Seattle has another great reason to celebrate!

Boeing wins huge Air Force tanker contract

The Air Force awarded its $35 billion air-refueling tanker contract Thursday to Boeing.

By

Dominic Gates

Seattle Times aerospace reporter

The Air Force awarded its $35 billion air-refueling tanker contract Thursday to Boeing, Congressional sources said shortly before the announcement was to be made this afternoon.

Boeing will build its 767 tanker on a newly opened assembly line at the back of its Everett widebody jet plant.

 Winning the tanker contract secures what Boeing says are 11,000 direct and indirect jobs in Washington State. That figure includes not only projected jobs at Boeing and at its in-state suppliers, but also at any kind of business — from bars to bakeries — serving the aerospace workforce.

 Boeing was originally awarded a tanker contract in 2001, but that deal, which was never open to competitors, was swamped in controversy. It was canceled after a procurement scandal that sent Boeing's then-chief financial officer to jail.

 In 2008, after an open competition, the contract was awarded to a joint bid from Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent company EADS. The award was canceled after Boeing challenged the procedures leading to the decision.

 This time around, Northrop withdrew and it was a straight head-to-head contest between Boeing and EADS.

Though the Air Force award will draw the ire of politicians in southern states that would have benefited from an EADS win, the decision may finally bring the decade-long saga to a close.

 EADS now has three days to ask for a debriefing as to why exactly it lost. That debriefing must take place within five days, after which EADS has another five days to decide if it wants to formally protest the decision.

Ralph Crosby, head of EADS North America, recently told the Press-Register newspaper in Mobile, Ala., that absent "some egregious process error," his company was unlikely to contest a Boeing win.

 The outcome is a bitter disappointment for EADS.

 It had also wanted a manufacturing facility in the U.S. that would have brought revenue in dollars — valuable as the euro rises against the dollar.

With expectations that Airbus could price its plane lower than Boeing, and leaks suggesting that the EADS A330 had outscored the Boeing 767 on a key mission evaluation that was part of the Air Force assessment, analysts had recently been predicting an EADS win.

With the outcome reversed, the happiest man at Boeing may be commercial airplanes chief Jim Albaugh, who was on a flight back from Texas to Seattle as the announcement was made.

Albaugh took over the defense side of the company in 2002 and closely shepherded Boeing's tanker bid afterward.

 Having switched roles to head Boeing's commercial jet division in the fall of 2009, Albaugh will now get to oversee the building of the tanker.

The European planemaker had hoped to establish itself as a peer with U.S. companies in bidding for majordefense contracts in the future.Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Mortgage delinquency rates among U.S. homeowners have fallen to their lowest levels in a few years, according to a report Thursday from the nation's mortgage bankers.
The quarterly National Delinquency Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that the rate of mortgage borrowers at least one payment past due or whose homes have been repossessed by their banks declined 0.22 point to 13.56% at the end of December, their lowest level since late 2008.

 Loans one payment past due were at 8.22%, down considerably from the 9.13% mark at the end of the third quarter and the lowest rate since the end of 2007, the beginning of the recession, the bankers said.

That, according to Michael Fratantoni, vice president of research and economics for the MBA, was very welcome news.

"I think we've turned the corner as concerned with loans 30 days late," he said. "It indicates that the economy has improved."

Report: Seattle tech job growth outpaces other large markets

According to the Dice technology employment site, tech job postings are up 54 percent this year in the Seattle region, compared with the same month a year ago. Although that rate puts Seattle No. 5 overall behind the likes of Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus, the site called Seattle "the fastest growing large market on the list."

"That demand is translating into slightly more pay as Seattle-based technology professionals earn on average $86,168 per year, an increase of two percent from last year.

(American City Business Journals Inc. - article by Todd Bishop Wednesday February 9, 2011)

There is hope for the future of Real Estate

January is off to a great start in the Seattle area for Real Estate Activity. My office is busy, many of us are working very long hours, with listings, showings, offers, inspections and clients moving in their new homes. This is the beginning of what I think will be a year of stabilization and the beginning of recovery for our market. Multiple offers have re-surfaced and homes that were on the market for months were suddenly snatched up. The hope of spring is in the air in Seattle, the bulbs peeking their heads through the soil and the hummingbirds looking for nectar in our feeders is a great and welcome sign. It will be enchanced this year by consumer confidence and many people getting back to work and business and that includes getting the country back to home ownership.

There is never a shortage of negative press, but be careful in believing something just because it is in print.  We are not out of the woods, but I think we may be able to catch a glimpse of seeing the trees through the forest. Have a great week!