year-old girl at Cape Fear High School just outside Fayetteville. A 15-year-old suspect has been charged with attempted first degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said Tuesday. Surveillance video helped lead authorities to two suspects. (AP Photo/Cumberland County, NC, Sheriff's Office)

Ta'Von McLaurin, 18, a student at Cape Fear High School, is seen in an undated photo provided by the Cumberland County, NC, Sheriff's Office. McLaurin, has been charged with felony aiding and abetting in the Monday shooting that injured a 15-year-old girl at Cape Fear High School just outside Fayetteville. A 15-year-old suspect has been charged with attempted first degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said Tuesday. Surveillance video helped lead authorities to two suspects. (AP Photo/Cumberland County, NC, Sheriff's Office)

A Cumberland County Sheriffs deputy rolls crime scene tape around the scene after a shooting at Cape Fear High School east of Fayetteville, NC on Monday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2011. Authorities say a 15-year-old student was shot and wounded at the schooll. No arrests have been made, and no gun has been recovered. (AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, Jim Halpin)

A Cumberland County Sheriffs deputy rolls crime scene tape around the scene after a shooting at Cape Fear High School east of Fayetteville, NC on Monday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2011. Authorities say a 15-year-old student was shot and wounded at the schooll. No arrests have been made, and no gun has been recovered. (AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, Jim Halpin)

In a Monday, Oct. 24 2011 photo, Cumberland County Deputy K-9 teams search for clues after a shooting at Cape Fear High School near Fayeteville, N.C. The shooting victim, a 15-year-old student, is in stable condition. Surveillance video helped lead authorities to two suspects who have been charged in the shooting and wounding of the student. (AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, Marcus Castro) MANDATORY CREDIT, MAGS OUT, NO SALES

In a Monday, Oct. 24 2011 photo, Cumberland County Deputy K-9 teams search for clues after a shooting at Cape Fear High School near Fayeteville, N.C. The shooting victim, a 15-year-old student, is in stable condition. Surveillance video helped lead authorities to two suspects who have been charged in the shooting and wounding of the student. (AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, Marcus Castro) MANDATORY CREDIT, MAGS OUT, NO SALES

(AP) ? The 15-year-old girl injured in a shooting at her North Carolina high school was downgraded from stable to critical condition on Tuesday, police said.

Catilyn Abercrombie is being treated at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, according to Cumberland County police spokeswoman Debbie Tanna. Detectives learned of the change in her condition when they visited the facility Tuesday.

Abercrombie is using a ventilator to breathe and may require a second surgery to repair the damage from the bullet, Tanna said.

A young woman who answered the phone at Abercrombie's home hung up when reached by The Associated Press. Abercrombie's mother could not be reached for comment, and relatives in Louisiana did not return calls seeking comment.

Abercrombie was shot in the neck during a lunch period Monday. Police arrested two teenagers after viewing surveillance video at the school.

One is a 15-year-old who faces charges of attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. His name has not been released because of his age, and a court date hasn't been set for him yet.

The other, 18-year-old Ta'Von McLaurin, was assigned a public defender at a brief hearing Tuesday. That lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

McLaurin is charged with felony aiding and abetting.

Surveillance video showed the two carrying a rifle inside Cape Fear High School, Cumberland County Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler said.

Butler said investigators don't think Abercrombie was the intended target, but no motive had been established.

"Why did they shoot? I don't know," Butler said.

The high school and nearby Mac Williams Middle School were locked down for hours before students were allowed to go home.

Classes resumed at both schools Tuesday. Butler said additional deputies were at the school to help students and parents feel confident about their safety. The high school has metal detectors, but Butler said he didn't know whether they're in daily use.

Reached at her home, McLaurin's mother, Tammy, said when asked about her son, "He's fine. I don't really want to talk about it." She then hung up the phone and her line rang unanswered.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-25-School%20Shooting-NC/id-46bf31d1c7514ffabc7f56f0db7b69a2

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Lead Bullets

bulletsEarly in my tenure as product manager for the web servers at Netscape, we faced a terrible crisis. We just got our hands on Microsoft?s new web server, Internet Information Server (IIS), and benchmarked against our product. Microsoft?s IIS had every feature that we had, was five times faster and we knew that they were going to give it away for free. This might not sound so bad, but we had just gone public three months earlier with a story to Wall Street that said, ?Don?t worry about Microsoft giving away the browser because we will make money selling servers.? Oh snap. I immediately went to work trying to move the playing field and pivot the server product line to something that we could sell for money. The late, great Mike Homer and I worked furiously on a set of partnerships and acquisitions that would broaden the product line and surround the web server with enough functionality that we would be able survive the attack. As I excitedly reviewed the plan with my engineering counterpart, Bill Turpin, he looked at me as though I was a little kid who had much to learn. Bill was a long-time veteran of battling Microsoft from his time at Borland and understood what I was trying to do, but remained unconvinced. He said: ?Ben, those silver bullets that you and Mike are looking for are fine and good, but our web server is five times slower. There is no silver bullet that?s going to fix that. No, we are going to have to use a lot of lead bullets.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tQOg1EKtmW0/

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The IPO market, an engine of job growth, stalls

(AP) ? Two companies with quirky names, Ubiquiti Networks and Zeltiq Aesthetics, made their public debuts earlier this month with listings on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Each company's stock went up modestly on the first day of trading.

Ubiquiti pocketed $106 million for the day, and Zeltiq made $91 million. They were the most successful stock debuts of the past two months. Then again, they were the only stock debuts of the past two months.

The market for initial public offerings, or IPOs, is suffering through a drought of Texas proportions. Companies thinking of going public are deciding it's just too risky.

The stock market lost nearly 20 percent of its value in a month this past summer. Swings of 200 points for the Dow Jones industrial average continue to be commonplace. Getting the timing wrong for a coming-out party can mean missing out on millions of dollars.

A dried-up IPO market matters because stock debuts aren't just a chance for tech whizzes to become overnight billionaires and ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Companies use the cash they raise to grow ? and that means hiring people.

And at a time when 14 million Americans are looking for work and the unemployment rate has been stuck near 9 percent for two years, the last thing the economy needs is for one engine of hiring to stall.

There are 215 companies waiting to go public. They've filed the necessary paperwork and lined up bankers, and are just holding out for the right time to unleash their stock. The waiting list is the longest since 2001, according to Renaissance Capital, an investment advice firm.

LogMeIn, a Massachusetts software company, went public in July 2009, raised $107 million and harnessed the cash to hire people. Within two years, its work force grew by a third, to 432 people. Without the IPO, the company might have added only 10 percent to its work force, says Jim Kelliher, the chief financial officer.

"It's cash to expand your business," he says.

That's how it usually works. For upstart companies, IPOs and hiring sprees go hand in hand:

? LinkedIn, the online social network for professionals, went public in May to fanfare, raising $353 million. In the three months through the end of June, it expanded its staff by 17 percent.

? Pandora, which streams music online, debuted in June. It bulked up the product development staff by 74 percent and sales and marketing by 125 percent. Pandora employed about 300 people at the end of January and now has more than 400.

? ReachLocal, an online marketing company, went public in May 2010. From the month before its coming-out party through the end of the year, its work force grew 30 percent, to 1,381.

In good times, an open door for stock market debuts can start a snowball of benefits, says Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Venture capital firms bankroll small upstarts, like Amazon and Google, years before they go public. A successful IPO enriches the venture capital backers. They then have an easier time raising money from new investors to plow into companies that might be the next Amazon or Google.

"There's a feedback effect," Kaplan says.

For profitable businesses, an IPO can also unlock the door to corporate debt markets, another source of cash that helps a company grow.

Entrepreneurs and investors describe going public as a crucial hurdle for fast-growing companies, one that divides the Amazons and Googles of the world from the graveyard of startups.

Those that clear the hurdle can transform themselves from obscure businesses to household names. A recent study by the National Venture Capital Association, a trade group, and IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, examined companies that went public from 1970 to 2010 and had been backed by venture capital before their IPO.

It found that 92 percent of the people hired by those companies over the four decades came on after the IPO.

A separate report by Nasdaq OMX, which owns the Nasdaq Stock Market, examined companies that went public from 2001 to 2009 and found that they increased their collective work force by 70 percent. The number of employed people in the United States in that time rose 1.3 percent.

Of course, the economy has bigger problems than a barren IPO market. Even if all the promising upstarts in line for an IPO went public, it might not put a dent in the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

And it's difficult to know exactly what companies will do with the money. Most are vague in regulatory paperwork about their next steps. And would-be public companies are barred from talking about their plans until a month after their debut.

Before this past summer, fast-growing companies like LinkedIn and Pandora had been jumping into the stock market at a brisk pace. The companies got a good initial price, and their stock generally did well after that. LinkedIn went public May 19, and its stock more than doubled on its first day.

For a while, it appeared that 2011 would be the best year for IPOs since the Internet bubble popped in 2000. Investors were ready for Internet companies like Zynga and Facebook to go public.

They're still waiting. The Dow lost more than 2,000 points from late July through mid-August. And while the market has rallied since early October, the past two months have been a series of up and down lurches.

As dry as it's been, the drought for IPOs is still not as bad as during the financial crisis. Just one company, Grand Canyon Education, managed to go public in six months, August 2008 to February 2009.

Faced with a long wait and a volatile stock market, some companies have decided to give up. At least 15 private companies have withdrawn their IPO paperwork from the Securities and Exchange Commission in the past two months.

Others are getting snapped up by larger corporations. Of the five companies that pulled their IPOs in September, three were acquired. Hitachi, Nestle and private equity firms all picked up companies that gave up their dream of going public.

What will it take to end the drought? Calmer markets. In recent weeks, moves by European officials to end the region's debt crisis have lifted stocks, but the market remains volatile.

In the meantime, companies are warily eyeing the calendar. Groupon, the daily-deal email service, plans to go public in early November. It was valued as high as $25 billion in June, but it now expects less than half that.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-24-US-IPO-Drought/id-c7b1b807b56248c68bd6cc19a6d1c15e

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Michigan State Hail Mary: Wisconsin Beaten By Spartans on Late Touchdown (VIDEO)

EAST LANSING, Mich. ? Keith Nichol caught a 44-yard Hail Mary on the game's final play for a tiebreaking touchdown, giving No. 15 Michigan State a stunning 37-31 win over No. 4 Wisconsin on Saturday night.

With the game tied and 4 seconds left, Kirk Cousins rolled out to his right and threw one last pass. The ball went into the end zone but caromed off Michigan State receiver B.J. Cunningham's facemask back to Nichol, who caught it just outside the end zone and struggled for the goal line, fighting two Wisconsin defenders and just barely breaking the plane.

The former backup quarterback was initially ruled short of the end zone, but officials overturned the call after a review, giving the Spartans (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) the win and knocking the Badgers (6-1, 2-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Russell Wilson had led the Badgers from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to tie the game with 1:26 left on a to 2-yard touchdown pass to Montee Ball.

The wild game ? in which both teams blew two-touchdown leads ? featured an even more memorable finish. Wisconsin trailed 31-17 in the fourth quarter before Wilson ran 22 yards for a touchdown and made several spectacular throws on the move to set up the TD pass to Ball to tie it at 31.

Michigan State then survived a harrowing moment when Cousins fumbled deep in Spartan territory. Offensive lineman Dan France fell on the ball with 42 seconds left.

At that point, Wisconsin was eager to use timeouts, trying to get the ball back, but on second-and-20 from his own 24, Cousins found B.J. Cunningham for a 12-yard gain. The Spartans then picked up a first down on an 11-yard shovel pass to Keshawn Martin.

The drive appeared to stall at the Wisconsin 44, but the Spartans had time for one more play ? one that will go down in Michigan State history along with last year's fake field that beat Notre Dame in another extraordinary night game at Spartan Stadium.

Cousins was able to buy enough time for receivers to get down the field. Cunningham was in the end zone, and the ball bounced off his helmet and into Nichol's arms. After Nichol caught the pass, Michigan State players immediately started spilling onto the field, even though officials ruled that Wisconsin's Mike Taylor had stopped him short. When the call was reversed and a touchdown was awarded, the celebration began again.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/22/michigan-state-hail-mary-wisconsin-college-football_n_1026982.html

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Hundreds dead as quake shakes eastern Turkey

More than 200 people were confirmed killed and hundreds more feared dead after an earthquake hit parts of southeast Turkey Sunday with rescue teams working through the night to free trapped survivors.

Early Monday Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the 7.2 magnitude quake killed 100 in the city of Van and 117 in the badly hit town of Ercis, 60 miles further north. The death toll was expected to rise.

Overseeing emergency operations in Ercis, Sahin said a total of 1,090 people were known to have been injured. Hundreds remain unaccounted for.

Rescue efforts struggled to get into full swing following the quake, with electricity cut off as darkness fell on the towns and villages on the barren Anatolian steppe near the border with Iran.

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Survivors and emergency service workers searched frantically through broken concrete, using hands, shovels and torches or working under floodlights powered by mobile generators.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said there were an unknown number of people unaccounted for under the collapsed buildings of the stricken towns, and he feared the worst for villagers living in outlying rural areas, who had still to be reached.

"Because the buildings are made of adobe, they are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed," Erdogan told a televised news conference in Van shortly after midnight Sunday.

Scores of strong aftershocks have jolted the region in the hours since the quake struck at 6:41 a.m. EDT Sunday.

'Be patient'
In Van, a bustling and ancient city on a lake ringed by snow-capped mountains and with a population of 1 million, cranes shifted rubble off a crumpled six-storey apartment block where bystanders said 70 people were trapped.

Erdogan visited Ercis earlier by helicopter to assess first hand the scale of the disaster. With 55 buildings flattened, including a student dormitory, the level of destruction in Ercis, a town of 100,000, was greater than in Van, where fewer came down.

"We don't know how many people are in the ruins of collapsed buildings, it would be wrong to give a number," he said.

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Reuters television images from Ercis showed rescuers trying to clam one young boy, aged about 10, pinned beneath a concrete slab.

"Be patient, be patient," they pleaded as the boy whimpered. The lifeless hand of an adult, with a wedding ring, was visible just a few inches in front of his face.

The military issued a statement saying two battalions had been sent to assist the relief operations.

Soldiers were deployed in the town to help rescuers and digging machines had also arrived to help. There was a constant wail of ambulance sirens ferrying the injured to hospitals.

Dogan news agency reported that 24 people were pulled from the rubble alive in the two hours after midnight.

Reuters photographer Osman Orsal earlier described seeing dead body after body being pulled from the debris.

"Ambulances, soldiers, emergency teams everywhere now, working on getting people out of collapsed buildings. I have seen many dead bodies being taken out, the teams are trying to find people alive," Orsal said.

One nurse told CNN Turk news channel the town's hospital was so badly damaged that staff were treating injured in the garden, and bodies were being left outside the building.

After visiting the quake zone, Erdogan returned to Ankara, where he is expected to chair a cabinet meeting to discuss the response to the disaster.

He said Turkey was able to meet the challenge itself, but thanked countries that had offered help, including Armenia and Israel, two governments that have strained relations with Ankara.

In Van province officials scrambled to provide shelter for people rendered homeless or too afraid to go home while the aftershocks continued with alarming regularity.

"We are working on supplying people with places to spend the night, find shelter. One hundred tents are being erected in the city stadium now, and 700 more will be put up in the municipality stadium," Sahin told Reuters in Ercis.

Turkey lies in one of the world's most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.

More recently, a 6.0-magnitude quake in March 2010 killed 51 people in eastern Turkey, while in 2003, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed 177 people in the southeastern city of Bingol.

Istanbul, the country's largest city with more than 12 million people, lies in northwestern Turkey near a major fault line. Experts have warned that overcrowding and shoddy construction in Istanbul could kill tens of thousands if a major earthquake struck.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45005013/ns/world_news-europe/

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Murphy hopes 'not to drop the ball' as Oscars host (AP)

NEW YORK ? With four months to go until the Academy Awards, Eddie Murphy is already feeling the pressure about hosting the ceremony.

At the premiere of his new comedy film "Tower Heist" he said he's "excited" about the job but "hoping not to drop the ball."

The film's director, Brett Ratner, is also producing the Academy Awards and approached Murphy with the idea of hosting.

On the comic's to-do list between now and then is to watch some movies.

"What's the front-runner? Who knows?" he asked on the red carpet.

Murphy was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2007 for his performance in "Dreamgirls" but lost to Alan Arkin.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards are Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012.

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Online:

http://www.oscars.org/

http://www.towerheist.net/

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_en_mo/us_people_eddie_murphy

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