Markets

This week there were fewer than 500 homes on the market in San Francisco. Meanwhile, within Baltimore's city limits there were nearly 2,800, according to online real estate brokerage Redfin. In the spirit of the Super Bowl, the techie real estate firm has compiled a set of statistics comparing the housing markets that surround M&T Bank Stadium and Candlestick Park. Here are some of the other tidbits Redfin collected about the Super Bowl cities: In December, the median price for a single-family home in Baltimore was $145,000; in San Francisco it was $822,000.

It's only been a year? A hit from the start, the Food Market opened on the eve of last year's Honfest. Co-owners Chad Gauss and Elan Kotz, the Food Market's executive chef and general manager, respectively, are celebrating their great first year with a birthday party at the Hampden restaurant on June 5. The party, a benefit for the Hampden Family Center , will include hors d'oeuvres and sweets provided by chefs and restaurateurs. The well-wishers providing food include Cyrus Keefer ( Fork & Wrench )

Because financial markets were closed yesterday for Thanksgiving, no tables appear in today's editions. Stock markets will close today at 1 p.m. and bond markets will close at 2 p.m.

Years ago it was unthinkable that smart, ambitious and college-educated young people would have trouble finding entry level work ("Slow start," May 12). Today, this youthful demographic has been simultaneously dumped on a shrinking employment market and also burdened with horrendous student loans. To me, it's just another example of our country's war on the middle class. Considering this glut of a highly trained, highly motivated generation, why is there a need to add immigration reform to the mix as it will only increase competition?

Baltimore is one of the best cities in the U.S. for homebuyers, according to a recent analysis from online housing market data firm Zillow. “Zillow analyzed data on actual sales prices compared to asking prices, the number of days listings spent on Zillow and the percentage of homes on the market with a price cut and ranked the 30 largest metro areas in the country to determine whether buyers or sellers have more negotiating power in a given market,”...

In my previous column, I argued that American citizen-consumers seem far more likely to complain about government failures than about similar problems arising in the free market. Waste, fraud, inefficiency and other frustrations resulting from government action are considered endemic, yet similar patterns of failure in the private sector are discounted if not overlooked. Responding either by email to me directly or via letter to the editor, several readers protested that a key distinction I failed to acknowledge is that government is a monopoly that permits citizens no alternative, whereas pluralistic, competitive markets allow consumers to take their business elsewhere.

This column may stress you out. It stressed me out just writing it. Start counting on your fingers how many of the following aggravations you have encountered personally. Ready? •You call a customer line to report a problem with some product or service, and after being forced to navigate through a multi-stage menu of options, you finally get a live person - who, unfortunately, seems capable of responding to only small set of basic requests. •You file an insurance claim, but the paperwork and documentation required to get the claim paid seem intentionally convoluted so as to deter you from ever collecting.

Bank of America said Wednesday that an executive with 31 years at the company will step up as president of the institution's Baltimore and Maryland markets. David Millman's past positions at Bank of America include leadership roles in consumer banking and global commercial banking. He's replacing William Couper, the company's mid-Atlantic president, who plans to retire at the end of September after 40 years with Bank of America. Millman, born in Baltimore, lives in Owings Mills with wife Holly.

I was glad to see The Baltimore Sun recognizes the challenges facing the thousands of craft artists seeking viable outlets for their talent ("Creative outlets: 'Art incubators' provide shelf space and business guidance in tough times," May 24). As a national organization that champions crafts, the American Craft Council provides resources, tools, opportunities and systems to assist artists in establishing and sustaining successful businesses. Maryland's craft market is one of the strongest in the country.

Few municipal activities are more likely to flourish free of the clumsy hand of political flunkies than the city's public markets. Several are struggling, and none is prospering as much as it should. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has wisely decided to turn over the operation of five of the six neighborhood markets to a private, non-profit corporation. That body is asked to wean the markets from an annual public subsidy approaching $1 million and allow them to blossom with imaginative marketing and competent management, both of which have been conspicuously lacking for decades.

Two men were shot in separate incidents Sunday in Baltimore, police said, and both were expected to survive their injuries. In the first incident, a man was shot in the leg in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Baltimore on Sunday afternoon, police said. He was shot in the 3900 block of 8th street about 1:50 p.m. In the second incident, in the Hollins Market neighborhood, police responded to the 1200 block of West Lombard Street about 8:15 p.m. for a report of a shooting. They found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to his leg. He was taken to a local hospital.

When Christa Daring was a student, she rode a bus from her Waverly home and crossed North Avenue on her way to classes at the Baltimore School for the Arts. "This was always oh-so no-man's land," she said of the commercial crosstown street that is taking some convincing steps this spring as an arts district. She stood in the old North Avenue Market building, where she and fellow members of the Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffeehouse collective will be moving from Mount Vernon to a much enlarged space.

Jackie Carter had it all mapped out. She would attend college year-round and graduate early, land a job in criminal justice, start paying off student loans, move into her own apartment and invest in her first smartphone. But the 22-year-old Towson University graduate has seen her life after college veer off course. Carter, who graduated in December with a degree in sociology/anthropology with a criminal justice concentration, is living with her parents in Fallston, working as an intern and wondering whether her original goals are forever out of reach.

Nate Weiner used to do most of his grocery shopping at the Wegmans in Hunt Valley and the Giant near his Hampden home. Now he orders most of his groceries online from Relay Foods and picks it up at designated spot on Sundays. "I get most of my produce from them," said Weiner, 26, a mechanical engineer and part-time student. "The local stuff is picked that morning. They're some of the best vegetables I've ever had. " While the aspect of fresh and local food is an attraction, the real selling point for him is convenience.

For decades, the Orioles commanded a sweeping empire of fans - a territory larger than some European countries, stretching from southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina and including Washington, where the team operated a popular retail store. The club's games are still broadcast across most of the same region, but the Orioles now share much of it with the Washington Nationals, who are ensconced in a population-rich portion of what was once the Orioles' domain. The Nationals' arrival in 2005 created a complicated relationship in which the teams are at once neighbors, opponents on the field and, lately, bickering business partners when it comes to the regional television network they co-own but the Orioles control.

I cannot believe that our mayor or any other city or state officials would even consider allotting up to $25 million for renovations at Lexington Market ("Lexington's update," April 7). As a retired merchant with 30 years' experience at Lexington Market, I suggest management give more thought to painting and to hiring a good Realtor to bring in gourmet cheese shops and a French bakery. The market should also offer incentives and stop the beer and liquor drinking among customers shopping in the market.

Fells Point Farmers' Market returns on Saturday for its third season on Broadway Square. The opening day of the market's season will include a tribute to Michael D. "Mick" Kipp, the bartender and spice-maker known affectionately, and widely, as "Mick T. Pirate. " An empty stand will be set up at the market to honor Kipp, who died of a heart attack on Sunday. Market-goers will be able to leave tributes to Kipp in a memory book at the empty stand. There are changes this season to the market.

Josh Vecchiolla, 26, is poised to open a new business in Bel Air called LUSTRE Mobile Detailing Parlour, and to herald the start of the operation he is organizing a charity bikini car wash, car show, and BBQ at the Main Street Tower restaurant on May 5. Planned for 2 to 8 p.m., the event will feature women washing cars, and anything else with a motor. The Tower will provide all the eats, with a BBQ pit beef stand serving various pit meats and drink specials all day. Local bands will start the event's soundtrack from 2-4 p.m. followed by live DJ performances by Harford County natives Kimzl, Logun, Jigga and DJ Doido taking event goers into the early morning hours.