UPI NewsTrack Business

Home builders try extras to lure customers

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A glut in homes for sale is prompting Washington, D.C.-area home builders to offer extras to snag customers.

Daniel Oppenheim, an analyst with Banc of America Securities, said he's seen freebies worth up to 5 percent of a sales price.

That includes kitchen upgrades, interest rate locks and coverage of closing costs or mortgage payments.

There are more than twice the number of homes for sale this year than last.

So deals, like a $40,000 break on a $500,000 American University dorm turned condo, are becoming popular.

Kenneth Wenhold of MetroStudy, a real estate research company, said the incentives began shortly after new construction interest dropped 30 percent this year.

Some companies have opted for those unrelated to housing, like free 42-inch TVs and golf memberships.

Others, like six months of heat, free finished basements or $5,000 for window coverings, go with the house.

Citigroup top bidder for Chinese bank

SANYA, China, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Citigroup may become the first foreign company to have majority control of a state-owned Chinese bank.

The New York Times reports Citigroup and co-investors offered the top bid for 85 percent of the Guangdong Development Bank, $3 billion.

Foreign investment in Chinese banks has been on the rise this year despite troubles in its state industry.

The Chinese government has put billions of dollars into overcoming corruption, mismanagement and loans-gone-sour.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch and other investors bought 10 percent of the Bank of China for $3.1 billion in August.

In October Bank of America spent $3 billion for 9 percent of the China Construction Bank, a team of Goldman Sachs, Allianz of Germany and American Express are negotiating a $3 billion deal with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest state-owned bank.

Citigroup has not been a major player in that investment until now.

It had previously only owned a 4.6 percent stake in the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank but announced this week it would spend $800 million for another 15.3 percent.

Surfboard shortage drives costs up

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Surfboard makers struggle with high demand and low supply more than three weeks after a market leader called it quits.

Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based Clark Foam was the maker of 60 percent of the world's surfboard blanks -- the foam cores fashioned into boards -- until it closed shop Dec. 5, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Owner Gordon "Grubby" Clark said government regulators made it too hard to turn a profit, an accusation they deny.

So now outfits like Walker Foam Inc., and other, smaller blank manufacturers, have more orders than they can fill.

Harold Walker was one of the pioneers of foam surfboards, once made from balsa wood.

Walker went out of business in 1973 and started up again in 1990 but has had a rough-go since then.

He said he "could sell thousands of blanks right now," but he can't produce them fast enough.

He's added a second shift, hiring many former Clark employees.

Prices for boards have jumped more than $100 with the supply problems.