Chattanooga apartment rental rates are up nearly 15% from a year ago and other business news

Apartment rental rates in Chattanooga increased 14.9% last year

The median price of a two-bedroom apartment in Chattanooga jumped last month to $1,310 a month, up 14.9% from a year ago, according to a new Zumper rental rate report. in the USA.

Last month, Chattanooga’s median rental rate for a 2-bedroom apartment was still 35.3% below the national average of $1,746, which hit a new high for the 15th consecutive month.

“More remarkable than hitting new all-time highs is that the pace of rent growth in 2022 is accelerating from the blistering pace of 2021,” Zumer National Rent Report analyst Jeff Andrews wrote in a report released Wednesday. “Rising rents can be attributed to rising home prices. As home valuations rise in any given market, this excludes tenants who were close to being able to buy a home, leaving them in the rental market .”

According to Zumper, New York was the most expensive rental market in the country with a median monthly rate of $3,420 for a one-bedroom apartment.

Zumper said a typical one-bedroom apartment in Chattanooga was priced at $1,130 a month in April, up 3.7% from the median price a year ago.

Jack Link’s snacks expand in Georgia

Georgia is home to Sasquatch, or at least the Wisconsin-based meat snack company that has adopted the furry creature as its mascot.

Jack Link’s Protein Snacks announced Tuesday that it will build a $450 million plant in the central Georgia town of Perry, hiring 800 people after it opens in late 2023. Link Snacks says it is the world’s largest protein snack manufacturer, making beef jerky and other meat snacks sold under its own name and other brands.

Gov. Brian Kemp and members of the Link family, owners of the Minong, Wis., company, met Tuesday with other officials at a 120-acre pecan orchard in Perry where the plant will be built.

Kemp said it was Georgia’s largest economic development project outside of metro Atlanta this year.

“Today is the latest fruit of our hard work to create more jobs and opportunities for hard-working Georgians,” Kemp said.

CEO Troy Link, son of founder Jack Link, said the Georgia plant will be the largest family business ever built.

“The Georgia plant will ensure that we continue to lead the protein snack category with great innovation and continue to grow with our customers, consumers and team members,” Link said.

Kevin McAdams, the company’s North American president, said Link Snacks is considering more than 30 locations nationwide. McAdams said the company is immediately hiring a plant manager, human relations manager, controller, food safety and quality manager, and plant engineer.

Ford loses $3.1 billion due to chip shortage

Ford Motor Co. said on Wednesday it lost $3.1 billion in the first quarter, weighed down by its investment in an electric vehicle startup, and its revenue tumbled as a chip shortage limited supply of pickup trucks and SUVs. in North America.

Company executives walked away from the loss and headed for results that excluded the lower value of its stake in Rivian. Ford said it made $2.3 billion in pretax profit and is still on track to meet its annual target for the metric.

Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said the quarter produced mixed results.

“Obviously the demand for our new products is very strong,” Lawler said, “but we continue to have chip supply issues, which has limited us, and particularly here in North America, it hit us disproportionately on our large vehicles.”

The chip shortage has caused Ford and General Motors to close several North American plants for a week or two at a time, including plants that build popular full-size pickup trucks.

Ford said it sold 966,000 vehicles in the first quarter, down 9% from a year earlier.

Lawler said the company also faced inflationary pressures from suppliers, but managed to recoup them thanks to rising vehicle prices.

The first quarter loss of $3.11 billion compared to a profit of $3.26 billion in the same period last year. Revenue was down 9% from a year ago to $34.48 billion.

Meta-stock jumps despite slower growth

First-quarter earnings from Meta, Facebook’s parent company, beat Wall Street expectations despite slower revenue growth, sending the stock soaring in after-hours trading.

The company earned $7.47 billion, or $2.72 per share, in the January-March period. That’s down 21% from $9.5 billion, or $3.30 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Meta cut a stark contrast to Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which on Monday reported what analysts called disappointing results, with earnings falling short of Wall Street expectations and revenue growth slower than in the past. previous quarters.

Meta shares rose 13.2% to $198 in after-hours trading.

Greece taps bond markets after sovereign upgrade

ATHENS, Greece — Greece raised 1.5 billion euros in a 7-year bond reissue, tapping markets days after a sovereign credit rating upgrade.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said the money was raised with a yield of 2.4% compared to the 2% yield in 2020 when the bond was first issued. Rating agency Standard & Poor’s last week raised Greece’s sovereign rating from BB+ to BB+, one notch below investment grade.

Athens hopes to return to investment grade next year for the first time since its economy’s near collapse triggered successive international bailouts from 2010.

— Compiled by Dave Flessner