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Fayette County Master Commissioner Sales updated here.

Jefferson County Master Commissioner sales for August 31, 2010 are listed on their website now.  Click here.

I thought this was an interesting story line:  24/7 Wall St. has created a new list of brands that may disappear, which includes Readers Digest, Kia Motors, Dollar Thrifty (NYSE: DTG – News), Zale (NYSE: ZLC – News), Blockbuster (BLOKA.PK – News), T-Mobile, BP Plc (NYSE: BP – News), RadioShack (NYSE: RSH – News), Merrill Lynch and Moody’s (NYSE: MCO – News).

Read their reasoning behind these businesses being gone by next year.

As many of you may have heard, Kentucky State Governor Steve Beshear is proposing to furlough state employees for at least 6 days as part of a balanced budget.  But does this really help or hurt the economy?

With State and Local Governments making substantial cuts in their budgets, there will be a significant ripple effect across many communities.  Despite the recession finally easing to some degree, we may be facing a double dip soon.

Read more:  Spending cuts by state and local governments from New York to California may act as a drag on the economy into 2011, only the second time in more than a half century that such reductions have restricted growth for three consecutive years.

States face a cumulative budget gap of $127.4 billion as 46 prepare for the start of their fiscal year on July 1, according to a report this month by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers. They will have to fill that hole largely on their own, as aid from the federal government under programs including President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package starts to wind down.

State and local cutbacks may trim growth by about a quarter percentage point in 2010 and 2011 after shaving it by 0.02 point in 2010, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. He also sees the governments lopping payrolls by 200,000 during the next year after reducing them by 190,000 in the 12 months through May.

“The budget cutting that is dead ahead will be a significant impediment to economic growth later this year into 2011,” he said in an interview.

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The Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) released its 2009 annual report on July 1, 2010. While some declines can be expected due to the current economy, Kentucky financial institutions continue to hold steady or even improve in areas such as asset growth and profitability.

For most of 2009, Kentucky was ranked eighth in profitability out of the 50 states by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., despite declines. And while the rest of the nation’s banks experienced negative asset growth, Kentucky’s 157 state-chartered banks increased total assets to $44 billion, which represented a 5.7 percent growth rate. Kentucky was one of only three states that had positive loan growth for every quarter in 2009.

“The Kentucky banking industry successfully dealt with economic problems through good management, conservative investments, strong capital ratios and proactive resolution of problems,” said DFI Commissioner Charles Vice. “This does not mean that Kentucky is devoid of problems, but when problems occur, the industry is able to withstand the storm.”

State-chartered credit unions also continue to see positive asset growth. Kentucky’s 26 state-chartered credit unions managed nearly $1.7 billion in total assets in 2009, with asset growth at 10.2 percent.

Read More.

Average total loans and leases declined slightly as decreases in commercial loans, primarily commercial real estate, were only partially offset by an increase in average total consumer loans.

Net charge-offs in the first quarter were $238.5 million, or an annualized 2.58%, of average total loans and leases.   This was down 46% from $444.7 million, or an annualized 4.80%, in the 2009 fourth quarter.  Total nonperforming assets at March 31, 2010, were $1,918.4 million, down 7% from $2,058.1 million at December 31, 2009.  The primary driver for the decrease was a 52% decline in new nonperforming assets.  There was also a 7% decline in commercial “criticized” loans, the first decrease in well over a year.

With a $235.0 million provision for credit losses only slightly less than net charge-offs, the period end allowance for credit losses represented 4.14% of total loans and leases, basically unchanged from 4.16% at the end of last year.  The period-end allowance for credit losses as a percent of period-end nonaccrual loans increased to 87% from 80%, reflecting the decline in nonperforming assets and an allowance for credit losses that was little changed.

Read More.

From the National Real Estate Investor online:  The Moody’s/REAL commercial property price index (CPPI) shows that prices have dropped 16.4% from a year ago. However, property prices have rebounded 4.7% since October 2009.

In April 2010, prices rose 1.7% after two consecutive months of slight price decline.  But commercial property prices remain well below the market peak of October 2007. The index shows that the prices are 41.1% below peak levels.

“The big picture is still that of an essentially flat market, with perhaps a slight upward trend on average and some bouncing around from month to month,” says Neal Elkin, president of Real Estate Analytics (REAL), which publishes the index along with Moody’s.

The index prices measure 113.10 for June 2010, compared with 107.98 in October 2009.

From the National Real Estate Investor online:  It may be too soon to pop the champagne corks, but investor sentiment is improving as economic news turns positive and a bottom nears for commercial real estate markets. Sixty percent of respondents indicate they plan to increase their commercial real estate holdings over the next year.

That is a more bullish sentiment compared with the 51% who voiced the same opinion in the fourth quarter of 2008 when property values were dropping rapidly amid the credit crisis. Respondents who do plan to acquire property in the next 12 months say they expect to boost their portfolios by an average of 25%.

Click here to download entire report