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The week that was: Counting notices
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Counting notices
Pennsylvania has stayed off one list you don't want to be on. RealtyTrac released the list of the 100 ZIP codes in America with the highest number of foreclosures and none from the Keystone State are on the list. Our good luck even seemed to rub off: The closest city in proximity to Pittsburgh on the list was Detroit, followed by Charlotte, N.C.
Many of the cities are concentrated in the same states -- Georgia, Florida and Illinois represented a bulk of the list. The Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville, Ga. took the "top" spot, with about 13 percent of all homes receiving a notice in the last year. But overall the analysts had some good news to report: Notices nationwide were down 3 percent from last year.
Quote of the week
"Handle the problem below the surface and keep the image of the sport clean. In the U.S. sports -- baseball, basketball, football -- most fans couldn't care less."
-- New York investment banker and sports financier Thomas Weisel, speaking to The Wall Street Journal in 2008 about performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports. Mr. Weisel's words came back to haunt him this week, when Lance Armstrong -- the cyclist whose meteoric rise he helped bankroll -- admitted to taking such drugs.
Late presents
We know how to kick the new year off here in the Business Section -- with earnings reports! The troves of financial data that come but once a quarter were piling up this week, with banks that have ties to Pittsburgh reporting profits that point to an auspicious 2013 for the financial institutions.
PNC's fourth-quarter profit went up 47 percent from last year to hit $664 million, and BNY Mellon's inched up 23 percent to $622 million. PNC CEO Jim Rohr attributed part of his company's rise to an expansion to markets in the southeast, and said the bank was awaiting regulatory approval to raise its common stock dividend. BNY Mellon, meanwhile, said a credit in its loan loss provision helped with the boost.
Ticket to cricket?
When the Post-Gazette's Mark Belko began work this week on a story about the Pittsburgh airport's list of new possible destinations, our social media mavens asked Facebook fans what cities they thought the airport should pursue.
Glamorous environs topped the list -- San Francisco and London were among the top spots.
Earning one vote: The Cricket Lounge, an adult entertainment nightclub in North Oakland. You laugh, but it's as popular a place as Tucson, Ariz., in our poll.
First Published January 20, 2013 12:00 am
