Daily Archives: Dec. 8, 2008

Quintiles executive bullish on Kansas

A vice president at Quintiles, the world’s largest clinical research organization, has a pretty positive view of Kansas’ spot in the world of economic development in a story in Site Selection magazine.

Quintiles, which employs 22,000 people in 50 countries, has about 900 people working at its 236,000-square-foot complex in Overland Park. It moved to OP from KCMO in 2006.

The article also talks about the Economic Revitalization and Reinvestment Act the governor signed this year to land Cessna’s new Columbus plant and mentions Kansas’ favorable position in several business climate rankings.

From the article:

“Kansas is a very progressive state. It works hard to put together an environment and financial incentives that make this a very good place to be –- a place where you can be prosperous and grow,” McDermott says.

Good news, bad news on foreclosures

Another interesting tidbit from the First American CoreLogic report for the fourth quarter: while home price continue to decline nationally (mostly on the coasts, Florida and Great Lakes), the declines are no longer accelerating. That probably indicates that, finally, we’re approaching bottom.

The bad news is that while the falling prices may become less of a factor in causing people to default on their mortgages, job losses and recession are just getting going.

What happens in Vegas…

apparently just evaporates in the bright desert sunlight. First American CoreLogic reports that as of October, 48 percent of all Nevada homes with a mortgage had negative equity.

And boring ol’ Wichita was ranked 323rd on the list. These days, a boring economy, like a boring airplane flight, is an underappreciated blessing.