Chase Anderson is the new Wayzata School District Superintendent. He is interviewed by Aimee Blanchette of the Star Tribune.
One of the key areas he will focus on is allowing greater individualized education for the district’s students.
New Wayzata Schools Superintendent – More Individualized Education
October 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Case-Shiller Index – Twin Cities Shows Price Improvement for 3 Consecutive Months
October 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index was released on September 30, 2008 and tracks data across 20 cities up through July.
The Twin Cities is one of the few metro areas that has started to show improvement.  As far as this report goes, the Twin Cities pricing bottomed in April and has risen since then. Jim Buchta with the StarTribune published this story last week regarding the latest data from Case-Shiller.
For most of the past year, we have tracked closely to the composite index but now they are starting to diverge.
Given all the difficult financial news the past month, it will be interesting to see if this price trend continues.
Click to graph for larger view:
Twin Cities vs. the 20-City Composite:
Click to graph for larger view:
U.S. Comes to Europe’s Defense in Global Banking Crisis
October 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment
I found this interesting post from Paul Kedrosky and SeekingAlpha.com. It turns out AIG played a massive role in providing coverage for banks in Europe.
While the U.S. has certainly been caught up in the credit bubble, our banks look very conservative compared to the apparent leverage many of Europe’s largest banks took. Â Kedrosky’s calculations have UBS’ leverage at 63.9x, Barclays at 52.7 and Deutsche Bank at 52.5x.
I believe the former U.S. investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns etc) had leverage ratios between 28-35x.  The Numbers Guru had this post that has a chart of the leverage ratios.
Medina Bank Owned and Distress Sales – Now 10% of Inventory
October 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment
There are now 8 bank owned/distress sales in Medina, MN right now. 9 are single family homes and one is a townhome. They range in price from $179,900 to $1,300,000.  At least one of them is a beautiful 2-story in Wild Meadows.
Overall, there are 82 residential properties for sale in Medina this morning.
If you’d like the list of Medina, MN bank owned and distress sales properties, please call or e-mail me.