Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • March 26, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Briefs Labor offers harsh critique of CEO-led commission's report A group of Connecticut labor leaders released a 15-page analysis lambasting the recent recommendations of the Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth. The report compares the commission's executive-heavy membership to arrogant college freshmen who come home after a semester and think they have all the answers to the world's problems. Labor leaders assigned a "C-" grade to the commission's findings about the state's economic and fiscal situation and an "F" to its list of recommendations. Though union leaders agree with the commission on raising the state's minimum wage and implementing highway tolls, they've bristled in particular at the commission's calls to change union bargaining, including a recommendation to remove fringe benefits from the collective-bargaining process between state government and unions. Study ranks Hartford 35th most popular city for Millennial homebuyers A study by a national lending exchange marketplace ranked Hartford as the nation's 35th-most popular city for Millennial homebuyers. Lending Tree evaluated the nation's 100 largest cities, analyzing mortgage requests from and offers to individuals 35 years and younger between Feb. 2017 and Feb. 2018. For Hartford, the average age of Millennial homebuyers was about 29 years old and their average credit score was 651. Millennials represented nearly 35 percent of home purchase requests in the city, with an average down payment of more than $21,000 and the average requested loan of about $165,500. Hartford Millennial homebuyers ranked just behind their counterparts in Springfield, Mass., Louisville, Ky., Toledo, Ohio and South Bend, Ind. Major cities, including Chicago, Ill,. Denver, Colo., Detroit, Mich., trailed Connecticut Millennials on the list. CT colleges pay to play in Washington Universities across the United States spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year lobbying in Washington, including the University of Connecticut and Yale. A main reason: They are in a tight competition for a dwindling pot of federal research money. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, universities and colleges spent more than $78 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies last year with the huge University of California topping the list at $1.2 million. There's good reason these schools spent so much money. Studies show a correlation between lobbying money spent and the amount of money in federal grants a school receives. Yale spent $600,000 last year on salaries and expenses for its in-house lobbying shop. UConn spent $320,000 lobbying the federal government last year. — Ana Radelat | CT Mirror Hartford apt. high-rise for sale A 214-unit, high-rise apartment building on the southern edge of downtown Hartford is for sale, brokers say. Listing broker Institutional Property Advisors (IPA) says the nine-story 250 Main Street Apartments is offered by landlord Charter Oak Square LLC, which is accepting open offers for the property. The city lists the property's 2017 grand-list fair market value at $12.82 million, records show. Built in 1988, it contains 18,154 square feet of streetfront retail and more than 273,000 square feet of living space carved into 32 one- and 182 two- bedroom apartments, and nine retail units. The average apartment size is 884 Week in Review TOP STORY CT economist: No recession lurking T he prospects for the Connecticut and U.S. economies lapsing into recession anytime soon are remote, but new trade tariffs, a jittery stock market, plus this state's stubborn job recovery and population loss, could impact both down the road, an economist says. "The good news: A U.S. recession is still unlikely over the near term,'' said New Haven economist Don Klepper-Smith, who is an adviser to Farmington Bank, noting the current recovery is into its ninth year. Addressing a remote webinar audience during Farmington Bank's quarterly economic outlook, the chief economist at DataCore Partners LLC said he expects a modest U.S. recovery to continue at least through the first half of this year. "The bottom line is the odds of a recession over the next 18 months are one in three,'' Klepper-Smith said. He pointed to Connecticut's sluggish efforts to regain the 119,000 jobs it lost in the Great Recession, 2008-2009. So far, based on state labor department unemployment and job-growth data as of January, Connecticut has regained just 77 percent of those lost jobs, the economist said. By comparison, most other New England states have recovered at least all of their lost jobs, with several regaining double and triple their jobs deficits. BY THE NUMBERS $617M The amount of new debt Connecti- cut intends to issue later this month, consisting of both general obligation and refunding bonds. $215,000 The median single-family home sale price in Greater Hartford in February, which was up 12.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors. 34.9% The portion of mortgage loan re- quests in Hartford over the past year that came from Millennial borrowers, the 35th highest in the U.S., accord- ing to LendingTree. $320,000 The amount UConn spent lobbying the federal government last year, which helped secure approximately $200 million in research grants. TOP 5 MOST READ On HartfordBusiness.com • 1. CT economist: No recession lurking • 2. Labor offers harsh critique of CEO-led commission's report • 3. Ex-Enfield development official pleads guilty to fraud • 4. Atlantic Data Security to merge with Mass. cyber security company • 5. Anthem's Wallingford space set for foreclosure STAY CONNECTED For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on Linkedln: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/ subscribe Economist Don Klepper-Smith predicts a 2.1 percent U.S. inflation rate this year. He says the 30-year mortgage rate will end 2018 between 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent. 250 Main Street Apartments in downtown Hartford. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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