Friday, March 29, 2013
Congratulations to Marni Jimenez!
Congratulations to Marnie Jimenez of our Riverside office for appearing on the cover of Executive Agent Magazine!
Investors Pile Into Housing, This Time as Landlords
By Nick Timiraos, WSJ.com
LAKE FOREST, Calif.—Jeff Pintar had buyer's remorse as he purchased 12 foreclosed homes in five Southern California counties on a single day. His regret: that he didn't buy more homes a year earlier.
"Things have turned around faster than anyone anticipated," said Mr. Pintar, who first began buying properties here four years ago and now owns or manages 1,700 homes, which he rents out for between $1,000 and $3,800 a month. Here in Orange County, nearly every home listed for less than $400,000 "is being pursued by institutional investor capital," he said.
U.S. housing recoveries almost always have been ignited by rising demand from families and individuals looking for a place to live. This recovery is different. Investors—including some big Wall Street players—are leading the way, say industry executives and analysts. Their role is noteworthy given that flippers and speculators were blamed for helping to inflate the housing bubble of the past decade.
Today's investors are mostly buying with the intention of holding on to the homes and renting them out. As they pile into the housing market, they have set off a chain reaction that has stabilized prices and changed market psychology, industry executives and analysts say. Fear of buying homes when prices are dropping has been replaced by the fear of missing out on cheap homes.
Whether they knew it or not, investors helped set a floor. They warmed up the market, and it brought buyers back," said Lanny Baker, chief executive of real-estate brokerage ZipRealty.
Investors have always played a role in the housing market, but their presence was often small. Currently, cash buyers—largely investors—make up about 32% of sales nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors. In Southern California, a favorite target for investors, absentee buyers accounted for 31.4% of purchases last month, up from an average of less than 17% between 2000 and 2010, according to DataQuick MDA, a real-estate research firm.
While some firms have focused only on Sunbelt markets with newer housing stock, others are branching out. American Residential Properties Inc., which began amassing hundreds of homes in Phoenix four years ago, earlier this month bought 93 homes in Chicago's southern suburbs, bringing its total there to around 300. On Friday, the company said it planned to raise $300 million in an initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing.
The rush of investors into the housing market follows a long push by federal policy makers to foster the American dream of homeownership that unraveled for some people in the housing crash. The homeownership rate fell to around 65% last year from 69% in 2005. "We're clearly at the beginning of a rental boom," says Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics. "We all saw there had to be a shift towards renting single-family units that owners could no longer afford. Investors played a critical role in that transformation."
Their arrival will further transform some communities already hit hard by foreclosures and falling home prices. Renters have less of a stake than do homeowners. But deep-pocketed investors can still be good news for neighborhoods that otherwise would be at risk because so many homes had been neglected.
Where investors are scooping up homes, "you're no longer seeing shabby homes that have grass growing up to the doorknob," said Ivy Zelman, who owns a real-estate advisory firm.
The house-rental market long has been dominated by mom-and-pop outfits, including retirees, real-estate brokers, doctors and other professionals, and they still account for most investor purchases. Over the past year, large private-equity firms such as Blackstone Group BX -1.35% and Colony Capital have spent billions of dollars buying up single-family homes. Blackstone says it has purchased 20,000 homes since early last year. It is buying more than $100 million worth of homes a week and has spent $3.5 billion so far.
Executives in these companies say the rental market for single-family homes is fertile turf because home prices are relatively low and rental rates are healthy. They expect the number of families locked out of homeownership—because they don't have strong enough credit or savings to qualify for a mortgage—will continue to grow.
Around 12% of all U.S. households—more than 14 million people—rented a single-family home in 2011, up from 9% in 2004, according to the most recent U.S. Census figures. Three-fifths of people who lost their homes to foreclosure in the past five years ended up renting a house, said Ms. Zelman.
"It's a very attractive time to buy a home if you can," said Justin Chang, president of Colony American Homes, a subsidiary of Colony Capital. That has created "a big opportunity to rent homes to people who for whatever reason have chosen not to buy or can't buy." Colony has spent more than $1 billion on 8,000 homes in seven states, and Mr. Chang said it isn't through buying. "In each of the markets we're in, we think we can go deeper," he said.
Investors are concentrating on markets that have cheap housing and where job growth—and rental demand—is revving up. A year ago, Phoenix became the hottest target, and with prices there up by 20% since early last year, investors have raced to find similar discounts in other metro areas. Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp., SBY +5.29% which last year became the first publicly traded home rental firm, owned some 3,400 homes in 10 different markets from Phoenix to Atlanta to Tampa, Fla., at the end of 2012.
Housing is also attractive to startup investors. Srini Nallapareddy purchased a home for his family in Orange County's Lake Forest four years ago and is looking to buy a second home in the same area. He plans to hold on to one as a rental and live in the other. "Right now, it just seems like real estate is a good place to put cash," said the 40-year-old software engineer.
Other factors have contributed to the emerging housing rebound. An improving economy and low mortgage rates have stimulated demand among traditional buyers. But these new buyers are finding shortages of homes for sale in many parts of the country.
High maintenance costs traditionally had kept investors out of managing hundreds of scattered-site rentals. But investors set about overcoming those hurdles two years ago because low interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve generated "a tremendous appetite for yield," said real-estate consultant John Burns, who advises investor firms. "It really sent capital chasing to figure out this business."
Investors have concentrated their homes in particular neighborhoods, while using technology that allows them to manage homes by collecting rent and handling property-maintenance requests online.
Not everyone believes that the current level of investor activity is healthy. Some worry that investors will eventually flee the housing market if values erode again or if the expense of maintaining a large number of homes becomes onerous. "Are they going to continue to maintain them? Or are they going to dump them into the single-family market?" said Mr. Thornberg of Beacon Economics.
Some investors have a notorious history in the housing market. During California's housing bust in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the federal government sold hundreds of homes in California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties, about an hour east of Los Angeles. Some homes weren't maintained, turning entire neighborhoods into shabby rental communities.
Colony's Mr. Chang said sophisticated real estate professionals are unlikely to repeat such practices. "If you're building the business for the long term, which we are, the incentive is to make sure the assets are looking good," he said. "If you let them go, tenants will leave."
While investor interest in housing has helped stem big declines in household wealth, their ubiquitous presence is a growing problem for individuals who are finding themselves on the losing ends of bidding wars.
"We can't find anything because investors are gobbling up everything that is affordable," said Gloria Wain, 66, of Costa Mesa, Calif., during a morning meeting with her real-estate agent. After losing out to 18 offers—mostly cash offers from investors, according to her agent—she decided to raise cash herself in an effort to compete. She plans to borrow money from her son.
In Orange County, investor purchases accounted for around 22% of home sales last year, up from 11% in 2007, according to Mr. Burns, the consultant. Fewer than 3,300 homes were listed for sale last month, down from 7,200 one year ago and more than 10,600 two years ago. The decreased supply has pushed prices up by nearly 10%.
For Mr. Pintar, the competition from other investors means he has to change his tactics. Last year, Mr. Pintar's company mainly purchased foreclosed properties individually at courthouse auctions, known as trustee sales, before the homes were repossessed by banks and listed for resale. He buys both for his own portfolio and for institutional investors, including Colony.
In 2008, fewer than 10% of foreclosures went to investors at courthouse auctions in Orange County.
But last year, investors bought nearly half of foreclosures at such trustee sales, according to data maintained by ForeclosureRadar.com, a research firm.
That has sent Mr. Pintar searching for deals through traditional real estate listings, especially short sales, where homeowners who owe more than their property is worth get the bank to agree to sell the property at a loss. Investors can have an edge here over homeowners, who often need to move into the house by a certain date, because short sales often take a long time to complete. About a third of his purchases these days are short sales.
From a pair of second-story office suites off Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point, Calif., a team of buyers at Pintar Investment arrives at 6:30 every morning to prepare for the auction sales. They analyze 1,000 properties every week, arrayed behind pods of computer screens that look like a Wall Street trading floor. A poster hangs on one wall that reads, "Invest Like a Champion Today."
Some of Mr. Pintar's investors have him steer clear of certain homes, such as those with swimming pools, which require extra maintenance that isn't covered by higher rent. Mr. Pintar focuses on neighborhoods that have low crime and good schools and are near freeways and shopping areas.
Once they have got their shopping list, "it's a conveyor-belt machine that goes into motion," said Mr. Pintar. Field inspectors visit the homes, interview the owners and assess repair needs. A separate team combs tax and title records to make sure there aren't additional liens, which the new owner would have to pay off. Purchased homes get fresh paint, carpet, appliances, fixtures, and granite countertops. Skimping on repairs only leads to higher expenses later, said Mr. Pintar, who owns a separate property-management company.
He founded his firm four years ago. At first, he focused on buying rentals in California's inland counties—San Bernardino and Riverside—where there were more foreclosures and lower prices. But as competition there has heated up, yields—or the amount of rent a property fetches divided by its selling price—have fallen. He is willing to accept lower yields in more expensive coastal markets that have better prospects for price appreciation.
Mr. Pintar dismisses the concerns raised by critics about investor-owned housing. "Let's face it: The banks weren't putting any money into them after foreclosure, and an owner that is not making his payments is not taking care of the house," he said. "These homes are now cleaned up with people living in them."
He pulled his Mercedes-Benz up to the curb during a recent visit to a peach-colored three-bedroom on Belgreen Place in Lake Forest that his company bought for $375,000 and plans to rent for $2,600 a month. The drapes were drawn and weeds grew around a child's plastic slide on the front lawn. "This one looks like it's going to need a lot of repairs," he said. Mr. Pintar pointed out a tidy dark-green home with white trim and a neat lawn across the street. "When we're done, we want it to look like that," he said.
Mr. Pintar said he has no plans to slow down. In the past four months, the professional landlord hired 75 new employees. He also looked into buying his own commercial office building for his growing operation, he said. "We figured why pay rent to someone if you don't have to?"
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324034804578346800317118568-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email
 | |
| Jeff Pintar's company now owns or manages 1,700 homes in Southern California. |
"Things have turned around faster than anyone anticipated," said Mr. Pintar, who first began buying properties here four years ago and now owns or manages 1,700 homes, which he rents out for between $1,000 and $3,800 a month. Here in Orange County, nearly every home listed for less than $400,000 "is being pursued by institutional investor capital," he said.
U.S. housing recoveries almost always have been ignited by rising demand from families and individuals looking for a place to live. This recovery is different. Investors—including some big Wall Street players—are leading the way, say industry executives and analysts. Their role is noteworthy given that flippers and speculators were blamed for helping to inflate the housing bubble of the past decade.
Today's investors are mostly buying with the intention of holding on to the homes and renting them out. As they pile into the housing market, they have set off a chain reaction that has stabilized prices and changed market psychology, industry executives and analysts say. Fear of buying homes when prices are dropping has been replaced by the fear of missing out on cheap homes.
Whether they knew it or not, investors helped set a floor. They warmed up the market, and it brought buyers back," said Lanny Baker, chief executive of real-estate brokerage ZipRealty.
Investors have always played a role in the housing market, but their presence was often small. Currently, cash buyers—largely investors—make up about 32% of sales nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors. In Southern California, a favorite target for investors, absentee buyers accounted for 31.4% of purchases last month, up from an average of less than 17% between 2000 and 2010, according to DataQuick MDA, a real-estate research firm.
While some firms have focused only on Sunbelt markets with newer housing stock, others are branching out. American Residential Properties Inc., which began amassing hundreds of homes in Phoenix four years ago, earlier this month bought 93 homes in Chicago's southern suburbs, bringing its total there to around 300. On Friday, the company said it planned to raise $300 million in an initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing.
The rush of investors into the housing market follows a long push by federal policy makers to foster the American dream of homeownership that unraveled for some people in the housing crash. The homeownership rate fell to around 65% last year from 69% in 2005. "We're clearly at the beginning of a rental boom," says Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics. "We all saw there had to be a shift towards renting single-family units that owners could no longer afford. Investors played a critical role in that transformation."
Their arrival will further transform some communities already hit hard by foreclosures and falling home prices. Renters have less of a stake than do homeowners. But deep-pocketed investors can still be good news for neighborhoods that otherwise would be at risk because so many homes had been neglected.
Where investors are scooping up homes, "you're no longer seeing shabby homes that have grass growing up to the doorknob," said Ivy Zelman, who owns a real-estate advisory firm.
The house-rental market long has been dominated by mom-and-pop outfits, including retirees, real-estate brokers, doctors and other professionals, and they still account for most investor purchases. Over the past year, large private-equity firms such as Blackstone Group BX -1.35% and Colony Capital have spent billions of dollars buying up single-family homes. Blackstone says it has purchased 20,000 homes since early last year. It is buying more than $100 million worth of homes a week and has spent $3.5 billion so far.
Executives in these companies say the rental market for single-family homes is fertile turf because home prices are relatively low and rental rates are healthy. They expect the number of families locked out of homeownership—because they don't have strong enough credit or savings to qualify for a mortgage—will continue to grow.
Around 12% of all U.S. households—more than 14 million people—rented a single-family home in 2011, up from 9% in 2004, according to the most recent U.S. Census figures. Three-fifths of people who lost their homes to foreclosure in the past five years ended up renting a house, said Ms. Zelman.
"It's a very attractive time to buy a home if you can," said Justin Chang, president of Colony American Homes, a subsidiary of Colony Capital. That has created "a big opportunity to rent homes to people who for whatever reason have chosen not to buy or can't buy." Colony has spent more than $1 billion on 8,000 homes in seven states, and Mr. Chang said it isn't through buying. "In each of the markets we're in, we think we can go deeper," he said.
Investors are concentrating on markets that have cheap housing and where job growth—and rental demand—is revving up. A year ago, Phoenix became the hottest target, and with prices there up by 20% since early last year, investors have raced to find similar discounts in other metro areas. Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp., SBY +5.29% which last year became the first publicly traded home rental firm, owned some 3,400 homes in 10 different markets from Phoenix to Atlanta to Tampa, Fla., at the end of 2012.
Housing is also attractive to startup investors. Srini Nallapareddy purchased a home for his family in Orange County's Lake Forest four years ago and is looking to buy a second home in the same area. He plans to hold on to one as a rental and live in the other. "Right now, it just seems like real estate is a good place to put cash," said the 40-year-old software engineer.
Other factors have contributed to the emerging housing rebound. An improving economy and low mortgage rates have stimulated demand among traditional buyers. But these new buyers are finding shortages of homes for sale in many parts of the country.
High maintenance costs traditionally had kept investors out of managing hundreds of scattered-site rentals. But investors set about overcoming those hurdles two years ago because low interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve generated "a tremendous appetite for yield," said real-estate consultant John Burns, who advises investor firms. "It really sent capital chasing to figure out this business."
Investors have concentrated their homes in particular neighborhoods, while using technology that allows them to manage homes by collecting rent and handling property-maintenance requests online.
Not everyone believes that the current level of investor activity is healthy. Some worry that investors will eventually flee the housing market if values erode again or if the expense of maintaining a large number of homes becomes onerous. "Are they going to continue to maintain them? Or are they going to dump them into the single-family market?" said Mr. Thornberg of Beacon Economics.
Some investors have a notorious history in the housing market. During California's housing bust in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the federal government sold hundreds of homes in California's San Bernardino and Riverside counties, about an hour east of Los Angeles. Some homes weren't maintained, turning entire neighborhoods into shabby rental communities.
Colony's Mr. Chang said sophisticated real estate professionals are unlikely to repeat such practices. "If you're building the business for the long term, which we are, the incentive is to make sure the assets are looking good," he said. "If you let them go, tenants will leave."
While investor interest in housing has helped stem big declines in household wealth, their ubiquitous presence is a growing problem for individuals who are finding themselves on the losing ends of bidding wars.
"We can't find anything because investors are gobbling up everything that is affordable," said Gloria Wain, 66, of Costa Mesa, Calif., during a morning meeting with her real-estate agent. After losing out to 18 offers—mostly cash offers from investors, according to her agent—she decided to raise cash herself in an effort to compete. She plans to borrow money from her son.
In Orange County, investor purchases accounted for around 22% of home sales last year, up from 11% in 2007, according to Mr. Burns, the consultant. Fewer than 3,300 homes were listed for sale last month, down from 7,200 one year ago and more than 10,600 two years ago. The decreased supply has pushed prices up by nearly 10%.
For Mr. Pintar, the competition from other investors means he has to change his tactics. Last year, Mr. Pintar's company mainly purchased foreclosed properties individually at courthouse auctions, known as trustee sales, before the homes were repossessed by banks and listed for resale. He buys both for his own portfolio and for institutional investors, including Colony.
In 2008, fewer than 10% of foreclosures went to investors at courthouse auctions in Orange County.
But last year, investors bought nearly half of foreclosures at such trustee sales, according to data maintained by ForeclosureRadar.com, a research firm.
That has sent Mr. Pintar searching for deals through traditional real estate listings, especially short sales, where homeowners who owe more than their property is worth get the bank to agree to sell the property at a loss. Investors can have an edge here over homeowners, who often need to move into the house by a certain date, because short sales often take a long time to complete. About a third of his purchases these days are short sales.
From a pair of second-story office suites off Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point, Calif., a team of buyers at Pintar Investment arrives at 6:30 every morning to prepare for the auction sales. They analyze 1,000 properties every week, arrayed behind pods of computer screens that look like a Wall Street trading floor. A poster hangs on one wall that reads, "Invest Like a Champion Today."
Some of Mr. Pintar's investors have him steer clear of certain homes, such as those with swimming pools, which require extra maintenance that isn't covered by higher rent. Mr. Pintar focuses on neighborhoods that have low crime and good schools and are near freeways and shopping areas.
Once they have got their shopping list, "it's a conveyor-belt machine that goes into motion," said Mr. Pintar. Field inspectors visit the homes, interview the owners and assess repair needs. A separate team combs tax and title records to make sure there aren't additional liens, which the new owner would have to pay off. Purchased homes get fresh paint, carpet, appliances, fixtures, and granite countertops. Skimping on repairs only leads to higher expenses later, said Mr. Pintar, who owns a separate property-management company.
He founded his firm four years ago. At first, he focused on buying rentals in California's inland counties—San Bernardino and Riverside—where there were more foreclosures and lower prices. But as competition there has heated up, yields—or the amount of rent a property fetches divided by its selling price—have fallen. He is willing to accept lower yields in more expensive coastal markets that have better prospects for price appreciation.
Mr. Pintar dismisses the concerns raised by critics about investor-owned housing. "Let's face it: The banks weren't putting any money into them after foreclosure, and an owner that is not making his payments is not taking care of the house," he said. "These homes are now cleaned up with people living in them."
He pulled his Mercedes-Benz up to the curb during a recent visit to a peach-colored three-bedroom on Belgreen Place in Lake Forest that his company bought for $375,000 and plans to rent for $2,600 a month. The drapes were drawn and weeds grew around a child's plastic slide on the front lawn. "This one looks like it's going to need a lot of repairs," he said. Mr. Pintar pointed out a tidy dark-green home with white trim and a neat lawn across the street. "When we're done, we want it to look like that," he said.
Mr. Pintar said he has no plans to slow down. In the past four months, the professional landlord hired 75 new employees. He also looked into buying his own commercial office building for his growing operation, he said. "We figured why pay rent to someone if you don't have to?"
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324034804578346800317118568-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email
Friday, March 22, 2013
1.7 Million Home Owners Regain Equity in 2012
Rising home prices have helped more home owners make their way above water again, with 1.7 million residential properties regaining equity in 2012, according to the latest figures from CoreLogic. The number of mortgaged home owners with equity now stands at 38.1 million. More home owners are expected to soon join them: About 1.8 million homes will regain equity if home prices rise by another 5 percent—which most economists have forecast for this year.
“In the fourth quarter we again saw an improvement in the equity position of households,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Housing market improvements, particularly in the hardest hit states, are the catalyst for households to regain equity and become participants in 2013’s housing market.”
While the numbers are improving, many home owners are still underwater: About 21.5 percent—or 10.4 million—of all residential properties with a mortgage still retained negative equity at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. That number is down 22 percent, year-over-year.
Nevada has the highest percentage of homes with negative equity (at 52.4%), followed by Florida (40.2%), Arizona (34.9%), Georgia (33.8%), and Michigan (31.9%). These five states alone account for 32.7 percent of the total amount of negative home equity in the U.S., according to CoreLogic.
Some additional findings from CoreLogic’s latest report:
The majority of homes that have equity tend to be on the higher end of the real estate market. Eighty-six percent of homes valued at more than $200,000 have equity, compared to 72 percent of home less than $200,000.
About 3.9 million home owners with negative equity have both first and second liens. Their average mortgage balance is $296,000 and their average underwater amount is $80,000.
Source: http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/03/19/17-million-home-owners-regain-equity-in-2012#.UUp5SlZ6pg8.email
Thursday, March 21, 2013
5 Ways to Get More Productive Today
by Drake Baer, Fast Company
There might be some productivity-minded part of you that scoffs at the whole idea of reading about how to be more productive. After all, why would you read about doing when you could do?
Well, you can tell that part of you to stop being so addicted to being right and acknowledge that you can work smarter, not just harder. And when you can tap a multitude of perspectives of how to work smarter, you can get extremely productive.
Alice Boyes at Psychology Today has done that by gathering the productivity insights of a range of psychologists. Let's unpack a few here.
Walk away
"Without realizing it, I spent years trying to be productive in the most unproductive way," says Susan Newman, "sitting at a desk for hours."
Now she de-tethers by getting away from the office. She finds that moving around--be it to grab a cup of coffee, water a planet, or take a walk, makes her sharper. While it runs against what Anne Marie Slaughter calls "time macho" culture--"a relentless competition to work harder, stay later, pull more all-nighters, travel around the world and bill the extra hours that the international date line affords you"--more and more research shows that if you spend less time doing, you can get more done.
Close your door
L. Kevin Chapman starts his productivity quest by closing the door to his office. While he likes to welcome colleagues and students, closing the door ensures that he stays on task. The next move: scheduling the tasks he wants to avoid. If he puts the put-off tasks into his schedule (and sets reminders on all devices), he is sure to tackle what needs to get done. "Action precedes motivation," Chapman says. "These small steps facilitate more action and lead to me feeling accomplished." And apps can help, too.
Get some exercise
"Plan exercise breaks," advises Craig Malkin. "Stress leads to binary (either/or) thinking, distractability, and procrastination."
We know at least one company that's putting that into practice. Why does stress relief help you get better work done? You'll stay sharp, Malkin says, and you'll boost your capacity for creative problem solving. That's because creativity is a mammalian trait--and the protective parts of you won't let it come out unless you feel safe.
Condition yourself
We've discussed how where you work affects the work that you do, like how if you're cold, you're being physically distracted from the task at hand. Similarly, what you associate with your environment affects what happens there.
That's why you should work in a place you associate with work, says Amy Przeworski, like an office building, library, cafe, or maybe a coworking space. If you need to keep your attention on something for a long time, it's going to be hard to do so in a place you usually relax in--ever notice how you can't work as well in the family room?
"Your surroundings set the stage for your focus," Przeworski says. "If they are associated with work, you will focus on work."
The space can also make your work a pleasure--that's how Susan Cain sidesteps writer's block. The Quiet author trained herself to love writing by "always writing in a beautiful cafe while drinking a latte and eating a chocolate chip cookie"--that's one sweet way to love your work.
The biggest motivator? Passion
Kristine Anthis says that while you can't always decide what projects you take on, when you do--like your college major or if your boss lets you select from a range of assignments--go after what you're most interested in. It worked for her.
"Being passionate about what I do means that juggling the demands of teaching, writing, mentoring students, conducting research, and serving on committees is not necessarily always effortless," she says, "but certainly gratifying."
It's also how you know if you have a career--or just a job.
Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/3007026/5-ways-get-more-productive-today?partner#.UUf1U0f5Nr4.email
Want to get more done in the next hour? Take 5 minutes to read this.
There might be some productivity-minded part of you that scoffs at the whole idea of reading about how to be more productive. After all, why would you read about doing when you could do?
Well, you can tell that part of you to stop being so addicted to being right and acknowledge that you can work smarter, not just harder. And when you can tap a multitude of perspectives of how to work smarter, you can get extremely productive.
Alice Boyes at Psychology Today has done that by gathering the productivity insights of a range of psychologists. Let's unpack a few here.
Walk away
"Without realizing it, I spent years trying to be productive in the most unproductive way," says Susan Newman, "sitting at a desk for hours."
Now she de-tethers by getting away from the office. She finds that moving around--be it to grab a cup of coffee, water a planet, or take a walk, makes her sharper. While it runs against what Anne Marie Slaughter calls "time macho" culture--"a relentless competition to work harder, stay later, pull more all-nighters, travel around the world and bill the extra hours that the international date line affords you"--more and more research shows that if you spend less time doing, you can get more done.
Close your door
L. Kevin Chapman starts his productivity quest by closing the door to his office. While he likes to welcome colleagues and students, closing the door ensures that he stays on task. The next move: scheduling the tasks he wants to avoid. If he puts the put-off tasks into his schedule (and sets reminders on all devices), he is sure to tackle what needs to get done. "Action precedes motivation," Chapman says. "These small steps facilitate more action and lead to me feeling accomplished." And apps can help, too.
Get some exercise
"Plan exercise breaks," advises Craig Malkin. "Stress leads to binary (either/or) thinking, distractability, and procrastination."
We know at least one company that's putting that into practice. Why does stress relief help you get better work done? You'll stay sharp, Malkin says, and you'll boost your capacity for creative problem solving. That's because creativity is a mammalian trait--and the protective parts of you won't let it come out unless you feel safe.
Condition yourself
We've discussed how where you work affects the work that you do, like how if you're cold, you're being physically distracted from the task at hand. Similarly, what you associate with your environment affects what happens there.
That's why you should work in a place you associate with work, says Amy Przeworski, like an office building, library, cafe, or maybe a coworking space. If you need to keep your attention on something for a long time, it's going to be hard to do so in a place you usually relax in--ever notice how you can't work as well in the family room?
"Your surroundings set the stage for your focus," Przeworski says. "If they are associated with work, you will focus on work."
The space can also make your work a pleasure--that's how Susan Cain sidesteps writer's block. The Quiet author trained herself to love writing by "always writing in a beautiful cafe while drinking a latte and eating a chocolate chip cookie"--that's one sweet way to love your work.
The biggest motivator? Passion
Kristine Anthis says that while you can't always decide what projects you take on, when you do--like your college major or if your boss lets you select from a range of assignments--go after what you're most interested in. It worked for her.
"Being passionate about what I do means that juggling the demands of teaching, writing, mentoring students, conducting research, and serving on committees is not necessarily always effortless," she says, "but certainly gratifying."
It's also how you know if you have a career--or just a job.
Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/3007026/5-ways-get-more-productive-today?partner#.UUf1U0f5Nr4.email
More Homeowners Dig Out
By Conor Dougherty, The Wall Street Journal
Rising home values have lifted more borrowers out of the hole of owing more than their properties are worth, an encouraging sign for an economy still closely tied to the health of the housing market.
The number of "underwater" homeowners in the fourth quarter of 2012 declined by 1.7 million from a year earlier, meaning 1.7 million U.S. households have regained home equity, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic, CLGX -1.68% a research company. Overall, the company said 21.5% of households with a mortgage were underwater at the end of 2012, down from 25.2% at the end of 2011.
When consumers have equity in their homes, they feel more optimistic about their finances and become more likely to spend money on other goods and services, which helps boost the economy. Having equity also makes it easier for homeowners to take advantage of low interest rates by refinancing their mortgages, which frees up cash that can then be used on other items.
"Home equity is the biggest source of wealth, so if equity is increasing that has a very large effect on household spending and consumer psychology," said Sam Khater, an economist at CoreLogic, adding that this knock-on effect filters down to everyone from real-estate agents to furniture stores.
The declining number of underwater households is one of several changing housing trends that have made real estate a much bigger contributor to economic growth. After dragging on growth since 2006, the portion of gross domestic product that includes homebuilding contributed just over a quarter of a percentage point to the nation's growth last year.
"All the things that fed on the downside feed positively on the upside," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank DBK.XE +0.80% .
Of course, some newly above-water households are just barely at breakeven and therefore are a long way off from being able to change their finances in any significant way. And the overall ranks of those underwater remain large, at about 10.4 million, down from 12.1 million at the end of 2011, according to CoreLogic.
But for those whose lives were put on hold while their homes were upside down, moving above water has come as a huge relief.
Matthew Oropeza is one of them. In 2009, the 30-year-old business-systems analyst paid $96,000 for his Phoenix home. Over the next two years, he watched prices continue to fall, until similar homes in his area were selling for as low as $64,000.
Realizing he was underwater, and not wanting to lose his 15% down payment, Mr. Oropeza says he turned down a number of job opportunities in places including Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. "I decided I didn't want to short sell and I didn't want to take the loss," he says. "It was going to take a couple years of work just to pay the debt of the house so it was like, 'Am I really progressing here?' "
In December, after Mr. Oropeza's employer required him to move to an office in Orange County, Calif., he finally gave in and called real-estate agent Greg Markov, who specializes in short sales. "We reviewed the numbers and I told him, 'I got good news. I think this is going to be a breakeven thing and you might be able to walk away with some money,' " said Mr. Markov. Mr. Oropeza has a $105,000 offer on the home and expects to close the sale within two weeks.
While home prices are rising in most markets across the country, few have seen as big a rise as Phoenix, which was among the nation's hardest-hit markets during the bust. According to the closely watched Case-Shiller home-price index, prices in Phoenix jumped 23% in 2012.
Prices started to firm in Phoenix last year as investors poured into the market to buy heavily discounted homes for cash. Those gains have steeply reduced the inventory of homes for sale to just over two months' supply at the current sales pace, according to The Wall Street Journal's quarterly housing survey. The shortage has pushed prices even further by increasing buyer competition.
With so little inventory to sell, Luis Solis, a Phoenix real-estate agent, is hoping the home-equity revival will entice more sellers into the market. Mr. Solis recently printed up flyers that he plans to send to select homeowners in the downtown Phoenix area where he specializes. His pitch includes two similar homes that sold for more than the current residents paid. The message: If you think you're underwater, think again.
"There are people who just a couple years ago were 150 grand underwater, and depending on the price, they're even now," says Mr. Solis. "I want to get specific with people. This is a way to get their attention."
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323639604578368640417427444-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwOTExNDkyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email
Rising home values have lifted more borrowers out of the hole of owing more than their properties are worth, an encouraging sign for an economy still closely tied to the health of the housing market.
The number of "underwater" homeowners in the fourth quarter of 2012 declined by 1.7 million from a year earlier, meaning 1.7 million U.S. households have regained home equity, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic, CLGX -1.68% a research company. Overall, the company said 21.5% of households with a mortgage were underwater at the end of 2012, down from 25.2% at the end of 2011.
When consumers have equity in their homes, they feel more optimistic about their finances and become more likely to spend money on other goods and services, which helps boost the economy. Having equity also makes it easier for homeowners to take advantage of low interest rates by refinancing their mortgages, which frees up cash that can then be used on other items.
"Home equity is the biggest source of wealth, so if equity is increasing that has a very large effect on household spending and consumer psychology," said Sam Khater, an economist at CoreLogic, adding that this knock-on effect filters down to everyone from real-estate agents to furniture stores.
The declining number of underwater households is one of several changing housing trends that have made real estate a much bigger contributor to economic growth. After dragging on growth since 2006, the portion of gross domestic product that includes homebuilding contributed just over a quarter of a percentage point to the nation's growth last year.
"All the things that fed on the downside feed positively on the upside," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank DBK.XE +0.80% .
Of course, some newly above-water households are just barely at breakeven and therefore are a long way off from being able to change their finances in any significant way. And the overall ranks of those underwater remain large, at about 10.4 million, down from 12.1 million at the end of 2011, according to CoreLogic.
But for those whose lives were put on hold while their homes were upside down, moving above water has come as a huge relief.
Matthew Oropeza is one of them. In 2009, the 30-year-old business-systems analyst paid $96,000 for his Phoenix home. Over the next two years, he watched prices continue to fall, until similar homes in his area were selling for as low as $64,000.
 |
| Matthew Oropeza's Phoenix home |
Realizing he was underwater, and not wanting to lose his 15% down payment, Mr. Oropeza says he turned down a number of job opportunities in places including Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. "I decided I didn't want to short sell and I didn't want to take the loss," he says. "It was going to take a couple years of work just to pay the debt of the house so it was like, 'Am I really progressing here?' "
In December, after Mr. Oropeza's employer required him to move to an office in Orange County, Calif., he finally gave in and called real-estate agent Greg Markov, who specializes in short sales. "We reviewed the numbers and I told him, 'I got good news. I think this is going to be a breakeven thing and you might be able to walk away with some money,' " said Mr. Markov. Mr. Oropeza has a $105,000 offer on the home and expects to close the sale within two weeks.
While home prices are rising in most markets across the country, few have seen as big a rise as Phoenix, which was among the nation's hardest-hit markets during the bust. According to the closely watched Case-Shiller home-price index, prices in Phoenix jumped 23% in 2012.
Prices started to firm in Phoenix last year as investors poured into the market to buy heavily discounted homes for cash. Those gains have steeply reduced the inventory of homes for sale to just over two months' supply at the current sales pace, according to The Wall Street Journal's quarterly housing survey. The shortage has pushed prices even further by increasing buyer competition.With so little inventory to sell, Luis Solis, a Phoenix real-estate agent, is hoping the home-equity revival will entice more sellers into the market. Mr. Solis recently printed up flyers that he plans to send to select homeowners in the downtown Phoenix area where he specializes. His pitch includes two similar homes that sold for more than the current residents paid. The message: If you think you're underwater, think again.
"There are people who just a couple years ago were 150 grand underwater, and depending on the price, they're even now," says Mr. Solis. "I want to get specific with people. This is a way to get their attention."
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323639604578368640417427444-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwOTExNDkyWj.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
U.S. Foreclosure Starts Fall to Six-Year Low in January
IRVINE, Calif. -RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties and real estate data, released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for January 2013, which shows foreclosure filings- default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions- were reported on 150,864 U.S. properties in January, a decrease of 7 percent from the previous month and down 28 percent from January 2012. The report also shows one in every 869 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month.
"The U.S. foreclosure landscape in January as profoundly altered by the effects of new legislation that took effect in California on the first of the year," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. "Dubbed the Homeowners Bill of Rights, this legislation extends many of the principles in the national mortgage settlement - including a prohibition on so-called dual tracking and requiring a single point of contact for borrowers facing foreclosure - to all mortgage servicers operating in California. In addition the new law imposes fines of up to $7,500 per loan for filing of multiple unverified foreclosure documents. As a result, the downward foreclosure trend in California accelerated into hyper speed in January, decisively shifting the balance of power when it comes to the nation's foreclosure activity.
"For the first time since January 2007 California did not have the most properties with foreclosure filings of any state. Instead that dubious distinction went to Florida, where January foreclosure activity increased on an annual basis for the 11th time in the last 13 months."
High-level findings from the report:
U.S. foreclosure starts were down 11 percent from the previous month and down 28 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since June 2006 - a 79-month low.
U.S. bank repossessions (REO) decreased 5 percent from the previous month and were down 24 percent from January 2012 to the lowest level since January 2008.
The national decrease in foreclosure starts was caused in large part by a sharp drop in California notices of default (NOD) in January, down 62 percent from December and down 75 percent from January 2012 to the lowest level since October 2005.
Scheduled foreclosure auctions increased from the previous month in 26 states and the District of Columbia, hitting 12-month or more highs on several key judicial foreclosure states, including Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, although foreclosure starts were down on a year-over-year basis in Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Some of the biggest year-over-year increases in foreclosure starts came in non-judicial foreclosure states where legislation or court rulings stalled foreclosure actions last year: Arkansas (539 percent increase), Washington (179 percent increase), and Nevada (87 percent increase).
Florida posted the nation's highest state foreclosure rate for the fifth month in a row in January, and also had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings for the month, marking the first month since January 2007 that California has not had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings.
Florida, Nevada, Illinois post highest state foreclosure rates
The Florida foreclosure rate ranked highest among the states for the fifth month in a row. One in every 300 Florida housing units had a foreclosure filing in January- more than twice the national average. A total of 29,800 Florida properties had a foreclosure filing during the month, up 12 percent from the previous month and up 20 percent from January 2012.
With one in every 344 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, Nevada posted the nation's second highest foreclosure rate for the fourth consecutive month. Overall Nevada foreclosure activity decreased 43 percent from a year ago, but foreclosure starts (NODs) increased 19 percent from the previous month and were up 87 percent from January 2012 to a 16-month high.
A 32 percent month-per-month jump in scheduled foreclosures auctions helped Illinois foreclosure rates rise to third highest among the states in January. One in every 375 Illinois housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.
Other states with foreclosure rates among the nation's 10 highest were Arizona (one in 501 housing units with a foreclosure filing), Georgia (one in 513 housing units), Ohio (one in 612 housing units), Washington (one in 674 housing units), California (one in 753 housing units), Indiana (one in 784 housing units), and Michigan (one in every 837 housing units).
Florida cities account for six of top 10 metro foreclosure rates
With one in every 223 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, the Ocala, Fla., metro area posted the nation's highest foreclosure rate in January among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of 200,000 or more.
Five other Florida metro areas documented foreclosure rates in the top 10: Miami at No. 2 (one in 228 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Orlando at No. 3 (one in 241 housing units); Jacksonville at No. 8 (one in 301 housing units); Tampa at No. 9 (one in 307 housing units); and Lakeland at No. 10 (one in 332 housing units).
Other cities with foreclosure rates in the top 10 were Rockford, Ill., at No. 4 (one in 265 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Stockton, Calif., at No. 5 (one in 277 housing units); Las Vegas at No. 6 (one in 283 housing units); and Chicago at No. 7 (one in 293 housing units).
Source: http://www.realtytrac.com/content/foreclosure-market-report/us-foreclosure-market-report-january-2013-7596
"For the first time since January 2007 California did not have the most properties with foreclosure filings of any state. Instead that dubious distinction went to Florida, where January foreclosure activity increased on an annual basis for the 11th time in the last 13 months."
High-level findings from the report:
U.S. foreclosure starts were down 11 percent from the previous month and down 28 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since June 2006 - a 79-month low.
The national decrease in foreclosure starts was caused in large part by a sharp drop in California notices of default (NOD) in January, down 62 percent from December and down 75 percent from January 2012 to the lowest level since October 2005.
Scheduled foreclosure auctions increased from the previous month in 26 states and the District of Columbia, hitting 12-month or more highs on several key judicial foreclosure states, including Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, although foreclosure starts were down on a year-over-year basis in Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Florida posted the nation's highest state foreclosure rate for the fifth month in a row in January, and also had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings for the month, marking the first month since January 2007 that California has not had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings.
Florida, Nevada, Illinois post highest state foreclosure rates
The Florida foreclosure rate ranked highest among the states for the fifth month in a row. One in every 300 Florida housing units had a foreclosure filing in January- more than twice the national average. A total of 29,800 Florida properties had a foreclosure filing during the month, up 12 percent from the previous month and up 20 percent from January 2012.
With one in every 344 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, Nevada posted the nation's second highest foreclosure rate for the fourth consecutive month. Overall Nevada foreclosure activity decreased 43 percent from a year ago, but foreclosure starts (NODs) increased 19 percent from the previous month and were up 87 percent from January 2012 to a 16-month high.
A 32 percent month-per-month jump in scheduled foreclosures auctions helped Illinois foreclosure rates rise to third highest among the states in January. One in every 375 Illinois housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.
Other states with foreclosure rates among the nation's 10 highest were Arizona (one in 501 housing units with a foreclosure filing), Georgia (one in 513 housing units), Ohio (one in 612 housing units), Washington (one in 674 housing units), California (one in 753 housing units), Indiana (one in 784 housing units), and Michigan (one in every 837 housing units).
Florida cities account for six of top 10 metro foreclosure rates
With one in every 223 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, the Ocala, Fla., metro area posted the nation's highest foreclosure rate in January among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of 200,000 or more.
Five other Florida metro areas documented foreclosure rates in the top 10: Miami at No. 2 (one in 228 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Orlando at No. 3 (one in 241 housing units); Jacksonville at No. 8 (one in 301 housing units); Tampa at No. 9 (one in 307 housing units); and Lakeland at No. 10 (one in 332 housing units).
Other cities with foreclosure rates in the top 10 were Rockford, Ill., at No. 4 (one in 265 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Stockton, Calif., at No. 5 (one in 277 housing units); Las Vegas at No. 6 (one in 283 housing units); and Chicago at No. 7 (one in 293 housing units).
Source: http://www.realtytrac.com/content/foreclosure-market-report/us-foreclosure-market-report-january-2013-7596
Data Brokers Are Gathering Your Personal Info This Very Minute
They start with names and addresses, and add on demographics like age and race. And that's just the beginning.
By Lois Beckett, Salon.com
Data companies are scooping up enormous amounts of information about almost every American. They sell information about whether you’re pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you have.
Regulators and some in Congress have been taking a closer look at these so-called data brokers — and are beginning to push the companies to give consumers more information
and control over what happens to their data.
But many people still don’t even know that data brokers exist.
Here’s a look at what we know about the consumer data industry.
How much do these companies know about individual people?
They start with the basics, like names, addresses and contact information, and add on demographics, like age, race, occupation and “education level,” according to consumer data firm Acxiom’s overview of its various categories.
But that’s just the beginning: The companies collect lists of people experiencing “life-event triggers” like getting married, buying a home, sending a kid to college — or even getting divorced.
Credit reporting giant Experian has a separate marketing services division, which sells lists of “names of expectant parents and families with newborns” that are “updated weekly.”
The companies also collect data about your hobbies and many of the purchases you make. Want to buy a list of people who read romance novels? Epsilon can sell you that, as well as a list of people who donate to international aid charities.
A subsidiary of credit reporting company Equifax even collects detailed salary and paystub information for roughly 38 percent of employed Americans, as NBC news reported. As part of handling employee verification requests, the company gets the information directly from employers.
Equifax said in a statement that the information is only sold to customers “who have been verified through a detailed credentialing process.” It added that if a mortgage company or other lender wants to access information about your salary, they must obtain your permission to do so.
Of course, data companies typically don’t have all of this information on any one person. As Acxiom notes in its overview, “No individual record ever contains all the possible data.” And some of the data these companies sell is really just a guess about your background or preferences, based on the characteristics of your neighborhood, or other people in a similar age or demographic group.
Where are they getting all this info?
The stores where you shop sell it to them.
Datalogix, for instance, which collects information from store loyalty cards, says it has information on more than $1 trillion in consumer spending “across 1400+ leading brands.” It doesn’t say which ones. (Datalogix did not respond to our requests for comment.)
Data companies usually refuse to say exactly what companies sell them information, citing competitive reasons. And retailers also don’t make it easy for you to find out whether they’re selling your information.
But thanks to California’s “Shine the Light” law, researchers at U.C. Berkeley were able to get a small glimpse of how companies sell or share your data. The study recruited volunteers to ask more than 80 companies how the volunteers’ information was being shared.
Only two companies actually responded with details about how volunteers’ information had been shared. Upscale furniture store Restoration Hardware said that it had sent “your name, address and what you purchased” to seven other companies, including a data “cooperative” that allows retailers to pool data about customer transactions, and another company that later became part of Datalogix. (Restoration Hardware hasn’t responded to our request for comment.)
Walt Disney also responded and described sharing even more information: not just a person’s name and address and what they purchased, but their age, occupation, and the number, age and gender of their children. It listed companies that received data, among them companies owned by Disney, like ABC and ESPN, as well as others, including Honda, HarperCollins Publishing, Almay cosmetics, and yogurt company Dannon.
But Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha said that Disney’s letter, sent in 2007, “wasn’t clear” about how the data was actually shared with different companies on the list. Outside companies like Honda only received personal information as part of a contest, sweepstakes, or other joint promotion that they had done with Disney, Mucha said. The data was shared “for the fulfillment of that contest prize, not for their own marketing purposes.”
Where else do data brokers get information about me?
Government records and other publicly available information, including some sources that may surprise you. Your state Department of Motor Vehicles, for instance, may sell personal information — like your name, address, and the type of vehicles you own — to data companies, although only for certain permitted purposes, including identify verification.
Public voting records, which include information about your party registration and how often you vote, can also be bought and sold for commercial purposes in some states.
Are there limits to the kinds of data these companies can buy and sell?
Yes, certain kinds of sensitive data are protected — but much of your information can be bought and sold without any input from you.
Federal law protects the confidentiality of your medical records and your conversations with your doctor. There are also strict rules regarding the sale of information used to determine your credit-worthiness, or your eligibility for employment, insurance and housing. For instance, consumers have the right to view and correct their own credit reports, and potential employers have to ask for your consent before they buy a credit report about you.
Other than certain kinds of protected data — including medical records and data used for credit reports — consumers have no legal right to control or even monitor how information about them is bought and sold. As the FTC notes, “There are no current laws requiring data brokers to maintain the privacy of consumer data unless they use that data for credit, employment, insurance, housing, or other similar purposes.”
So they don’t sell information about my health?
Actually, they do.
Data companies can capture information about your “interests” in certain health conditions based on what you buy — or what you search for online. Datalogix has lists of people classified as “allergy sufferers” and “dieters.” Acxiom sells data on whether an individual has an “online search propensity” for a certain “ailment or prescription.”
Consumer data is also beginning to be used to evaluate whether you’re making healthy choices.
One health insurance company recently bought data on more than three million people’s consumer purchases in order to flag health-related actions, like purchasing plus-sized clothing, the Wall Street Journal reported. (The company bought purchasing information for current plan members, not as part of screening people for potential coverage.)
Spokeswoman Michelle Douglas said that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina would use the data to target free programming offers to their customers.
Douglas suggested that it might be more valuable for companies to use consumer data “to determine ways to help me improve my health” rather than “to buy my data to send me pre-paid credit card applications or catalogs full of stuff they want me to buy.”
Do companies collect information about my social media profiles and what I do online?
Yes.
As we highlighted last year, some data companies record — and then resell — all kinds of information you post online, including your screen names, website addresses, interests, hometown and professional history, and how many friends or followers you have.
Acxiom said it collects information about which social media sites individual people use, and “whether they are a heavy or a light user,” but that they do not collect information about “individual postings” or your “lists of friends.”
More traditional consumer data can also be connected with information about what you do online. Datalogix, the company that collects loyalty card data, has partnered with Facebook to track whether Facebook users who see ads for certain products actually end up buying them at local stores, as the Financial Times reported last year.
Is there a way to find out exactly what these data companies know about me?
Not really.
You have the right to review and correct your credit report. But with marketing data, there’s often no way to know exactly what information is attached to your name — or whether it’s accurate.
Most companies offer, at best, a partial picture.
While Acxiom lets consumers review some of the information the company sells about them, New York Times reporter Natasha Singer discovered this summer that only a sliver of information is shared, including whether you have a prison record or bankruptcy filings.
When Singer finally received her report, all it included was a record of her residential addresses.
Some companies do offer more access. A spokeswoman for Epsilon said it allows consumers to review “high level information” about their data — like whether or not you’re listed as making a purchase in the “home furnishings” category. (Requests to review this information cost $5 and can only be made by postal mail.)
RapLeaf, a company that advertises that it has “real-time data” on 80 percent of U.S. email addresses, says that it gives customers “total control over the data we have on you,” and allows them to review and edit the categories (like “estimated household income” and “Likely Political Contributor to Republicans”) that RapLeaf has connected with their email addresses.
How do I know when someone has purchased data about me?
Most of the time, you don’t.
When you’re checking out at a store and a cashier asks you for your Zip code, the store isn’t just getting that single piece of information. Acxiom and other data companies offer services that allow stores to use your Zip code and the name on your credit card to pinpoint your home address — without asking you for it directly.
Is there any way to stop the companies from collecting and sharing information about me?
Yes, but it would require a whole lot of work.
Many data brokers offer consumers the chance to “opt out” of being included in their databases, or at least from receiving advertising enabled by that company. Rapleaf, for instance, has a “Permanent opt-out” that “deletes information associated with your email address from the Rapleaf database.”
But to actually opt-out effectively, you need to know about all the different data brokers and where to find their opt-outs. Most consumers, of course, don’t have that information.
In their privacy report last year, the FTC suggested that data brokers should create a centralized website that would make it easier for consumers to learn about the existence of these companies and their rights regarding the data they collect.
How many people do these companies have information on?
Basically everyone in the U.S. and many beyond it. Acxiom, recently profiled by the New York Times, says it has information on 500 million people worldwide, including “nearly every U.S. consumer.”
After the 9/11 attacks, CNN reported, Acxiom was able to locate 11 of the 19 hijackers in its database.
How is all of this data actually used?
Mostly to sell you stuff. Companies want to buy lists of people who might be interested in what they’re selling — and also want to learn more about their current customers.
They also sell their information for other purposes, including identity verification, fraud prevention and background checks.
If new privacy laws are passed, will they include the right to see what data these companies have collected about me?
Unlikely.
In a report on privacy last year, the Federal Trade Commission recommended thatCongress pass legislation ”that would provide consumers with access to information about them held by a data broker.” President Barack Obama has also proposed aConsumer Privacy Bill of Rights that would give consumers the right to access and correct certain information about them.
But this probably won’t include access to marketing data, which the Federal Trade Commission considers less sensitive than data used for credit reports or identity verification.
In terms of marketing data, “we think at the very least consumers should have access to the general categories of data the companies have about consumers,” said Maneesha Mithal of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.
Data companies have also pushed back against the idea of opening up marketing profiles for individual consumers’ inspection.
Even if there were errors in your marketing data profile, “the worst thing that could happen is that you get an advertising offer that isn’t relevant to you,” said Rachel Thomas, the vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association.
“The fraud and security risks that you run by opening up those files is higher than any potential harm that could happen to the consumer,” Thomas said.
Source: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/how_much_do_data_brokers_know_about_you_partner/
By Lois Beckett, Salon.com
Regulators and some in Congress have been taking a closer look at these so-called data brokers — and are beginning to push the companies to give consumers more information
and control over what happens to their data.
But many people still don’t even know that data brokers exist.
Here’s a look at what we know about the consumer data industry.
How much do these companies know about individual people?
They start with the basics, like names, addresses and contact information, and add on demographics, like age, race, occupation and “education level,” according to consumer data firm Acxiom’s overview of its various categories.
But that’s just the beginning: The companies collect lists of people experiencing “life-event triggers” like getting married, buying a home, sending a kid to college — or even getting divorced.
Credit reporting giant Experian has a separate marketing services division, which sells lists of “names of expectant parents and families with newborns” that are “updated weekly.”
The companies also collect data about your hobbies and many of the purchases you make. Want to buy a list of people who read romance novels? Epsilon can sell you that, as well as a list of people who donate to international aid charities.
A subsidiary of credit reporting company Equifax even collects detailed salary and paystub information for roughly 38 percent of employed Americans, as NBC news reported. As part of handling employee verification requests, the company gets the information directly from employers.
Equifax said in a statement that the information is only sold to customers “who have been verified through a detailed credentialing process.” It added that if a mortgage company or other lender wants to access information about your salary, they must obtain your permission to do so.
Of course, data companies typically don’t have all of this information on any one person. As Acxiom notes in its overview, “No individual record ever contains all the possible data.” And some of the data these companies sell is really just a guess about your background or preferences, based on the characteristics of your neighborhood, or other people in a similar age or demographic group.
Where are they getting all this info?
The stores where you shop sell it to them.
Datalogix, for instance, which collects information from store loyalty cards, says it has information on more than $1 trillion in consumer spending “across 1400+ leading brands.” It doesn’t say which ones. (Datalogix did not respond to our requests for comment.)
Data companies usually refuse to say exactly what companies sell them information, citing competitive reasons. And retailers also don’t make it easy for you to find out whether they’re selling your information.
But thanks to California’s “Shine the Light” law, researchers at U.C. Berkeley were able to get a small glimpse of how companies sell or share your data. The study recruited volunteers to ask more than 80 companies how the volunteers’ information was being shared.
Only two companies actually responded with details about how volunteers’ information had been shared. Upscale furniture store Restoration Hardware said that it had sent “your name, address and what you purchased” to seven other companies, including a data “cooperative” that allows retailers to pool data about customer transactions, and another company that later became part of Datalogix. (Restoration Hardware hasn’t responded to our request for comment.)
Walt Disney also responded and described sharing even more information: not just a person’s name and address and what they purchased, but their age, occupation, and the number, age and gender of their children. It listed companies that received data, among them companies owned by Disney, like ABC and ESPN, as well as others, including Honda, HarperCollins Publishing, Almay cosmetics, and yogurt company Dannon.
But Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha said that Disney’s letter, sent in 2007, “wasn’t clear” about how the data was actually shared with different companies on the list. Outside companies like Honda only received personal information as part of a contest, sweepstakes, or other joint promotion that they had done with Disney, Mucha said. The data was shared “for the fulfillment of that contest prize, not for their own marketing purposes.”
Where else do data brokers get information about me?
Government records and other publicly available information, including some sources that may surprise you. Your state Department of Motor Vehicles, for instance, may sell personal information — like your name, address, and the type of vehicles you own — to data companies, although only for certain permitted purposes, including identify verification.
Public voting records, which include information about your party registration and how often you vote, can also be bought and sold for commercial purposes in some states.
Are there limits to the kinds of data these companies can buy and sell?
Yes, certain kinds of sensitive data are protected — but much of your information can be bought and sold without any input from you.
Federal law protects the confidentiality of your medical records and your conversations with your doctor. There are also strict rules regarding the sale of information used to determine your credit-worthiness, or your eligibility for employment, insurance and housing. For instance, consumers have the right to view and correct their own credit reports, and potential employers have to ask for your consent before they buy a credit report about you.
Other than certain kinds of protected data — including medical records and data used for credit reports — consumers have no legal right to control or even monitor how information about them is bought and sold. As the FTC notes, “There are no current laws requiring data brokers to maintain the privacy of consumer data unless they use that data for credit, employment, insurance, housing, or other similar purposes.”
So they don’t sell information about my health?
Actually, they do.
Data companies can capture information about your “interests” in certain health conditions based on what you buy — or what you search for online. Datalogix has lists of people classified as “allergy sufferers” and “dieters.” Acxiom sells data on whether an individual has an “online search propensity” for a certain “ailment or prescription.”
Consumer data is also beginning to be used to evaluate whether you’re making healthy choices.
One health insurance company recently bought data on more than three million people’s consumer purchases in order to flag health-related actions, like purchasing plus-sized clothing, the Wall Street Journal reported. (The company bought purchasing information for current plan members, not as part of screening people for potential coverage.)
Spokeswoman Michelle Douglas said that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina would use the data to target free programming offers to their customers.
Douglas suggested that it might be more valuable for companies to use consumer data “to determine ways to help me improve my health” rather than “to buy my data to send me pre-paid credit card applications or catalogs full of stuff they want me to buy.”
Do companies collect information about my social media profiles and what I do online?
Yes.
As we highlighted last year, some data companies record — and then resell — all kinds of information you post online, including your screen names, website addresses, interests, hometown and professional history, and how many friends or followers you have.
Acxiom said it collects information about which social media sites individual people use, and “whether they are a heavy or a light user,” but that they do not collect information about “individual postings” or your “lists of friends.”
More traditional consumer data can also be connected with information about what you do online. Datalogix, the company that collects loyalty card data, has partnered with Facebook to track whether Facebook users who see ads for certain products actually end up buying them at local stores, as the Financial Times reported last year.
Is there a way to find out exactly what these data companies know about me?
Not really.
You have the right to review and correct your credit report. But with marketing data, there’s often no way to know exactly what information is attached to your name — or whether it’s accurate.
Most companies offer, at best, a partial picture.
While Acxiom lets consumers review some of the information the company sells about them, New York Times reporter Natasha Singer discovered this summer that only a sliver of information is shared, including whether you have a prison record or bankruptcy filings.
When Singer finally received her report, all it included was a record of her residential addresses.
Some companies do offer more access. A spokeswoman for Epsilon said it allows consumers to review “high level information” about their data — like whether or not you’re listed as making a purchase in the “home furnishings” category. (Requests to review this information cost $5 and can only be made by postal mail.)
RapLeaf, a company that advertises that it has “real-time data” on 80 percent of U.S. email addresses, says that it gives customers “total control over the data we have on you,” and allows them to review and edit the categories (like “estimated household income” and “Likely Political Contributor to Republicans”) that RapLeaf has connected with their email addresses.
How do I know when someone has purchased data about me?
Most of the time, you don’t.
When you’re checking out at a store and a cashier asks you for your Zip code, the store isn’t just getting that single piece of information. Acxiom and other data companies offer services that allow stores to use your Zip code and the name on your credit card to pinpoint your home address — without asking you for it directly.
Is there any way to stop the companies from collecting and sharing information about me?
Yes, but it would require a whole lot of work.
Many data brokers offer consumers the chance to “opt out” of being included in their databases, or at least from receiving advertising enabled by that company. Rapleaf, for instance, has a “Permanent opt-out” that “deletes information associated with your email address from the Rapleaf database.”
But to actually opt-out effectively, you need to know about all the different data brokers and where to find their opt-outs. Most consumers, of course, don’t have that information.
In their privacy report last year, the FTC suggested that data brokers should create a centralized website that would make it easier for consumers to learn about the existence of these companies and their rights regarding the data they collect.
How many people do these companies have information on?
Basically everyone in the U.S. and many beyond it. Acxiom, recently profiled by the New York Times, says it has information on 500 million people worldwide, including “nearly every U.S. consumer.”
After the 9/11 attacks, CNN reported, Acxiom was able to locate 11 of the 19 hijackers in its database.
How is all of this data actually used?
Mostly to sell you stuff. Companies want to buy lists of people who might be interested in what they’re selling — and also want to learn more about their current customers.
They also sell their information for other purposes, including identity verification, fraud prevention and background checks.
If new privacy laws are passed, will they include the right to see what data these companies have collected about me?
Unlikely.
In a report on privacy last year, the Federal Trade Commission recommended thatCongress pass legislation ”that would provide consumers with access to information about them held by a data broker.” President Barack Obama has also proposed aConsumer Privacy Bill of Rights that would give consumers the right to access and correct certain information about them.
But this probably won’t include access to marketing data, which the Federal Trade Commission considers less sensitive than data used for credit reports or identity verification.
In terms of marketing data, “we think at the very least consumers should have access to the general categories of data the companies have about consumers,” said Maneesha Mithal of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.
Data companies have also pushed back against the idea of opening up marketing profiles for individual consumers’ inspection.
Even if there were errors in your marketing data profile, “the worst thing that could happen is that you get an advertising offer that isn’t relevant to you,” said Rachel Thomas, the vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association.
“The fraud and security risks that you run by opening up those files is higher than any potential harm that could happen to the consumer,” Thomas said.
Source: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/how_much_do_data_brokers_know_about_you_partner/
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)