WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Liquidators nationwide already are reselling the millions of dollars in gifts returned after each holiday.

Liquidators take returned, damaged and unsold products from retailers and resell them to other merchants, who sell the merchandise back to consumers, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Saturday.

An estimated 36 percent of consumers returned a gift last holiday season, a survey by the National Retail Federation said.

Liquidators sell unwanted merchandise to small stores, discount retailers, eBay power sellers and exporters, said Dale Rogers, director of the Center for Logistics Management at the University of Nevada at Reno, who estimates the market for those goods in the United States totaled $223 billion last year.

"Today, because there are so many secondary markets for things, you can drain stuff out of the system and not get hurt as badly," Rogers told the Post.

British housing market weakens

LONDON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Home prices in Britain are deteriorating and houses are taking longer to sell than than at any time in the last seven years.

Prices fell in 0.8 percent in November and 0.5 percent in December -- the first two consecutive months of price drops since August 2000 -- said Britain's Nationwide Building Society, warning the housing market likely will continue to deteriorate next year, The Telegraph reported Saturday.

Home prices rose 4.8 percent for 2007, the lowest annual price inflation in 19 months.

The Society's report will increase pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates in an attempt to stimulate the housing market, the Telegraph reported.

Halifax, Britain's largest mortgage lender, last week reported the number of first-time home buyers in the United Kingdom had fallen to its lowest level since 1980.

Chicago gives Trump hotel the go-ahead

CHICAGO, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Chicago officials granted Trump International Hotel and Tower a permit to occupy the hotel portion of the $775 million downtown project after weeks of delays.

The Chicago Department of Buildings permit allows occupation of the 339-unit hotel portion of the condo skyscraper that begins four floors underground and reaches to the 23rd floor of the building.

"We're glad to have this done and excited to get the hotel up and running," Donald Trump Jr., of the Trump Organization, told the Chicago Tribune.

The permit allows Trump to notify buyers they can close on their units beginning in late January.

Real estate observers will closely watch the pending closures amid a poor real estate market.

Former Sears chairman Brennan dies

CHICAGO, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Former Sears, Roebuck and Co., chairman Edward Brennan has died at his home in Illinois at the age of 73.

Brennan died Thursday night in Burr Ridge after a brief illness, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

Brennan helped build Sears into a financial conglomerate for insurance, investment services and real estate transactions in the 1980s and then sold off most of those companies in the 1990s, generating large returns for investors, the Tribune reported.

After retiring from Sears in 1995, Brennan remained active in the corporate world and helped American Airlines avoid bankruptcy in 2003 when he became American's executive chairman and president. Brennan also served on the boards of 3M Co., Exelon Corp. (NYSE:EXC), McDonald's Corp., and Rush University Medical Center and as chairman of DePaul University and Marquette University.

Brennan is survived by his wife, Lois, and six children.