Dallas: Fastest Growing U.S. city

 By Les Christie, staff writerJune 22, 2010: 1:36 PM ET

According to the latest Census Bureau figures released Tuesday, the population of the sprawling Texas metro area grew by about 1.3 million people, or 25%, between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2009.

The Palm Coast metro area in Florida had the highest percentage increase in growth. Its population exploded by 84% over the nine-years-plus covered by the Census Bureau report. But even after the jump there were only about 92,000 people living in the area.

Dallas’s attractions include a very favorable business climate, according to Mayor Tom Leppert. There’s no corporate income tax, building costs are relatively reasonable and regulations are minimal.

“It’s a great place to do business,” he said, “especially attractive for companies from high-tax states.”

Helping to drive growth is the area’s main airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International, the third busiest in the nation. Its location is far enough south to ensure good weather yet central enough to make it easy to fly to the Northeast, the Midwest and the Pacific Coast. It is also well positioned for air traffic with Latin American markets.

“Dallas has no port,” said Leppert. “The airport became a 21st century port.”

What it has lacked in the past — a vibrant downtown — is starting to develop. Recent additions include a huge new arts center, urban park, light rail system and new housing. These have bolstered the city’s density and made downtown more interesting and fun.

That said, the metro area’s suburbs are booming as well, according to Leppert. Indeed Williamson County, north of Dallas, is one of the 10 fastest growing counties in the nation.

A different dynamic has boosted Palm Coast numbers. Development in the area was originally promoted by ITT Corp., which presented it as a retirement community, according to Palm Coast City spokeswoman Marsha Lidskin.

It remains largely an area of retirees, but some of their kids and grandkids have decided to move there as well.

“I moved here myself, from Chicago,” said Lidskin. “This is the most beautiful, unknown part of Florida. Drive up [highway] A1A along the coast and all you see are beautiful beaches. There are no high-rises or strip malls.”

Palm Coast is a throwback to old Florida, before the post-war population boom made it the fourth largest state by population and permanently altered much of its pristine natural beauty.

The area is, however, no hotbed of employment opportunities. The biggest private employer, Palm Coast Data, a magazine and membership fulfillment company, has fewer than 1,000 workers.

The metro area unemployment rate in April was a stratospheric 15.4% and the housing market has plunged since the bubble burst. Average home prices in Palm Coast have fallen by about half to less than $120,000 since the peak in early 2006, according to the real estate website Zillow.

Of course, the census count is more than just an academic exercise created to please number freaks and provoke outbursts of civic pride in the winners and shame in the laggards.

“Census numbers govern the distribution of more than $400 billion in federal funds each year,” said Census Bureau director Robert Groves. “Local governments use census data to plan new roads, schools and emergency services. Businesses use the data to develop new economic opportunities.”

That means other big population gainers stand to cash in. Atlanta added more than 1.2 million people; Houston grew by 1.15 million; Phoenix recorded a 1.11 million-person jump; and Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., saw 900,000 more residents.

Percentage-increase leaders were St. George, Utah, which leaped 52% to nearly 140,000; Provo, Utah, which grew by more than 47% to 555,000; Raleigh, N.C., which jumped 41% to nearly 1.13 million; and Greeley, Colo., where the population soared 41% to 255,000.

The decade’s biggest loser both by percentage and numerically, was New Orleans. The city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and has been in recovery mode ever since.

Its metro area population is still down more than 126,000, off nearly 10% from its pre-storm status. 

Fannie and Freddie Announce Delisting From NYSE

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares were halted as regulators announced that both companies are being asked to delist from the NYSE and any other national securities exchange.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator for both Fannie and Freddie, has directed both to delist their common stock and their preferred stock, the agency announced Wednesday in a press release.

Both companies stock, however, will continue to trade, but will be quoted on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, according to the press release.

“FHFA’s determination to direct each company to delist does not constitute any reflection on either Enterprise’s current performance or future direction, nor does delisting imply any other findings or determination on the part of FHFA as regulator or conservator,” Edward J. DeMarco, the FHFA Acting Director, stated in a press release.  “The determination to direct delisting is related to stock exchange requirements for maintaining price levels and curing deficiencies.”

According to statements issued by both companies, Fannie has notified the NYSE and the Chicago Stock Exchange and Freddie has notified the NYSE of their intent to delist any common and preferred stock.

URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/37726693/

Fed limits card fees to $25

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — Most credit card penalties will be limited to $25, and fees for customers who don’t use their cards will be eliminated under rules released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed also ordered a review of all credit card interest rate hikes imposed since January 2009, including most of the record increases that came in the wake of a nationwide cutback on credit.

The rules, which implement a final set of changes that Congress passed in May 2009, take effect Aug. 22.

“The Federal Reserve’s guidelines issued today are great news for consumers,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., one of the authors of the credit card laws.

The Fed’s rules could result in lower interest rates for consumers. Banks will be required to reconsider the reasons for hikes that kicked in over the past 18 months. They would have to reduce rates if the reasons for the increases no longer exist, and regulators will review and enforce such cuts.

Consumers will most immediately notice the new penalty fee limit of $25. Reducing penalty fees was a central provision of the credit card law, but Congress left it to the Fed to determine how to do it.

The Fed leaves room for larger penalty fees to be charged if a consumer has shown a pattern of “repeated” violations or if a card issuer can show that a higher fee reasonably offsets its own costs in dealing with the violation that spurred the penalty.

Other parts of the new rules:

• Consumers won’t have to fear being charged a fee for failing to use their credit cards.
• Penalty fees can’t exceed the dollar amount incurred by the consumer’s violation that spurred the fee. For example, if a customer is late making a $20 minimum payment, the fee can’t exceed $20. A consumer who exceeds her credit limit by $5 cannot be charged an over-the-limit fee of more than $5.

• Consumers will no longer face multiple penalty fees, if the violation was based on a single late payment.

The provisions announced Tuesday by the Fed complement previous rules implementing the 2009 credit card law that are already in effect.Starting in February, issuers were prohibited from hiking interest rates on existing balances as long as customers paid their bills on time. They also have to notify customers at least 45 days in advance of interest rate increases and most fee changes.

The Fed was tasked with figuring out a way to set penalty fees in a way that’s “reasonable and proportional” to the violation that caused the fee.

Consumers scored a win, since these fee caps go beyond what the Fed had suggested earlier this year in a draft. The $25 limit will mean significant savings for consumers who face median penalty fees of $39, according to data collected by the Pew Safe Credit Cards Project.

However, if a cardholder is late or over his credit limit two times within six months, issuers could hike the second penalty fee to $35, or possibly more if the issuer can justify the fee to regulators, according to the Fed rules.

Although the Fed is cracking down on penalty fees, it hasn’t addressed the interest rate hikes that are also imposed on consumers who violate the terms of their credit card agreements.

So a consumer who spends more than his credit card limit by $15 may only face a $15 fee. But that consumer could still face a permanent penalty hike on his interest rate, which would apply to any future purchases.

Still, some banking groups have concerns. Financial Services Roundtable’s senior lobbyist Scott Talbott warned that the Fed’s cap on penalty fees will limit the industry’s ability to offset the risk that credit cardholders don’t pay their bills.

“The restrictions in the rules the Fed issued will decrease the ability of the credit card industry to price for risk and the net effect will be a decrease in [credit] availability,” Talbott said.

Spark 360: Rodney Anderson’s cure for bad credit

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Spark360 Helps Mortgage Lender Fill Prescription for Medical Debt Relief

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) June 7, 2010 — Spark360’s “Social Business Television” becomes “Social Advocacy Television” with the story of Rodney Anderson, a Dallas-based mortgage banker who has launched a one-man crusade to raise credit scores for potential homeowners by proposing legislation and working to push it through Congress.

spark360 covers Rodney Anderson as he pursues a personal crusade to reform the credit reporting industry.

Anderson, a mortgage banker with Supreme Lending, has spent money and man-hours to work the Washington D.C. maze of power brokers and find legislative support for HR 3421, the Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009. Anderson’s bill would correct a little-known stipulation in credit reporting: a medical debt collection can stay on a borrower’s records for seven years, even if the debt was paid in full or settled. The Medical Debt Relief Act would require that the paid or settled debt would disappear from a borrower’s credit report after 30 days.

“There’s an injustice happening to the American people, and we need change when it comes to medical debt on people’s credit reports,” Anderson told spark360 host/managing editor Renay San Miguel.

“There’s an injustice happening to the American people, and we need change when it comes to medical debt on people’s credit reports,” Anderson told spark360 host/managing editor Renay San Miguel. “In our studies, it’s affecting more than 40 percent of all Americans.”

Anderson – host of a weekend radio show on personal finance who has his first book, “Credit 911,” publishing in August – began his journey to Washington after hearing stories from borrowers who were denied home loans or refinancing because of a forgotten hospital bill. Jennifer Trimmer sought treatment for a heart condition several years ago; a debt related to that experience cost the single mother a refinancing option on a rental property.

“I make good money and I pay my bills on time, and I thought everything was going great and I wanted to take advantage, again, of the lower interest rate – and I can’t,” Trimmer told San Miguel.

“It’s very discouraging, obviously, to those people who have never missed a payment to anyone, and have a $20, $30 medical collection from five years ago that drops their scores, and I have to look at them and say, ‘I’m sorry, your credit score doesn’t meet the requirements to obtain a mortgage loan,’” said Suzie Reed, Supreme Lending’s Executive Director of Mortgage Operations. “I get everything from anger to desperation – ‘I’ll pay it, I didn’t even know it was there, if I just pay it can we have our house?’ It’s heartbreaking.”

Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio) has introduced the Medical Debt Relief Act of 2009 and the bill currently has 101 co-sponsors. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) has taken up the cause in his chamber. Anderson estimates that the Act would pump billions of dollars into the U.S. economy and immediately raise credit ratings for many Americans. But Anderson says he has not contributed any money to any member of Congress or to political action committees, and has turned down outside funding help from interested individuals and organizations.

“It’s a two or three-page bill. We want to keep it simple,” Anderson said. “We understand that this is a simple solution that millions of Americans need. So I didn’t want other people to have a different agenda.”

“With Rodney Anderson’s story, spark360 branches out into a different genre of storytelling – one that is still related to business but is also more issues-oriented and has the potential to impact a lot of homeowners and borrowers,” said San Miguel. “Anderson is taking a big gamble here to try and effect some positive change in Washington. You can’t ask for a better story than that.”

Senior Producer Steven Swaim added, “Working with impassioned business owners and entrepreneurs is something we enjoy on a daily basis. Getting the opportunity to highlight Rodney’s story has been an experience that we hope to repeat soon.”