Show Zhtiialt fake Zribunt lit IW Business Desk: 237-205- SUNDAY May 3 1992 5 Economist Says Prime Rate Of 4 Possible Key Corp Chairman Victor Riley believes today's 65 per- cent prime rate could hit 4 percent by That's the rate the nation's largest banks charge their largest customers it affects a variety of interest rates that mid-decad- ' A'' 8 ry r-A- r 4 e : I John li' Keahey tiommommommuten Busiries8 ftwo'ci- ' 1 By Steven Lake area home sold in March after being on the market just three Oberbeck THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Like tulips that bloom in the spring "For Sale" signs are popping up on lawns across Utah Many Realtors say that like the flowers most of those signs will be gone in a matter of weeks In all but a few Utah locations houses are selling like hotcakes Once on the market most homes are moving fast agreed Dick Wood president of the Utah Association of Realtors "There is a lot of competition out there among potential home buyers" No one knows this better than days "Our Realtor put up the sign and the first people who came through our house the next day bought it" she said Many homes for sale throughout the state never even make it onto Realtors' multiple-listinservice said Mr Wood The Cunningham's listing "never even made it into the book" — a Realtor reference guide Mr Wood warns: "If someone finds a home they like they may have to act fast to get it" The Salt Lake Board of Realtors said home sales were up 29 percent in Salt Lake County during the first quarter of 1992 coin - 1 Average Area Cedar Price $63666 $72294 $76124 City Logan Ogden Park City Salt Lake City ProvoOrem $168115 $90776 $90327 $89477 St George Source: Utah Association ot Realtors ' ' ' ' ''e ! - t Corp's Albany NY headquarters alluded to the lower prime rate in a recent Arizona speech He meant it not so much as a forecast Mr Thredgold said but more as a possibility "If you get the right events to fall into place over the next few years it is possible" to hit 4 percent the economist said What would such a prime rate mean to the average American? It could mean 7 percent home mortgages Compared to today's average of 9 percent Interest rates on consumer debt would decline opening up an atmosphere of increased spending by Americans and corporations But there is a catch Those "right events" still have to occur For starters Mr Thredgold said the government has to get its act together and reduce deficits Today an Congress is responsible for a current annual deficit of nearly $400 billion That means lawmakers are !spending more than $1 billion a day of money the nation doesn't have (Voters are you listening?) If the deficit can be reduced to a "more acceptable" $200 billion a year a lot of pressure would be taken off of long-terinterest rates And the prime rate would go down Along with the "responsible Congress" scenario the Fed which controls various short-terrates would have to keep tight rein on its policies and "squeeze inflation down to lower levels" Mr Thred- 1 2 By hovered around 15 percent in the economically secure 1950s and '60s and nearly broke into the double digits in the disastrous 1970s Can you imagine such a world? Mr Thredgold asks The nation's housing sector would boom So would sales of carpet draperies furniture and appliances to furnish new homes Mortgages could be refinanced to provide additional funds for other consumer expenditures or savings Corporate America wwild scramble to invest in new plant and equipment But today's real world is sobering Mr Thredgold says "A government out of control is more akin to an insidious cancer It slowly engulfs the economy It quietly strangles the economy with more and more government spending diverted away from critical societal needs to make interest payments on the national debt" the Key Bank economist says Those interest payments totaled $289 billion last year alone i 1 1 1 1 1 1 FOOTNOTE: A national poll shows that consumers in increasingly large numbers are still looking for investments with higher interest rates than traditional certificates of deposits "Many CD holders are suffering 'sticker shock' when they find out how low current rates are on both short- - and long-terCDs" according to a report from Fidelity Investments In Utah current rates for r CDs are around 4 percent one-yea- a ) last year during the same time" according to a statement from the Utah Board of Realtors In CarbonEmery there were 37 homes sold compared with 43 last year during the first quarter -- -- l'''7- - - i ' '' t 1 -- '!°" J i - ''' : ' 4- - ' 1 1 - t ' 4 ' ' 1 4 flit ? :1 ''' - i ' ) ' 1 ' i ' i i 1' - - ' ' '' if t --- -- - 12 7 44'1 eti4' —rr - ' '- ' 0 ' e :''''-'-'- " 4''' " " -- '" A 1 g ' 1 ' t ' 1 t r ' 'Emr ' Robert Bryson Ex-Carpent- ''' ''''74545 AIC '''' 1 '4 I i ' ‘ iw4 7SX4''''''4' Aar' 6 : Atetv'")5 row owgi N lk fr i i ? ' ' " If it's spring it must be time to remodel But many homeowners will end up unhappy according to the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing in Salt Lake City Unlicensed contractors are usually the cause of the disappointment "People give a contractor access to from a couple of thousand to a couple of hundred thousand in construction loans and they take more time buying a pair of shoes than picking a contractor" said Bill Essex who investigates contractor complaints for the division His employer is responsible for licensing Utah's 12526 contractors Through March the division has levied $9850 in fines opened 268 cases won 13 criminal convictions and forced 54 budding builders to get licenses Ur renew them Complaints tend to pick up when home building or remodeling begins anew each spring Mr Essex said The division does have broad powers to deal with problem builders Its officials can suspend or revoke a contractor's license through administrative action place the violator on probation or seek criminal actions With such sanctions what is the appeal to those doing unlicensed work? Unlicensed contractors work much more cheaply — about 30 percent less —because licensed contractors have to pay for work- ers' compensation insurance ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 4 i Paul Fraughton:The Salt Lake Tribune Glen Lowry CEO of Alta Corp holds a supercomputer board Placed in parallel and taking relatively little space boards will perform 61 trillion operations per second Oahu in Super-Secr- Location Making Supercomputer With Super Speed Price By et John Keahey THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Utahn Glen Lowry was "somewhere in Maryland" last week His call came from "a secure phone in a small room surrounded by a lot of security people" area in the midst of what he That said was one of the nation's top 50 corporations represents unusual surroundings for the man from South Jordan who began building with partner Scott Lloyd super-fas- t computer components in his basement just four years ago A reluctance to identify his whereabouts reflects the way business is conducted in the highly competitive supercomputer industry There are only a few players — Intel IBM Cray Thinking Machines Corp — in this rarified game and millions are at stake Mr Lowry's company is Sandy-baseAlta Technology Corp With only six employees the former Hewlett-Packarengineer is creating supercomputers no larger than standard desktop devices found in thousands of Utah homes and r offices but with computing speed That is a radical departure from supercomputers that fill up entire rooms How can such a small privately held company in existence for only a few years compete with the giants? After all it was only a few years ago that Salt Evans SE Sutherland walked Lake $50 million experiment away from its three-yea- r with supercomputers By comparison Alta Technology predicts its sales this year of between $5 million and $10 million That pales against Evans & Sutherland's 1991 revenues of $145 million "Ours is a supercomputer that has practical — as opposed to theoretical — applications" Mr Lowry says Using a supercomputer to "contemplate the size of the universe is a nice application But it's not something you or I are ever going to be exposed to" One informed observer of the supercomputer high-securit- y - d d much-faste- older-generatio- City-base- d Helps er - ' y gold said Right now inflation is at 3 percent a year Sound government fiscal policy could lower that to as low as 2 percent By comparison the rate ! e THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE m i all-tim- George They were down 13 percent in CarbonEmery County and abom 4 percent in Logan "But if you look at the numbers there were 73 homes sold in Logan during the first quarter only three fewer than were sold d ol ! e First-quart- Avoid Frustration Hire Licensed Contractors '''''f'''''''"- - - I two-incom- elsewhere in Utah as well home sales in Cedar City were up 714 percent 2625 percent in Ogden 7250 percent in Park City 1423 percent percent in the ProvoOrem area and 3618 percent in St Editor wallet-wear- ir pared with the same period last year "Homes haven't sold like this in a dozen years" said board President Randy Eagan Mr Eagar said while the averhome age price of a increased more than 8 percent in the Salt Lake area during the first quarter of this year homes have become increasingly affordable "Family income has grown faster than normal interest rates are still relatively low — in the 9 percent range — and households are more common" Mr Eagar said He also said condominium sales in Salt Lake County were at an high The selling pace is increasing single-famil- y g Lynn Cunningham and husband Lowell who witnessed the phenomenon first hand Their Salt corporations A 4 percent level would be pretty astounding But plausible according to Mr Riley's chief economist — Salt Lake Jeff Thredgold Mr Riley who works out of Key Dll Utah Buyers Eagerly Plucking For Sale' Signs filter down to consumers and City-base- USN SS n sweepstakes — who asked to remain anonymous — believes Alta Technology will succeed because it is getting firm orders — and financial commitments from potential customers — well in advance of next year's introduction of its fastest ma- chine Another advantage is that Alta Technology computers unlike competitors can be apded" or fitted into already existing high-tec- h plications One example: Combine the supercombody scanner used by puter with a medical professionals The resulting image from such a marriage of technology would be greatly enhanced Mr Lowry said Medical diagnosticians would get more detail in a picture of a body organ or other structure at a much faster rate This Mr Lowry says requires "a lot of n FLOPS" FLOPS? That's how supercomputer folks refer to the speed of their creations For example one is 1 million computing operations per second A GigaFLOP is 1000 MegaFLOPS or a trillion operations per second Alta Technology expects to market computers next year that perform up to 64 GigaFLOPS or 64 trillion operations per second By today's standards that's much faster than any current supercomputer The fastest personal computer on the today's market the IBM PS2 — computes at a paltry 1 million operations a second And the system's aren't cheap Alta Technology's smaller 1 GigaFLOP units sell for around $100000 Mr Lowry said The 64 GigaPLOP units will go for $64 million each The secret of packing more speed in less space rests in the processors used to drive the machines A supercomputer processor with 32 megabytes 6f memory — like those found in standard PCs — fits in an area about the size of a index card Dozens of these processors running parallel to one another are what gives Alta Technology "dedicated supercomputers their useful speed" Mr Lowry says Mega-FLO- P mind-bogglin- g building permits and taxes "We have folks who have been doing this without licenses for years" Mr Essex said While extremely low bids appeal to homeowners business people bidding out a commercial project are usually more sophisticated in choosing a contractor There extremely low bids are avoided "They want bids that reflect a reasonable price for a job They also don't want a contractor to go broke before the job is over or to use shoddy materials" to cut corners and thereby meet the lower bid Mr Essex and the Home Builders Association of Utah suggest consumers hiring a contractor should: Make sure they are licensed in Utah by calling the division at 530-651- 4 Get references for past work and ask if it was suitable completed on time and if subcontractors HOMPOU'ners Find Contractors OGDEN — Mark Bergman has given up pounding nails to help homeowners pounding the pavement looking for contractors The former carpenter owns Contractors Clearing House which he claims is Utah's only residential co- ntractor referral service There is no charge to the public but member contractors pony up from $190 to $365 a year to belong Homeowners or firms seeking a contractor tell Mr Bergman what they think the project will entail and what they want to spend "I'll send you a list of at least two contractors in the area where the homeowner lives" said Mr Bergman who checks their referreal-estat- e ences licenses previous jobs and bonding "I check back with homeowners And if I get four complaints about a contractor they are out" of his service he said If a job is under $500 or does not require electrical or plumbing work he can send a general worker to do it Mr Bergman said he saw the need for such a business several years ago A recent injury convinced him to act on that need and start his own business Among other services he can put homeowners' construction blueprints into a computer and can print out materials lists to get the lowest price — Robert Bryson state-license- d were paid If not homeowners may have a lien filed on their home Ask for financial statements If a contractor fails to pay his materials and lumber suppliers homeowners may again have liens filed against them "See how easy they are to work with Some once they get a job turn into belligerent 'expletive" he said Be assertive in asking contractors to complete work satisfactorily and pay bills Sabbatical Leave Still a Rarity But Some Firms Encourage It NEWSDAY Ben Cohen chairman of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc made news when he announced that he sabbatical was taking a from the rigors of his job at the premium Waterbury ice cream company "The plan is to have no plan" he said at the time While such sabbaticals are still rare in the corporate world they would hardly cause a blink at a handful of US companies At Tandem Computers Inc a manufacCupertino turer of computer systems and networks management encoure and ages regular employees to paid sabbaticals every time they complete four years of service Tandem employees have used the time off for activities ranging from treks in the Himalayas to cooking classes in France — to six-mon- th Vt-bas- Calif-base- d full-tim- e te part-tim- six-wee- k just staying home and painting the house Tandem offers extra time off to employees who devote sabbaticals to community service work Company officials consider sabbaticals a good way to combat burnout "They help people return refreshed and better able to contribute to the future success of the company" said Thomas Waldrop a Tandem spokesman Sabbaticals are most commonly offered as employee benefits companies said among Helen Axel a senior research fellow for The Conference Board a business reNew search group "Those companies tend to work people very hard" Axel said "They are often engaged in projects that go around the clock So a sabbatical is an opportunity for taking a block of time off" high-tec- h York-base- d |