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The price for a 30-second commercial spot on television for the U.S Superbowl has risen to US$2.7 million.

The Super Bowl this year will draw new advertisers, including Planters packaged nut company, Kraft Foods, Cars.com, an online auto classified advertising company, McClatchy, Tribune, Washington Post and Belo Corp.

The advertisers expect to reach more than 90 million people in a single shot, something increasingly hard to do in any medium.

Only the largest of television’s events: the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Oscars and the Grammys have the potential to pull in tens of millions of people.

Last year’s viewership of 93.2 million was close to the all-time record of 94.1 million set in 1996, and many believe that record could be surpassed this year.

It’s Election Day in Florida.  On the ballot are Presidential Candidates for both parties and a Property Tax Amendment aimed at helping homeowners.

Polls close at 7 p.m. tonight.

Lines at many polling places were short when Florida’s presidential primary voting began Tuesday, but the number of voters was expected to be among the highest in recent years.

If early voting and absentee interest is a gauge, Floridians are extremely interested in the election.

More than a million voters - about one in ten of those registered in the state - have already cast a ballot, either through the early voting that began Jan. 14 or in absentee ballots
returned by mail.

Weather around the state was clear Tuesday, further boosting expectations of a high turnout.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning says everything is going well with voting with the exception of one incident in Palm Beach County.

Voting was delayed at a precinct in Delray Beach because of a “human error” that deprogrammed the voting machines. New equipment had to be brought in and the closed machines were being reprogrammed and expected to be operational by midmorning.

The expected high voter turnout comes despite the Democratic primary being essentially a straw poll. The national party punished Florida for moving its primary earlier, stripping all its delegates in the nominating process.

But the earlier January primary - the 2004 primary was in early March - may also be fueling heavy interest, experts said. Neither party’s contest has a clear faraway front runner, which keeps voters engaged.

About 435,000 Democrats had voted early going into Tuesday - a huge increase from March of 2004 when only 97,000 Democrats participated in early voting.

About 500,000 Republicans voted early.

More Than 2.2 Million Foreclosure Filings on Nearly 1.3 Million Properties Reported In USA During 2007.

RealtyTrac® (realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released year-end data from its 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 2,203,295 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,285,873 properties nationwide during the year, up 75 percent from 2006. The report also shows that more than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58 percent in 2006.

A total of 215,749 foreclosure filings were reported in December, up 97 percent from December 2006 and bringing the fourth-quarter total to 642,150 filings on 527,740 properties — up 1 percent from the previous quarter and up 86 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006.

“The year ended with a monthly increase of 7 percent in December, making it the fifth straight month with more than 200,000 foreclosure filings reported and giving the fourth quarter the highest quarterly total we’ve seen since we began issuing our report in January 2005,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “It also pushed the foreclosure filing total for 2007 well over 2 million. And while filings were up 75 percent, the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure was up 79 percent, indicating that some properties may have just entered the initial stage of foreclosure in 2007 and could be going through the rest of the foreclosure process in 2008 — unless lender and government intervention efforts begin to gain more traction.”

Top annual foreclosure rates
Nevada posted the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for 2007, with 3.4 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — more than three times the national average. The state documented the highest monthly foreclosure rate in all 12 months of the year. A total of 66,316 foreclosure filings on 34,417 properties were reported in Nevada in 2007, an increase of more than 200 percent in total filings from 2006.

With more than 2 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year, Florida documented the second highest state foreclosure rate for 2007. A total of 279,325 foreclosure filings on 165,291 properties were reported in the state during the year, more than twice the number of filings reported in 2006. The state’s foreclosure filing total in December was up 275 percent from December 2006, and its fourth quarter total was up 211 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006.

Michigan documented the nation’s third highest state foreclosure for 2007, with 1.9 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year. A total of 136,205 foreclosure filings on 87,210 properties were reported in the state during the year, a 68 percent increase in total filings from 2006. Michigan foreclosure activity dipped 17 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, but its December foreclosure filing total was still up more than 70 percent from December 2006.

California, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois and Indiana all posted foreclosure rates among the nation’s top 10 in 2007, and all these states documented more than 1 percent of their households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year.

Highest foreclosure filing totals
With a total of 481,392 foreclosure filings on 249,513 properties during the year, California documented the highest number of foreclosure filings and the most properties in some stage of foreclosure in 2007. The state’s total foreclosure filings more than tripled from 2006, and the state’s 2007 foreclosure rate — 1.9 percent of its households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year — ranked fourth highest among the states. California foreclosure filings were down 3 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter despite a 33 percent spike in December, but total foreclosure filings in the fourth quarter were still nearly three times the number reported in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Florida tallied the second highest totals, both in terms of foreclosure filings and properties entering some stage of foreclosure in 2007. (See above for more details on Florida.)

Ohio’s total foreclosure filings, 153,196, and total properties entering some stage of foreclosure, 89,979, both ranked third highest among the states for 2007. The state’s foreclosure filings increased 88 percent from 2006, and its 2007 foreclosure rate was the nation’s sixth highest, with 1.8 percent of the state’s households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year. Ohio’s high ranking for the year came despite a dip in foreclosure activity in the fourth quarter, when foreclosure filings decreased 2 percent from the previous quarter. The state’s December foreclosure filings were down 26 percent from the previous month but still up 64 percent from December 2006.

Other states with foreclosure filing totals among the top 10 were Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.

Report methodology
The RealtyTrac 2007 Year-End U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides the total number of foreclosure filings nationwide and by state, along with the total number of unique addresses entering some stage of foreclosure and percentage of total households entering some stage of foreclosure (foreclosure rate). Data is also available at the individual county level.

The household numbers are based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 estimates of total housing units. Foreclosure filings include foreclosure-related documents in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank).

Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix and No. 53 on Inc. magazine’s 2006 Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, RealtyTrac Inc., is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value. - Source: RealtyTrac Inc.