West Des Moines Taking Large Hit...

[huntt26]

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estat...-Could-Be-Hit-Hardest-by-the-Financial-Crisis

Saw a picture of Des Moines show up on yahoo.com news just now, and decided to click on it.

Thought it would be of interest. Sounds like West Des Moines will be taking a large hit due to the struggling economy.

It is #4 on the list of the 10 that will feel the most impact.

 

[mj4cy]

Saw that too. Of coures they said West Des Moines and showed a picture of Des Moines.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I could be wrong, but it seems that they based that on the number or percentage of financial or insurance jobs, which doesn't necessarily measure the health of the companies involved.

 

[Clonehomer]

The major companies in W Des Moines should make it through this. Wells Fargo, Citibank, Principal should all survive this. Actually they are the ones that will probably benefit from the federal buyout. I think thiese companies will slump for a few years but they will not fail.

 

[cygrads]

I could be wrong, but it seems that they based that on the number or percentage of financial or insurance jobs, which doesn't necessarily measure the health of the companies involved.

You are correct the article said it was based on the % of finance & ins industry jobs - it did not even attempt to determine what companies were in those locations. WDM is fine, Wells Fargo is one of the strongest banks in the US and if Wells buys someone like Wachovia they could possibly gain jobs. Wells may stand pat and not jump into the purchase frenzy like BofA - Wells only buys when its a very good deal for themselves.

 

[kingcy]

Most of the banks that employ a lot in Des Moines are ones that probaly did things the right way.

 

[cloneluke80]

It depends how deep this thing goes. I think the bailout will only slow it down. What no one realizes about the bailout is that these banks will get all that bad debt off their books, but there will not be liquidity overnight.

Lending HAS to tighten up.

I do think West Des Moines has some more correction coming in housing prices as well.

 

[jumbopackage]

Wells Fargo is in great shape. I think the Des Moines metro is going to come out of this in excellent shape as well.

While lending across the board may tighten up a bit, we are seeing commercial banks with sound financials come out of this well. They are doing the buying, not being bought.

 

[IcSyU]

Wells Fargo will be fine in just about any economic situation simply because it's so diversified across many different levels and not focused solely on finance or banking.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Most of the banks that employ a lot in Des Moines are ones that probaly did things the right way.

This is MUCH bigger than just "banks".

 

[dmclone]

IMO

Principal=Fine
WF=I've heard fine. They must have changed because when I was there they had a lot of Mortgages and 2nd's that were ugly.
CITI-From what I've seen and heard bad

The other one that people forget about is Aviva. From everything I've heard, they are a good company with their HQ in London.

 

[cycloneryan]

I wouldn't be too quick to say that wells fargo is safe from all of this. The could end up taking a big hit.

 

[djkent01]

Citi must not be doing too bad - its acquisition of Wachovia was announced this morning.

 

[TykeClone]

Citi must not be doing too bad - its acquisition of Wachovia was announced this morning.

It will remain to be seen if this was a wise move by them.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Aviva (at least until 2009/2010), Principal, and Wells Fargo Financial are all headquartered in Des Moines, not W Des Moines. Wells Fargo Mortgage as well as other smaller financial services companies are headquartered in W DSM.
I wonder if the article meant to really talk about Des Moines metro, and not just W DSM?

If is didn't, then referring to companies headquartered in Des Moines seem a bit irrelevant to the prediction.

 

[capitalcityguy]

Citi must not be doing too bad - its acquisition of Wachovia was announced this morning.

Citi has completely closed out their mortgage business which means they no longer have a presence in the Des Moines metro from my understanding. They are irrelevant to this discussion.

 

[dmclone]

Aviva (at least until 2009/2010), Principal, and Wells Fargo Financial are all headquartered in Des Moines, not W Des Moines. Wells Fargo Mortgage as well as other smaller financial services companies are headquartered in W DSM.
I wonder if the article meant to really talk about Des Moines metro, and not just W DSM?

If is didn't, then referring to companies headquartered in Des Moines seem a bit irrelevant to the prediction.

I assume when you mean HQ'd you mean where there main employment is in the metro not where there actuall HQ's are located. WF Financial and Aviva are not HQ'd in Iowa.


I think why WDM showed up instead of DM was because of the small population of WDM. The % of financial jobs located in WDM is higher than DM.

 

[dmclone]

"
Risky move for Citi
At the same time, Citigroup has been no picture of health. The New York City-based financial services giant has posted close to $18 billion in losses over the past three quarters, while taking nearly $50 billion in writedowns on its diverse loan portfolio.
The deal for Wachovia also comes as somewhat of a surprise given recent efforts by Citi's leadership to shrink the company.
Citigroup's Pandit, who was installed as the company's chief executive last December, unveiled plans in May to unload more than $400 billion in assets over the next few years in the hopes of turning the company around.
The deal, which comes ahead of a Congressional vote on a proposed $700 billion bailout for the financial system, marks yet another big shake-up of the nation's banking industry.
In the past two weeks, the sector has undergone a dramatic transformation, including Lehman's bankruptcy, the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and the government takeover of insurer AIG (AIG, Fortune 500). "


Citigroup buys Wachovia bank biz for $2.2B - Sep. 29, 2008

 

[capitalcityguy]

I assume when you mean HQ'd you mean where there main employment is in the metro not where there actuall HQ's are located. WF Financial and Aviva are not HQ'd in Iowa.


I think why WDM showed up instead of DM was because of the small population of WDM. The % of financial jobs located in WDM is higher than DM.

You are probably onto something regarding lower population vs. employment for W DSM. Maybe that is why this shows up on the list.

Aviva's US headquarters are in DSM. As far as Wells, it is my understanding that their corporate headquarters (mainly banking) is in San Fran, but their mortgage HQ is W DSM and Financial is DM. I could be wrong.

Regardless, there is no question that Principal's HQ is in DSM, not W DSM (or anywhere else in the country for that matter) so their status would not be relavent.

 

[CyinCo]

I've always heard that WF was cafeful with their money regarding loans and mortgages. It looks like that paid off for them. I haven't even heard them mentioned in most of the news segments.