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Business Today

By Times Wire
Published March 2, 2005

DEDUCTIBLE PAYBACKS UNDERUSED: Barring a last-minute surge, it appears a large number of Florida property owners have bypassed a chance to be reimbursed for paying more than one hurricane insurance deductible last season. A state law passed after the four-hurricane barrage lets policyholders apply for reimbursement of any amount charged in excess of the first deductible, capped at $10,000 for damage caused by two hurricanes or $20,000 for damage caused by three or more hurricanes. As Tuesday's deadline passed, nearly 31,000 people had applied. So far, the state has made 14,343 payments totaling $20-million. The Legislature set aside up to $150-million for the program. "We anticipate receiving additional applications since they had to be postmarked March 1," said Tami Torres, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Financial Services.

CARBIZ EXPANDING: Carbiz Inc. of Sarasota will open an auto credit center in the Tampa Bay area in May and add four more centers elsewhere around the state within five years as part of an expansion fueled by a new joint venture agreement. Carbiz, which offers auto financing to consumers with poor credit, already operates a credit center in Palmetto and one in St. Petersburg and it markets tax-refund anticipation loans in a Clearwater facility.

HOUSE PRICES RISE IN 2004: U.S. house prices rose in 2004 at the fastest clip in 25 years, despite a slowdown in the last three months of the year, according to the government's most closely watched barometer of the housing boom. The average price of a single-family home financed through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac climbed 11.2 percent over the course of 2004, the highest annual rate since 1979, federal regulators said Tuesday. The growth rate for the fourth quarter, however, was just 1.7 percent - barely a third of the rate for the previous three months.

MANUFACTURING KEEPS GROWING: The manufacturing sector grew at a slower pace for the third consecutive month in February, though after 21 consecutive months of expansion economists remain confident that the broader trend will continue. The Institute for Supply Management, a private research group, said Tuesday that its index measuring manufacturing activity declined to 55.3 in February from a reading of 56.4 in January. A reading of 50 or above in the index means the manufacturing sector is expanding. In other economic news, the government reported Tuesday that construction spending rose a strong 0.7 percent in January as low mortgage rates continued to bolster home building and nonresidential construction climbed to the highest level in more than two years.

SPAMMER SENTENCED: A Daytona Beach man was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to sending millions of unsolicited e-mail messages, said BellSouth Corp., the phone company whose Internet services were used to transmit the mail. Charles Frye also must serve six years of probation, BellSouth said in a statement. BellSouth, the No. 3 U.S. local-telephone company, EarthLink Inc. and other service providers are stepping up efforts to combat the spread of unsolicited e-mail.

[Last modified March 2, 2005, 00:48:58]