A Landlord's Letter Reveals The Depressing Truth About The San Francisco Rental Market - (www.businessinsider.com) Renting an apartment is no easy or cheap task. There are broker fees, security deposits, credit checks, and the list goes on and on. It's enough to make you tired just thinking about it, let alone going through with the process. But some San Francisco residents got an extreme punch in the gut when this letter was slipped under their doors last month: Andrew Dudley, who writes for Hoodline, says "a reader who wishes to remain anonymous sent in the above letter, which was slipped under the door of every unit in his rent-controlled building near Haight and Fillmore [in San Francisco] recently."
The letter reads: The
building policy/requirement of a current apartment applicant/resident is that
they are able to establish that their minimum annual income is at least
$100,000 - additionally required is a minimum FICO credit score of 725. We are
not able to accept in our minimum income calculation any form of 'guarantor' or
similar form of 'guarantee' offered of account of the apartment/resident applicant, by a friend of family member nor any
other person or legal entity. Of course, more is required to qualify an
apartment/resident/applicant, than income and credit score; but a minimum
income and credit score requirement is a basic starting point.
Office
Depot to close at least 400 stores - (www.usatoday.com) Office
Depot said it plans to close at least 400 stores by the end of 2016 that will
result in $75 million annual savings. The company's merger with OfficeMax
resulted in an overlap of retail locations that needed to be consolidated, the
company said. Office Depot expects to close 150 stores this year, mostly in the
fourth quarter, with the remaining closures expected to occur by the end of
2016. Office Depot Chairman and CEO Roland Smith said the move will start
contributing to earnings beginning next year. "One of our 2014 critical
priorities is to improve our store footprint in North America to best meet
customer demand, ensure we are appropriately positioned in the markets we
serve, and align with our unique selling proposition which we are developing
this year," Smith said in a statement released by the company.
AIG
Declines After Net Income Falls on Claims Costs – (finance.yahoo.com) American International Group Inc. (AIG), the largest commercial insurer in the U.S.
andCanada,
posted the biggest decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index after
first-quarter profit dropped on higher claims costs. AIG slipped 4.3 percent to
$50.45 at 12:11 p.m. in New York, the most since November. The fall erased the
stock’s gain for the year. First-quarter net income slid
27 percent to $1.61 billion, or $1.09 a share, as the property-casualty
business posted a $97 million underwriting loss, the New York-based insurer said
yesterday after markets closed. AIG said the operation paid out $1.01 in claims
and expenses for every premium dollar it took in, compared with costs of 97.3
cents per dollar a year earlier. “Weaker underwriting results are the key risk
for AIG, and seeing them crop up is a setback,” Randy Binner, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said in a
research note yesterday. AIG also offers life insurance, retirement products and mortgage guarantees.
Operating profit at the life and retirement unit climbed to $1.42 billion from
$1.39 billion a year earlier, as assets under management increased and sales
rose. The mortgage insurer, United Guaranty Corp., reported an 85 percent
increase in earnings to $76 million.
Ruble
Plunge Hitting Russians Speeds Slide to Recession - (www.bloomberg.com) As Russia’s central bank struggles to shield
the ruble from the standoff over Ukraine, Vasily Isaev says it may already be too
little, too late to save his Italian vacation plans. “If you get your salary in
rubles, a trip to the beach in Europe is going to be difficult this year,” said
the 37-year-old sales manager, looking up from his English homework in the park
near Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. “We’re going toBulgaria instead of Italy this year and we’re renting an apartment
a little further away from the sea.” Consumers like Isaev, spending more than a
few months ago to fill a shopping cart with everyday items, may be squeezed
most by the currency’s decline as inflation quickens.
Wobbling consumption threatens to knock out another pillar of the economy
reeling from sanctions that stoked capital flight. Unruffled by the central
bank’s emergency measures, the ruble has depreciated as an expanding list of
sanctions in response to President Vladimir
Putin’s
actions in Ukraine sparked a selloff of assets. The ruble has weakened 7.2
percent this year, the third-worst performance after the Argentine and Chilean
pesos among 24 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The currency
fell 0.5 percent over the past month.
'Eroding middle' puts US farming in fewer hands - (www.cnbc.com) American
farming is changing, according to the recently releasedagriculture census—and the change comes with a warning from the
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. Speaking at a symposium at
Iowa State University on May 2, the
day the census came out, Vilsack said the U.S. faces an "eroding
middle" when it comes to farming, and that a small number of large farm
operations "produces the vast majority of the nation's food." The
U.S. Department of Agriculture census seems to back up Vilsack's complaint and his stated "need to expand the
rural economy from the middle out." Large farms with over $1 million in
sales account for only 4 percent of all farms, but 66 percent of all sales.
That's up considerably from 1 percent of all farms and 50 percent of all sales
a decade ago. However, three quarters of all U.S. farms gross only $50,000 a
year and currently account for only 4 percent of product sales.
Office
Depot to close 400 U.S. stores, shares rise - (www.reuters.com)
Apple Grants New Retail Chief Stock Worth $68.1 Million - (www.bloomberg.com)
Apple Grants New Retail Chief Stock Worth $68.1 Million - (www.bloomberg.com)
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