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Talk of the Bay: Raymond James has top reps, just not here

Fifteen of the country's top 50 independent broker/dealer representatives are with St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial, Registered Rep said in its January issue.

By Times Staff
Published January 27, 2008

Raymond James has top reps, just not here

Fifteen of the country's top 50 independent broker/dealer representatives are with St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial, Registered Rep said in its January issue. And precisely how many of those 15 are based in Florida? None, surprisingly. Nowhere to be seen on the top 50 list, which ranks reps by the amount of money they manage, is GunnAllen. Ex-GunnAllen rep Frank Bluestein was ranked fourth on the magazine's list back in November, but he recently left the Tampa firm amid allegations that he secretly enrolled some clients in a Ponzi scheme.

Realtors put best face on housing

"With its cosmopolitan cities, world-class beaches, golf, boating and sports, Florida offers an attractive lifestyle to buyers from around the world." Thus began the media blitz launched by the Florida Association of Realtors last week. The association's full- court press comes as home sales continue to suffer and prices have fallen about 15 percent in the Tampa Bay area. In trying to drum up new business, Realtors stressed low mortgage interest rates, Florida's huge inventory of homes for sale, recent price declines and the financial gains of long-term home ownership.

Cryo-Cell opens ballot box again

Cryo-Cell International Inc. of Oldsmar will hold a special shareholders' meeting to elect directors at 3 p.m. March 4 at the Courtyard by Marriott, 4014 Tampa Road, Oldsmar. The special election was ordered by a judge in Delaware Chancery Court in response to a lawsuit filed by David Portnoy, a dissident shareholder whose slate of directors lost to incumbents at Cryo-Cell's annual meeting in July. The judge recently ruled that the election results had been tainted by the "inequitable behavior" of Cryo-Cell chief executive officer Mercedes Walton. The judge compared her handling of the July 16 meeting, which was delayed for hours while Cryo-Cell pressured shareholders for votes, to that of a "corrupted soccer referee." Cryo-Cell's directors were ordered to personally bear the cost of the special election, open to all shareholders as of Jan. 18.

Guess what? We're 'unaffordable'

A new international housing study ranks the Tampa-St. Petersburg as "seriously unaffordable." The Demographia survey divides median home price ($218,000 as of last summer) by household income ($46,000) to come up with a number. Our 4.7 rating places us in the unaffordable category with places such as New Haven, Conn., Fort Myers and Charleston, S.C. California cities comes off the worst, along with Honolulu and Miami-West Palm Beach. Take comfort in the fact that the "most affordable" cities for housing come with a healthy dusting of rust and frost. Among the top five: Thunder Bay, Ontario; Youngstown, Ohio; and Flint, Mich.

[Last modified January 25, 2008, 22:21:33]