A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021
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DOW
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BRIEFING
Nyssa rail facility
gets state funding
After nearly four years
of work, Malheur County
officials expect construc-
tion of a truck-to-rail re-
load center to begin in
the coming months.
Their expectations rose
after the Oregon Trans-
portation Commission
approved the release of
$26 million in state funds
to build the Treasure Val-
ley Reload Center.
The rail reload center is
designed for local onion
producers to truck their
product in to be loaded
onto rail cars for ship-
ment across the nation.
The county has proposed
a 60,000-foot warehouse
at the site.
State money for the
project was set aside
more than four years ago
as part of a massive trans-
portation plan approved
by the Legislature.
Now bids for construc-
tion on the project will
go out next month and
dirt is expected to move
soon after. Construction
on the facility could finish
by June 2022 – in time for
shipping next year’s crop.
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bendbulletin.com/business
NASDAQ
13,403.39 +332.70
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U.S. construction
spending up 1%
U.S. construction
spending rose a mod-
erate 1% in December
as the number of new
homes offset a sustained
weakness in nonresiden-
tial construction.
The increase followed
a 1.1% gain in November,
the Commerce Depart-
ment reported Monday.
Last month’s strength
came from a 3.1% jump
in spending on residen-
tial projects with money
going to single-family
homes surging by 5.8%.
While home construc-
tion is gaining, there was
a 1.7% decline in non-
residential construction,
which had declines in
hotel and motel construc-
tion and in the category
that includes shopping
centers.
Spending on govern-
ment projects which had
been hit by falling tax
revenues rose 0.5% in De-
cember.
— Bulletin wire reports
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Biden, Republicans discuss virus aid
BY LISA MASCARO, JOSH BOAK
AND JONATHAN LEMIRE
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Joe Biden met late Mon-
day with a group of Republican
senators who have proposed
a slimmed down $618 billion
coronavirus aid package — a
fraction of the $1.9 trillion he
is seeking — as congressio-
nal Democrats vowed to push
ahead with or without GOP
support.
Biden and Vice President
Kamala Harris were hearing
the Republicans’ pitch for a
smaller, more targeted COVID
relief package that would do
away with Democratic prior-
ities but could win GOP sup-
port and appeal to his effort to
unify the country.
The Republican group’s pro-
posal taps into bipartisan ur-
gency to shore up the nation’s
vaccine distribution and vastly
expand virus testing with $160
billion in aid, similar to what
Biden has proposed.
But from there, the two
plans drastically diverge.
Less focused on economic
aid, the GOP’s $1,000 direct
payments would go to fewer
households than the $1,400
Biden has proposed, and the
Republicans offer only a frac-
tion of what he wants to re-
open schools.
They also would give noth-
ing to states, money that Dem-
ocrats argue is just as import-
ant, with $350 billion in Biden’s
plan to keep police, fire and
other workers on the job.
Gone are Democratic prior-
ities such as a gradual lifting of
the federal minimum wage to
$15 an hour.
Engaging the White House
in high-profile bipartisan talks
comes as House and Senate
Democrats announced they
would push ahead, laying the
groundwork for approving
Biden’s package with a process
that won’t depend on Republi-
can support for passage.
The goal is for approval of
COVID relief by March, when
extra unemployment assis-
tance and other pandemic aid
expires.
cashes in his shares of
GameStop
BY KYLE ODEGARD
Albany Democrat-Herald
BY SYDNEY PAGE
Special To The Washington Post
T he GameStop stock surge has benefited small-
scale investors, many of them surprised at their
unlikely windfalls. Perhaps none so much as a
10-year-old boy from San Antonio, Texas.
The fifth grader received shares of GameStop,
each at $6.19, as a Kwanzaa present from his
mother in December 2019. She bought the stock
simply because her son liked to buy video games
at the store and she wanted to teach him a little
In a matter of minutes last week,
Jaydyn Carr became an unexpected
beneficiary of the market mayhem,
as his $60 stake in the video-game re-
tailer grew to $3,200.
“Is this really happening right
now?” Jaydyn’s mother, Nina Carr,
remembers asking herself. “I couldn’t
believe it was true.”
Carr, 31, was working in her home
office on Wednesday when a slew of
news alerts about GameStop’s Reddit-
spurred surge started appearing on
her phone. Her jaw dropped.
“I was so excited for him,” she said. In
simple terms, she described to Jaydyn
what happened to his GameStop shares
and why they suddenly skyrocketed.
“She was saying that stocks hardly
ever go up this way, so if I wanted to sell
it, we should sell it now,” Jaydyn said.
Ultimately, the choice was his.
“It wouldn’t be fair for me to make
the decision on his behalf,” Carr ex-
plained. And besides, she added, “if
he lost the money, it would have been
a lesson learned.”
Courtesy of Nina Carr via The Washington Post
Jaydyn Carr received 10 GameStop shares, each at
$6.19, as a Kwanzaa present in December 2019.
about the stock market.
So, she asked her only child the
burning question: “Do you want to
sell or stay?”
To her relief, Jaydyn decided to sell.
“I was so excited. I thought it wasn’t
even reality,” Jaydyn said. The plan is
to put $2,200 in Jaydyn’s savings ac-
count, and then invest the remaining
$1,000 as a mother-son team.
When Carr bought the 10
GameStop shares , her sole intention
in purchasing the stock was to teach
her then-8-year-old son about Uja-
maa, which means, “cooperative eco-
nomics.” It’s one of the seven princi-
ples of Kwanzaa.
“The goal was to ensure he knows
the value of a dollar and how to man-
age money,” Carr said, explaining that
Ujamaa is the idea of sharing wealth,
while also strengthening personal fi-
nances and self-reliance. Carr said
that since Jaydyn’s father passed away
in February 2014, it’s been a prior-
ity for her to educate her son about
money management.
“I am very frugal, and saving is a
big part of what I do. Being the only
parent, I want to set a good example
for him,” she said. “I got into finance
when his dad passed away. I wanted
to make sure his future was in good
hands.”
Carr — who is a public health nu-
tritionist and runs her own business
— felt the gift was an opportunity to
reinforce the importance of invest-
ments, she said.
In an effort to ensure her son still
had a proper present to open, “I
had to figure out something to give
this kid to unwrap,” she recalled. “I
printed out a template and filled in his
information, put it in a picture frame,
and wrapped it up.”
More than two years later, the
frame still sits in a place of honor in
Jaydyn’s bedroom. Now, though, it
carries new meaning — a memento of
a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
For Jaydyn, this is just the begin-
ning. He’s already got big plans: “I am
now looking for companies that pay
dividends,” he said confidently.
Thanks to 5G, iPhones sell faster than ever
BY REED ALBERGOTTI
The Washington Post
When Apple unveiled the
iPhone 12 in the fall, the
pitch to customers was a sim-
ple one: 5G, which promises
faster download speeds.
The pitch worked. Apple’s
iPhone 12 was a hot seller,
according to the company’s
earnings announcement last
week, with overall iPhone
sales of $66 billion in the
quarter ending in December,
up from $56 billion a year
ago. Apple earned a total of
$111 billion during the first
quarter, a record for the com-
pany.
Apple, which had seen de-
clining sales of iPhones in
recent years, seems to have
reignited consumer desire to
upgrade their older phones.
“We saw the largest num-
ber of upgraders than we’ve
ever seen in a quarter, so we
were thrilled about that,” Ap-
ple CEO Tim Cook said on a
conference call with analysts.
The evidence showed up
in data gathered by market
research firm Ookla last year.
In October, before Apple an-
nounced the iPhone 12, Ook-
la’s data showed that about
15% of smartphones were
equipped with 5G modems,
based on usage patterns of its
“Speedtest” application. By
mid-November, around the
time the phones went on sale,
that number had jumped to
50% and has hovered there
ever since. The data suggest
iPhone 12 was a huge success
for Apple, and that it’s among
the most popular 5G phones
on the market. One caveat is
that Ookla’s users tend to be
early adopters of new tech-
nology.
In the U.S., T-Mobile has
rolled out 5G faster than its
competitors. According to
market research firm Open
Signal, T-Mobile customers
The overture from the co-
alition of 10 GOP senators,
mostly centrists, is an attempt
to show that at least some in
the Republican ranks want to
work with Biden’s new admin-
istration, rather than simply
operating as the opposition in
the minority in Congress.
But Democrats are wary of
using too much time courting
GOP support that may not ma-
terialize or delivering too mea-
ger a package as they believe
happened during the 2009 re-
covery.
Willamette
Valley real
estate took
off in 2020
10-year-old
Court OKs damages
for cow trespassing
The Oregon Court
of Appeals has upheld
an enhanced award for
damages and attorney
fees won by an organic
farm whose crops were
trampled by neighboring
cows.
In 2017, a jury awarded
about $26,650 to Sim-
ington Gardens in Aurora
for net income loss, crop
damage and mitigation
costs caused by heifers
that escaped from nearby
Rock Ridge Farms.
A judge later de-
termined the organic
farm was also entitled
to an enhanced award
of $11,000, as well as
$150,000 in attorney fees,
under the state’s “trespass
to produce” law.
Rock Ridge Farms chal-
lenged that decision, ar-
guing the trespass wasn’t
“willful” and thus Siming-
ton Gardens wasn’t en-
titled to enhanced dam-
ages and attorney fees.
The state’s Court of Ap-
peals has now rejected
those arguments, ruling
that the organic farm can
still recover enhanced
damages under legal pro-
visions related to “casual
or involuntary” trespass to
produce.
S&P 500
3,773.86 +59.62
spent upward of 35% of their
time connected to 5G in the
most 5G-saturated markets,
such as Illinois, Missouri,
Oregon and Louisiana.
But even when consum-
ers are connected to 5G,
they aren’t getting the kinds
of speeds that the technol-
ogy promises to deliver .
“The full ecosystem isn’t
completely built yet to bring
about the potential that 5G
brings,” said Doug King, di-
rector of business develop-
ment for market research
firm RootMetrics. “With any
new technology, it’s going to
take a while.”
Home prices continued
to soar to all-time highs in
the mid-Willamette Valley
in 2020, with many houses
receiving multiple bids well
above asking price within days
of being listed, real estate ex-
perts said.
That’s great news if you’re
selling a house, but problem-
atic for first-time homebuyers.
Inventory is at an all-time
low, and low interest rates also
are helping drive the seller’s
market, real estate experts said.
But other factors, such as
the ability to work from home
during the pandemic and
likely beyond, are making the
mid-valley a more attractive
place to live.
“People are looking to get
away from the big cities.
“There are a lot of people
moving up from California,”
said Kyler Gulaskey, a broker
with Keller Williams Mid-Wil-
lamette.
The average price of a home
in Corvallis reached $436,000
for the 12-month span ending
in November 2020, the latest
data available from the Willa-
mette Valley Multiple Listing
Service.
Albany’s average home sale
hit $362,000, while Lebanon’s
climbed to $307,000. Even
Sweet Home, historically con-
sidered a deal because of its
somewhat remote location,
had an average home sale of
$281,000, according to multi-
ple listing data.
From the end of 2019 to No-
vember 2020, the average res-
idential real estate prices grew
in almost every community
in the mid-Willamette Valley,
ranging from 4% in Browns-
ville to 17.6% in Sweet Home.
Since 2015, the price tag of
a house has grown by 39% in
Corvallis, by 62% in Albany,
by 60% in Lebanon and by
77% in Sweet Home, Willa-
mette Valley Multiple Listing
Service figures show.
Places that have been seen
as bedroom communities or
more frugal options have be-
come far less affordable.
Wendi Melcher, a broker
with Heritage NW Real Estate
in Sweet Home, stressed that
Sweet Home’s recent rise isn’t
simply due to new construc-
tion.
Houses in town built near
the airport five years ago
initially sold for $175,000.
They’re now on the market
for more than $300,000, she
added.
Realtors don’t expect the
housing market to cool down
anytime soon, unless interest
rates rise significantly.
“At some point, there has to
be a threshold that we cross,”
said Barbara Hartz, principal
broker and owner of Land-
mark Realty in Philomath.
“Do I see it? I don’t see it yet.”