by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2013 06:14:00 PM

From the FDIC: FirstAtlantic Bank, Jacksonville, Florida, Assumes All of the Deposits of Heritage Bank of North Florida, Orange Park, Florida

As of December 31, 2012, Heritage Bank of North Florida had approximately $110.9 million in total assets and $108.5 million in total deposits. ... The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $30.2 million. ... Heritage Bank of North Florida is the seventh FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Florida.

From the FDIC: First Federal Bank of Florida, Lake City, Florida, Assumes All of the Deposits of Chipola Community Bank, Marianna, Florida

As of December 31, 2012, Chipola Community Bank had approximately $39.2 million in total assets and $37.6 million in total deposits. ... The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $10.3 million. ... Chipola Community Bank is the eighth FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Florida.

That makes three so far today ... the FDIC back at work.

by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2013 05:37:00 PM

From the FDIC: Your Community Bank, New Albany, Indiana, Assumes All of the Deposits of First Federal Bank, Lexington, Kentucky

As of December 31, 2012, First Federal Bank had approximately $100.1 million in total assets and $93.9 million in total deposits. ... The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $9.7 million. ... First Federal Bank is the sixth FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Kentucky.

Currently the FDIC is on pace to close around 20 banks in 2013. This will be the lowest number of failures since 2007 (or maybe 2008 if the pace picks up a little).

The following table shows the number of failures per year during the current cycle (this says nothing about the size of the failures):

Year	Bank Failures
2007	3
2008	25
2009	140
2010	157
2011	92
2012	51
20131	6
1 2013 so far

by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2013 03:20:00 PM

From DataQuick: California March Home Sales

An estimated 37,764 new and resale houses and condos sold statewide last month. That was up 31.5 percent from 28,719 in February, and up 0.8 percent from 37,481 sales in March 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

It’s normal for sales to shoot up between February and March. California March sales have varied from a low of 24,565 in 2008 to a high of 68,848 in 2005. Last month's sales were 13.5 percent below the average of 43,648 sales for all the months of March since 1988, when DataQuick's statistics begin.
...
Of the existing homes sold last month, 15.2 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year – the lowest level since foreclosure resales were 12.6 percent of the resale market in September 2007. Last month’s figure compares with 18.0 percent in February and 32.8 percent a year earlier. Foreclosure resales peaked at 58.8 percent in February 2009.

Short sales - transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property - made up an estimated 21.5 percent of the homes that resold last month. That was down from an estimated 22.4 percent the month before and 24.5 percent a year earlier.
...
Indicators of market distress continue to decline. Foreclosure activity remains well below year-ago and peak levels reached several years ago. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, while down payment sizes are stable, DataQuick reported.
emphasis added

Sales are still below the average level for the month of March, but the key is the percentage of distressed sales - especially foreclosures - is declining.

The NAR will report March existing home sales next Monday, April 22nd.

by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2013 10:52:00 AM

From the BLS: Jobless rate down in 26 states, up in 7 in March; payroll jobs down in 26 states, up in 23

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in March. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases, 7 states had increases, and 17 states had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
...
Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among the states in March, 9.7 percent. The next highest rates were in Illinois (9.5 percent) and California and Mississippi (9.4 percent each). North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate, 3.3 percent.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the current unemployment rate for each state (red), and the max during the recession (blue). All states are below the maximum unemployment rate for the recession.

The size of the blue bar indicates the amount of improvement - Michigan and Nevada have seen the largest declines - New Jersey remains the laggard.

The states are ranked by the highest current unemployment rate. No state has double digit unemployment and the unemployment rate is at or above 9% in only seven states: Nevada, Mississippi, Illinois, California, North Carolina, Rhode Island and New Jersey. In early 2010, almost half the states had an unemployment rate above 9%.

by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2013 09:46:00 AM

Another update on hotels from HotelNewsNow.com: STR: US results for week ending 13 April

In year-over-year comparisons, occupancy was up 3.2 percent to 64.1 percent, average daily rate rose 7.2 percent to US$110.88 and revenue per available room increased 10.7 percent to US$71.04.

The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is close to normal levels.

Note: ADR: Average Daily Rate, RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room.

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average.

Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2013, yellow is for 2012, blue is "normal" and black is for 2009 - the worst year since the Great Depression for hotels.

The occupancy rate will probably move sideways until the summer vacation travel starts.  The occupancy rate has improved from the same period last year - and is tracking the pre-recession levels.

Data Source: Smith Travel Research, Courtesy of HotelNewsNow.com