Home Archives - Delron-Buckley

JC Penney adds new home brands in time for a hopeful holiday exit from bankruptcy

October 13, 20201 min read

Even with its bankruptcy exit still not final, J.C. Penney is attracting new national brands to get ready for a holiday shopping season that’ll begin earlier than usual.

J. C. Penney at Collin Creek Mall in Plano last year during the holiday shopping season. That store is still open but is among the 150 stores closing soon.

© Nathan Hunsinger/Dallas Morning News/TNS
J. C. Penney at Collin Creek Mall in Plano last year during the holiday shopping season. That store is still open but is among the 150 stores closing soon.

Penney’s new brands are mostly in its home department, which is where Americans have been spending money during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Load Error

Penney plans to exit bankruptcy this year so it has to stay in the game. It responded to Amazon Prime Day with its own Cyber Days Monday through Wednesday.

Retailers including Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others are moving up Black Friday discounts to compete with Prime Day. The two-day Prime Day was delayed from its usual mid-summer dates as even Amazon was overwhelmed with

insurance

We Like Our Health Insurance And Working From Home

October 13, 20201 min read

Jan Dubauskas is the Vice President of Healthinsurance.com.

We have experienced a lot of change throughout the course of the pandemic that has required us to reconsider our priorities and become nimble in the way we work and how we reach out to our clients. Many were skeptical that these changes would lead to similar productivity. However, as we prioritize our health during the pandemic, working from home has become important, and many (24%, according to CNBC) have adapted so well that they want to keep doing it.

When we first started working from home, the primary concern for many was to set up an office, retain camaraderie, and continue meeting with clients. During the spring, as I watched as annual springtime conferences got canceled or sent to an online format, I keenly felt the void previously filled by those intense social interactions. It seemed that with a bit

insurance

Is Home Insurance Required When You Buy a House?

October 13, 20201 min read

If you’re buying a home, one question you might wonder is this: Is home insurance required when you own a house?

In many cases, homeowners insurance is indeed mandatory—and even in cases where it isn’t absolutely necessary, it’s still a good idea. To help you understand why, we’ve put together this Home Buyer’s Guide to Home Insurance, which will help walk you through what you need to know from beginning to end.

In this first article, we’ll introduce you to what homeowners insurance is, why it’s often essential, and what can go wrong if you don’t have it.

What is homeowners insurance?

With home insurance, as with other types of coverage (including health insurance), you pay a relatively small amount of money either monthly or annually in exchange for the promise that your provider will help you pay for unexpected costs you might incur as a homeowner.

What can

insurance

Your next home insurance rate increase is going to be a whopper

October 10, 20201 min read

South Florida homeowners are about to get hit with insurance rate increases unlike any other we’ve ever experienced.

Load Error

We’re talking as much as 30% to 40% over what you are paying now and price hikes of $1,000 or more for your next year of coverage.

Insurers have been warning for years that these increases would hit us hard. And now they’re here, thanks to years of rising claims abuses, court-clogging litigation, spiraling costs from hurricanes Irma and Michael, and one of the most active seasons in memory for severe and destructive weather.

When Weston resident Ruth Bettini opened her insurance renewal notice in September, “I almost died of shock,” she said. The annual premium to insure her $550,000 house with Orlando-based St. Johns Insurance Co. had increased by 28% — from $4,647 last year to $5,946 for the term beginning Oct. 1. That’s $108.25 more per month.

She

money

Keeping Money at Home Can Be Costly for Investors

October 9, 20201 min read

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Most investors don’t typically get the opportunity to emulate the strategies of the world’s biggest asset managers. The recent announcement that the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest with $1.1 trillion, wants to increase its allocation to North American stocks should be a wake-up call for equity holders who ignore overseas shares — with investors from one nation in particular needing to pay attention.

Load Error

The tendency for investors to allocate too much of their capital in their home markets is called domestic bias and is a well-known phenomenon. For U.K. investors who’ve stuck with indigenous equities in recent years, this proclivity has cost them dearly.

The U.K. investment industry manages about 8.5 trillion pounds ($11 trillion), more than three-quarters of which is on behalf of local customers, according to figures compiled by the Investment Association, a trade body. For the past five years, the

personal

Abe Atiyeh pitches personal care home for Bethlehem parcel where psychiatric hospital and Lidl grocery store were proposed

October 9, 20201 min read

Saying that he’s keeping his options open, developer Abe Aityeh presented plans for a 175-bed personal care home at 1838 Center St., a grassy parcel on the corner of Dewberry Avenue where Atiyeh has also proposed a psychiatric hospital, apartment complex, and most recently a Lidl grocery store.

Load Error

The layout of the facility is essentially the same footprint as the 125-bed apartment complex that was shot down by zoners last year because it was not allowed in the city’s institutional zoning district. The personal care home would include four four-story buildings. The only addition is a single-story, 50-bed building for senior citizens with mobility issues.

Atiyeh said the rooms wouldn’t be double occupancy. If a couple needed a unit, there would be doors that could turn a unit into a suite with two bedrooms.

The planning commission gave an initial review of the plans at their meeting Thursday

business

Smoking From Home: Imperial Brands Sees Revenue Lift From Pandemic | Top News

October 8, 20201 min read

LONDON (Reuters) – Demand for cigarettes has picked up in the COVID-19 pandemic, helped by a rise in home working that has given smokers more opportunities to light up, Imperial Brands said on Thursday.

The maker of Gauloises and West cigarettes nudged up its full-year revenue forecast.

A spokesman for the British firm said consumers appeared to be spending more on tobacco as they saved money in other areas, such as travel and holidays, while working from home meant many of them were not restricted by when they could smoke.

The news came as Ladbrokes and bwin owner GVC Holdings raised its annual earnings outlook, helped by a surge in online gaming, in another sign consumers are looking to escape the stresses of the pandemic.

Imperial said it expected full-year net revenue to be broadly flat, with a 1% increase in its tobacco business offsetting a 30% drop in its

insurance

Hidden Home Risks That Send Insurance Through the Roof

October 8, 20201 min read

When house hunting, the price of homeowners insurance probably isn’t top of mind. But homes with hidden risks can make getting coverage difficult, expensive or both. Learning how to identify them could save you a bundle.

This could be a particularly important concern for first-time homebuyers and those moving from cities to suburban or rural areas who may not be aware of common hazards, says Jennifer Naughton, risk consulting officer for North America for Chubb, an insurance company.

Three out of 10 city dwellers told a Chubb survey in early August that they were considering moving out of the city because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, the number of first-time homebuyers in the first half of 2020 rose 4% compared to a year earlier as lower interest rates made mortgages more affordable, according to Genworth Mortgage Insurance.

Where’s the nearest fire hydrant?

MBA BY THE BAY: See how an

business

Britain’s Ambitious Offshore Energy Plan — Every Home To Be Powered by Wind Power

October 7, 20201 min read

KEY POINTS

The move is expected to create thousands of green jobs
Investments of over $35B were seen in offshore wind in the first half of 2020
U.K. leads Germany, China, and Denmark in offshore wind power

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged Tuesday to tap United Kingdom’s offshore wind energy to power every home in the country by 2030, to be a part of the world’s shift away from fossil fuels.

“As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the U.K. is to wind—a place of almost limitless resource, but in case of wind without the carbon emissions and without the damage to the environment,” Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson’s government launched a new target to generate 40 Gigawatt of energy by 2030. This is 15 times more than what offshore wind currently delivers across the world and four times more than U.K.’s own offshore wind capacity, according to The

business

Want a second home during COVID? These Zillow vets have invented a radically less expensive way to buy one

October 4, 20201 min read

There’s an old truism about vacation homes: Nature wants them back.

Austin Allison wearing a suit and tie: Pacasso's co-founder Austin Allison

© Courtesy of Pacaso
Pacasso’s co-founder Austin Allison

Indeed between the maintenance, upkeep, taxes, hassle of finding short-term renters, and typically small number of days per year homeowners are actually in residence, vacation homes are generally a great way to make memories—and a poor way to invest your money.

Load Error

Now two veterans of Zillow have a new spin on second homes—they want to pair you up with likeminded buyers to own just the amount of the house you’ll actually use. Their company, called Pacaso (pronounced like the painter), launched this week. Pacaso’s chairman is Zillow cofounder and former CEO Spencer Rascoff; its CEO is Dotloop founder and former Zillow executive Austin Allison. The company says it has raised $17 million in Series A funding, from investors including Maveron, Crosscut, Global Founders Capital, Howard Schultz, and other Zillow

1 2 3 … 5 Next »