Customers and Bankers Like Mobile Banking

Mobile banking is emerging as a critical weapon in banks’ battle to retain customers and cut expenses.

The average cost to a lender for a mobile transaction is 10 cents, about half that of a desktop-computer transaction and far less than the $1.25 average cost of an ATM transaction, according to data from Javelin Strategy & Research.

But the spread of smartphones and tablets also presents risks for banks. Customers today expect their lenders to offer a range of mobile services, from simple functions such as balance inquiries and transfers to trickier maneuvers like paying bills through photo imaging.

When banks don’t deliver, some customers are walking. About 60% of smartphone or tablet users who switched banks in the fourth quarter said mobile banking was an important factor in the decision, up from 7% in the second quarter of 2010, according to data from New York-based consulting firm AlixPartners.

Mobile banking still has its doubters, in part because of security fears. The percentage of customers who cite such concerns as a deterrent to their use of mobile-banking services stood at 41% in July 2013, according to Javelin.

While customers can view balances, transfer money and perform other functions using ordinary computers, they can deposit checks only in person or on a mobile device.

About 34% of bank customers used the function in the fourth quarter of 2013, versus 22% two years earlier, according to AlixPartners. That jump was the biggest among any type of mobile-banking function.

—Saabira Chaudhuri The Wall Street Journal

Suburbs Still Growing

Urban real-estate prices increased faster than suburban prices between March of this year and last, according to Trulia. But suburbs continue to outpace cities in population growth, and for good reason— there are a lot more suburbs than cities, and since it’s easier to build in suburbs, the ‘burbs can add new homes more quickly, holding prices back.

Nationally, urban home prices increased 9.8% over the past year. Suburban home prices rose 9.4%. The order is flipped for household growth, however: Suburban population increased by 1.1% and the urban population by 0.9%.

Trulia defines urban and suburban differently than your typical demographer. Rather than focus on political boundaries—say, the City of San Francisco compared with smaller cities around it—they define urban and suburban by form.

—Conor Dougherty Real Time Economics blog

WSJ.com

LinkedIn Looks Inside

LinkedIn grew up helping recruiters and job seekers look for opportunities at outside companies. Now it wants to help them to do the opposite.

LinkedIn said it will start telling people about jobs available at their current companies, and that it will help recruiters identify internal candidates that might want to switch jobs.

“This completely changes the way LinkedIn jobs work,” Parker Barrile, LinkedIn’s vice president of product, said at a company event in San Francisco. “It’s not only about finding great external talent. It’s now about maintaining the talent within your organizations.”

Mr. Barrile cited a LinkedIn survey that showed 42% of people who took a job at a different company said they would have stayed if there had been a relevant position available.

“People quit their job, not their company,” he said.

LinkedIn said it will analyze data to determine the types of job switches that occur most often. In addition to pointing out internal openings to employees, LinkedIn will make suggestions to recruiters based on this data. —Reed Albergotti Digits blog

WSJ.com

Foreclosures Rise In 19 States

While national trends for troubled properties are improving, there are 19 states where newly started foreclosures are heading higher.

In March, there were foreclosure filings on about 117,000 properties throughout the country, up 4% from February, but down 23% from a year earlier, online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac said. Such filings include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. In addition, trends show national improvement: For the first quarter, there were about 342,000 properties with foreclosure filings, also down 23% from a year earlier.

Looking nationally, the pipeline of foreclosures has narrowed since the housing bubble burst.

But 19 states saw foreclosures starts head higher. A start is the first public notice of a foreclosure, such as notices for default or a trustee’s sale.

Of note, states with very large annual growth had relatively low levels of actual starts in the first quarter.

For example, in Vermont annual foreclosure-starts growth was 3,100%, but there were only 32 starts there in the first quarter.

Similarly, in Montana growth was 753%, but the number of starts was 128. By comparison, in New Jersey growth was 83%, and there were 9,645 starts.

Here are the top five states with annual foreclosure-starts growth for the first quarter: Vermont, 3,100% Montana, 753% Wyoming, 258% New Jersey, 83% South Dakota, 54%

—Ruth Mantell Capitol Report blog

MarketWatch.com