The Ripple Effect of Detroit

The real-estate appraisal company owned by Jumana Judeh could be called as a prime example of a kind of business that is good in looking at the bright side of an otherwise gloomy perspective. The company opened in 1998, and Judeh & Associates had done appraisals for a lot of mortgage lenders. But when the Big Three had shown declines in contributions due to a housing slide in the metro Detroit area, the revenues of Judeh fell down for three successive years. Then some three years ago, Jumana Judeh decided to change her direction.

Instead of working for the lenders, the company she owned started doing real-estate tax assessments and appeals for the people who were financially struggling – usually because of situations like divorce or layoffs. The goal of their company was to decrease the tax payments of these people. And the end result of this was that the sales of Judeh’s company had gone up by fifteen percent in the year 2007 and then up again by twenty five percent in the previous year of 2008. Around eighty percent of the business Judeh does at the moment is coming from the appeal cases as well as other potential litigation. Judeh, who has employed five people in her company, even says that they are practically recession-proof.

Front Seat Access

Then again, this business gives Judeh the best look at how the crisis in credit and auto lending are making consequences in the metro Detroit area and across all levels of income. There was even one case that she handled which was a home valued at one point one million dollars in 1999 and then fell down to six hundred and fifty thousand dollars at a recent appraisal. Judeh pretty much believes that the economy can still recover eventually, however she also thinks that a big chunk of this improvement will be coming from the emerging industries in all of the states, like the ones in film production as well as research and development in technology. For the state to survive, the key lies in embracing these new industries instead of simply hoping that the automotive industry will resume its former dominance.

Weddings and Funerals: The Two Constants

While flowers are often appreciated, it is not considered as a priority during these tough economic times. Flower shops may be holding steady orders but the sales of the business are at a low. Almost half of the clients of flower shop owners cancelled or decreased their orders during the holidays, which knocked back the revenues of the company for the last quarter to at least twenty five percent. Many corporate orders stayed pretty slow during the first month of 2009 and as the company worked with a lot of exhibitors in the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, a good number of these clients ended up toning down all their displays or pulling out completely from the show itself.