KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Monday July 26 Housing and Economic stories

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San Jose college leader worked at DeAnza College while on sick leave - (www.mercurynews.com) A top executive at the financially troubled San Jose/Evergreen Community College District earned a full salary while on sick leave this spring — yet, during that same period, she earned a separate salary teaching at another nearby district. Bayinaah Jones, whose title at SJECC is executive director of institutional effectiveness, earned $30,672 on sick leave there, but was apparently healthy enough to hold down a $5,775 teaching position in the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District. The revelation comes at a time of economic hardship at community colleges, where students are shut out of classes due to budget cuts — and a mere $800 can provide a student with a valuable certificate in cosmetology or dental hygiene. It follows a searing state audit of the SJECC District's books, which was critical of spending by former Chancellor Rosa Perez — whose live-in partner is Jones. Perez also took paid sick leave — for eight months, earning $25,000 each month — until retiring last Wednesday due to health reasons. Records show that Jones took sick leave from her $123,000 position — "per my physician's order," she wrote in an e-mail message — in April, May and June of 2010. She remains sick, "until further notice." In 2005, Perez hired Jones to be her executive assistant. She was quickly promoted to a newly created job as executive director of institutional effectiveness. The two women live together in a home they own in San Francisco. In the last several years, according to documents obtained by KGO-TV, they took 18 business trips together to places such as El Salvador, Scotland and West Palm Beach — paid with district credit cards.

U.S. Shopping Center Vacancies Approach Record High, Reis Says - (www.bloomberg.com) Vacancies at U.S. neighborhood and community shopping centers moved closer to the highest on record in the second quarter amid signs the economic recovery is losing steam and consumer confidence remains subdued, Reis Inc. said. The vacancy rate at shopping centers rose to 10.9 percent from 10 percent a year earlier and 10.8 percent in the first quarter, the New York-based real estate research firm said in a report today. It was the highest since 1991’s 11 percent. The record for shopping center vacancies since Reis began tracking the data 30 years ago was 11.1 percent in 1990. “There are really very few reasons to believe that performance deterioration won’t continue for another 18 to 24 months for retail properties, although there are some signs that the pace of decline is moderating,” Victor Calanog, director of research, said in the report.

Britain Is Puzzled by Its Inflation Problem in a Downturn - (www.nytimes.com) Committee members at the Bank of England and some economists have been puzzled by persistently high inflation in Britain, causing some concerns that the country’s recovery might stagnate. Unlike in the United States and in countries that share the euro, inflation in Britain never came close to zero in 2009. And while core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, has declined in countries like France, Germany, Italy and the United States since the beginning of 2008, it has risen in Britain and is now above 3 percent, more than twice the rate in the euro zone. The reason depends on whom you ask.

Industry Cuts Back as Steel Prices Fall - (online.wsj.com) Steel prices in the U.S. are declining after holding firm for months, potentially a bad omen for the nation's economy as manufacturing activity slows and consumers grow more cautious about big-ticket purchases, such as cars and appliances. Steel prices tumbled in June, and U.S. steel mills are responding by cutting production. Earlier this year they were ramping up capacity to meet the growth in demand they hoped would emerge from the economic recovery. Instead, demand has been spotty. Another wild card for the industry is China. While the rest of the world was reducing steel production and consumption during the recession, China's voracious appetite for building bridges, autos and appliances, helped support global steel prices. For the most part, China has stepped back from exporting raw steel, in favor of higher-value finished goods. But a recent easing in demand by China's domestic steel consumers has raised fears the country could step up steel exports to the U.S. and other markets. "There is a very real risk of steel from China being dumped illegally into the U.S. market, despite all the recent trade action," said Michelle Applebaum, of Steel Market Intelligence, a steel consulting firm. Over the past several years, the U.S. has been aggressive in filing trade cases and using trade laws to prevent China from dumping steel—or, exporting it at less than home-market prices. The U.S. has laws or quotas restricting several types of Chinese-made steel products, including hot-rolled steel, plate steel, pipes and tubes, but Ms. Applebaum said those measures aren't as effective as the ones used by Europe and Canada.

Maryland’s Largest County Seeks $325 Million as Downgrade Looms - (www.bloomberg.com) Montgomery County, Maryland’s most- populous and one of about 60 top-rated counties in the U.S., will borrow $325 million as it faces a credit downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service. The suburb of Washington, D.C., home to the National Institutes of Science and other federal offices, was put on review for a possible rating cut after the recession reduced tax revenue, forcing it to tap reserves, Moody’s said April 5. The county’s main account, the general fund, shrank by more than half to $108 million in June 2009 from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The potential downgrade hasn’t stopped Montgomery County’s general-obligation debt from trading at a lower yield than Maryland’s AAA rated obligations, Bloomberg data shows. The county’s tax-exempt bonds due in 2020 were priced to yield 3.15 percent, 17 basis points below a comparable state bond. The so- called spread fell to 4 basis points yesterday, according to Bloomberg data. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.