Daily Business Report-May 10, 2017
Compared to April 2016, sales of existing homes were down by 13 percent.
Lack of Inventory Holds Back
Existing Home Sales in April
Home sales in April struggled against a lack of supply, but prices remained strong, according to housing statistics compiled from the Multiple Listing Service by the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors.
Single-family home sales in April fell 7 percent compared to March, while condominiums and townhomes (attached properties) slowed by more than 4 percent. Compared to April 2016, sales of existing homes were down by 13 percent.
The median price of single-family homes, on the other hand, took a 4 percent jump in April, and is within reach of the $600,000 benchmark. Condos and townhomes are holding around $385,000. The year-over-year price increase is 7 percent for all property types.
The trend seems to be more buyers than sellers, given the fact that sales prices are going up while the number of days a house is on the market continues to drop. In April, single-family homes were selling in an average of 29 days, while condos and townhomes closed in only 23 days.
“Although there is a mounting buyer competition this spring, buyer demand has not abated, nor is it expected to in the immediate future,” said SDAR President Bob Kevane. “While strong demand is generally considered a good problem to have, it creates an affordability issue for many buyers.”
In April, the ZIP codes in San Diego County with the most single-family home sales were:
- 92028 (Fallbrook) with 65
- 92057 (Oceanside North) with 58
- 92127 (Rancho Bernardo West) with 56
- 92009 (Carlsbad Southeast) with 50
- 92065 (Ramona) with 49
The most expensive property sold in the county last month was an 8,250-square-foot, five-bedroom, seven-bath newly built estate in Rancho Santa Fe, with a price of $10.6 million.
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Port of San Diego to Hold Open House
on Port Master Plan Update on Thursday
The Port of San Diego is inviting the public to a second open house on the Port Master Plan Update to be held Thursday at 6 p.m. at the National City Aquatic Center, 3300 Goesno Place, National City.
This outreach is part of the port’s Integrated Planning initiative that spans 6,000 acres of land and water with the goal of setting a blueprint for future baywide planning and development.
The open house will provide an opportunity for the public and stakeholders to get an update on the proposed draft goals for the Planning Districts and the Mobility Element and Economic Development Element that were presented to the Board of Port Commissioners on April 27.
Click here for more information on the open house.
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Edico Genome Raises $22 Million
San Diego-based Edico Genome announced that it has raised $22 million in a Series B financing to expand market adoption and product development of its DRAGEN platform, an end-to-end solution for analysis of next-generation sequencing data. New investor Dell Technologies Capital, the venture arm of Dell Technologies, led the round and all existing investors participated, including Qualcomm Ventures, Axon Ventures and life sciences industry executive Greg Lucier.
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SBA Unveils Funding Opportunity
for Firms that Offer Veteran Training
The Small Business Administration has launched a funding competition for nonprofit and private organizations that provide federal procurement training to veteran-owned small businesses(VOSBs) and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs).
SBA said the Veteran Federal Procurement Entrepreneurship Training Program will issue up to $500,000 in funds to help organizations administer existing federal procurement entrepreneurship training programs for VOSBs and SDVOSBs.
The program also aims to boost the capacity of VOSBs and SDVOSBs to vie for and win government contracts.
SBA expects to award a cooperative agreement with a one-year base period and three one-year option periods under the program.
The agency’s office of veterans business development will hold a webinar May 24 to discuss the funding competition with interested parties.
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Invested Advisors Launches Invested Traveler
and Journey Model of Workforce Engagement
Invested Traveler, a new division of Invested Advisors Inc., has launched its custom-curated travel program called The Journey Model of Workforce Engagement.
The program was developed to help companies attract highly-qualified recruits, increase employee retention and productivity, and reward top performers. These are all key factors known to increase workforce engagement, advance corporate culture and bolster financial results.
Since launching Invested Advisors in 2016, several clients were in need of solutions to differentiate them from competitors and go beyond financial compensation and traditional incentive programs. The need in the marketplace led to the development of Invested Traveler and The Journey Model of Workforce Engagement.
“The Invested Traveler team works with each business to develop custom-curated experiential travel programs that are fun, educational and designed to spark innovation and creativity,” said Crystal Sargent, president of Invested Traveler and CEO and the parent company, Invested Advisors. “As the economy continues to improve and the need for talent increases, CEO’s are tasked with attracting and retaining top talent. Drawing on the expertise of Invested Traveler enables business leaders to provide an unparalleled work environment, one-of-a-kind travel experiences and draw the best from their most valuable assets: their team.”
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Author and Filmmaker to Keynote
Second Chance May 20 Fundraiser
Second Chance announces their second annual Orange is the New Black benefit on Saturday, May 20, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Qualcomm Hall. The keynote speaker will be acclaimed author and filmmaker Mitchell S. Jackson.
This year’s fundraising event – Orange is the New Black: Teens Behind Bars – will explain how youth fall into crime and addiction, the cost of juvenile incarceration to our community and how Second Chance provides impactful, successful, cost–efficient programming to keep youth out of the adult system and headed toward a positive future. The benefit will focus on issues surrounding justice-involved youth and Second Chance youth programs.
Keynote speaker Mitchell S. Jackson’s award-winning debut novel, “The Residue Years,” has been made into a documentary film. Jackson now teaches writing at NYU and Columbia.
Tickets for the 2017 Orange is the New Black Season 2 are $150 (VIP reception & speaker meet and greet), $100 (student VIP), $75 (general admission & food court), and $30 for students.
For tickets and more information click here
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Personnel Announcements
Valin Brown Named CEO of Alliant Educational Foundation
The Alliant Educational Foundation has named Valin Brown as its new chief executive officer. AEF is a nonprofit organization that partners with Alliant International University and other institutions of higher education to provide funding and resources to support student scholarships and faculty research grants.
Brown was hired to lead the organization in outreach to foundations, corporations, individuals and the community at-large, forming strategic partnerships, and helping increase the amount of support AEF provides.
As CEO, Brown will also be responsible for maintaining AEF’s relationship with Alliant International University.
Brown has more than 15 years experience managing education-related nonprofits. He most recently served as senior vice president and chief development officer for United Way of San Diego County, overseeing all fundraising, marketing and volunteer engagement efforts. He spent six years as chief executive officer for the Carlsbad Educational Foundation, and another six as executive director for Colorado Bright Beginnings in Denver. Brown previously served as regional manager for the Metro Denver Bright Beginnings/Mile High United Way, and manager of community initiatives for United Way of Knoxville in Tennessee.
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Telemundo 20 San Diego Launches July 1
Telemundo 20 San Diego will officially launch on Saturday, July 1, with a special 30-minute program, “Telemundo 20, tu nuevo noticiero” (“Telemundo 20, your new newscast”) at 6 p.m. that will feature interviews with the station’s news anchors and reporters and give local audiences a behind-the-scenes look at launch-day preparations in advance of the news team’s on-air debut on Monday, July 3. The announcement was made by The Telemundo Station Group.
Telemundo 20 will air its first-ever weekday local newscasts, “Noticiero Telemundo 20” at 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on July 3. Telemundo 20 will provide audiences in the San Diego and Baja California area in Mexico the local news, weather and sports information.
Locally, Telemundo 20 (call sign KNSD-D3) will be available to cable subscribers in San Diego on channel 20 and over-the-air reception will be available on channel 39.20 (satellite subscribers should check local listings).
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Intel wows Xponential with hard facts, helpful robots, entertaining drones
By Nick Adde | AUVSI News
Relying upon a mix of dazzle and hard facts, Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich used his Tuesday keynote speech for AUVSI’s Xponential 2017 as a platform to outline in crystal clear terms how unmanned systems — and the data they collect — are shaping the future.
“Data is the new oil,” Krzanich says, after dispatching Loomo, the robot-vehicle developed jointly by Intel and Segway Inc., that brought him to the stage, to fetch him a bottle of water.
Speaking to an audience of UAS industry leaders and key players, Krzanich says that when time for driverless cars and aircraft becomes commonplace, the most important aspect of the vehicles would be the data they collect, not their performance.
Today, Krzanich says, “Online people have data that brick-and-mortar people don’t. The number of devices tied to the cloud is exponentially increasing.”
The ever-increasing amount of data collected and shipped to the cloud for analysis will provide the backbone for commerce and government operations for generations to come, Krzanich believes.
He also scoffs at any notion that the amount of data being collected will peak. To the contrary, he says, “It will be much larger than you can imagine today. The data rate is going to explode on us in the next few years. This is an opportunity, not a problem.”
Work on creating robotic systems that emulate human behavior continues apace, Krzanich says. The devices are learning how to emulate human vision and instantly map a room when they enter, enabling them to avoid obstacles. They can lock onto a feature such as a human face or pair of eyes and track the feature as they navigate.
“The next decade will bring massive innovations. A refrigerator will have ‘eyes’ that allow it to look out and ‘see’ who is in the kitchen. They’ll become more autonomous, but really more smart,” Krzanich says. “They will have the ability to make decisions.”
During one highlight of Krzanich’s presentation, an Intel Falcon 8+ drone conducted a simulated inspection of a mock bridge within minutes, a project that would take hours or days for human inspectors, at considerably more risk to life and limb.
Krzanich also outlined an arrangement between Intel and Airbus, which would foster the use of drones to conduct aircraft inspections.
“Aircraft inspection takes hours of time for humans, and airplanes have to be inspected regularly for cracks and defects. It’s now a manual system, with people having to climb all over the plane,” Krzanich says.
The same Falcon 8+ drone, equipped with appropriate payloads, could identify defects, including specifics about their size and proportion, for repair teams to quickly address.
He also addressed the potential uses in natural disasters, and other aspects where UAS can be used for the public good.
“Natural disasters are disruptive and costly. Flooding is one of the most expensive, costly and dangerous disasters. It’s difficult to recover from for a society or community,” Krzanich says.
“Automated systems — like we’ve been talking about all morning — are on the leading edge” of providing relief to stricken areas, he says.
Rescue and recovery operations that took days to execute could be carried out by UAS in a matter of hours, with software and payloads that can identify locations of possible victims in enough time for their lives to be saved.
“I believe this industry, with partners, can deliver that — easily,” Krzanich says.
He closed his keynote with a bit of fun, as a group of Intel Shooting Star drones flew around the mock bridge and then formed an X for Xponential.
AUVSI