Unemployment in the Jacksonville area in October was 6.6 percent, as the rate rose by more than 2 percentage points in all five counties in Northeast Florida.

The rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area was up from 4 percent in October 2007, and up from 6.4 percent a month ago. The numbers are from the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation.

Florida’s unemployment rate was 7 percent, up from 4.4 percent a year ago and 6.9 percent in September.

At the county level Duval had the highest unemployment rate at 6.9 percent, up from 4.2 percent a year earlier. Next highest was Baker County at 6.4 percent (3.5 percent a year earlier), Nassau at 6.1 percent (up from 3.5 percent), Clay at 6 percent (up from 3.7 percent) and St. Johns at 5.9 percent (up from 3.5 percent).

In the metro area there were 641,000 people employed in October, about 3,000 fewer than in September and 7,000 fewer than a year ago.

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Four out of five college students and young graduates are looking for a job to make extra money during the holidays, but many of them don’t think they’ll land one in a rough-and-tumble economy.

That’s according to a holiday jobs survey by Boston-based Experience Inc., which provides career services for college students and recent graduates.

Only 22 percent surveyed said they had secured a part-time or full-time job for the upcoming winter break. That’s down from 47 percent of survey respondents in 2007.

Of those still looking for a job, 53 percent said they think they are unlikely to secure a position, the survey said.

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Florida financial institutions regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision posted a combined loss of $407.97 million in the third quarter of 2008.

The 36 Florida thrifts had a combined loss of $620,000 in the third quarter of 2007, a report from the OTS said.

The Florida thrifts ended the quarter on Sept. 30 with $53.3 billion in total assets and $36.4 billion in total deposits and escrows. Total equity capital was $3.82 billion as of Sept. 30. The OTS did not provide comparable figures for the prior year.

Nationally, savings and loans posted a third quarter loss of $4 billion, compared to a loss of $1.7 billion in the prior quarter and net income of $598 million in the third quarter one year ago, the report said.

Losses increased as the industry added to loan loss reserves, which are a direct charge to earnings. During the third quarter, thrifts set aside $7.9 billion in loan loss provisions, the OTS said.

Troubled assets, which include noncurrent loans and repossessed assets, rose to 2.4 percent of all assets, up from 2.27 percent in the prior quarter and 1 percent a year ago. The increase in problem assets is a direct result of the continued housing market downturn, OTS said.

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Florida ranks 32nd in the nation when it comes to luring business and providing a high standard of living for its residents, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The report, from Boston-based Beacon Hill Institute, looked at a set of 43 indicators divided into eight subcategories: government and fiscal policy, security, infrastructure, human resources, technology, business incubation, openness and environmental policy.

Florida ranked No. 1 in the government and fiscal policy category, but ranked 47th when it comes to infrastructure and 45th in security.

The Sunshine State ranked 36th for human resources, 43rd for technology, 11th for business incubation, 13th for openness and 26th for environmental policy.

Massachusetts received an overall No. 1 ranking, while Mississippi was in last place.

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Consumer prices plunged in October by the largest percentage in 61 years as gasoline costs dropped by a record amount.

The U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday that consumer prices fell by 1 percent last month, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back to February 1947. The drop was twice as large as the 0.5 percent decline analysts expected.

The drop reflected huge declines in energy costs as well as in other areas. Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, fell by 0.1 percent last month, the first drop in more than a quarter-century.

The big retreat in consumer prices reflects a staggering turnaround from the summer, when a surge in energy costs raised concerns that inflation could spiral out of control. Meanwhile, the nation continues to struggle with its most serious financial crisis in a generation.

Despite the historic drop in October, consumer prices have risen by 3.7 percent over the past 12 months. That’s still well below a 12-month increase of 5.6 percent recorded this summer. Core prices are up 2.2 percent over the past 12 months.

Experts say this latest reading on consumer prices gives the Federal Reserve a reason to cut interest rates again. The central bank is expected to cut the federal funds rate, interest that banks charge each other, from 1 percent, to 0.5 percent, at its December meeting. The 1 percent funds rate ties the record low for the past half-century.

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Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair is an optimist.

That's what she told Baltimore businesspeople in a Thursday morning speech amid what’s widely considered the nation’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

After Wednesday’s plunge of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a five-year low, Bair said she was worried that the markets have gone “from irrational exuberance to irrational despair.” The phrase, echoing Alan Greenspan’s famous quote about the overheated economy, drew laughs from the crowd.

Bair’s talk emphasized the FDIC’s $25 billion proposal to prevent foreclosures by modifying home loans for cash-strapped borrowers. Bair said Thursday she still hopes she can soon get funding for the plan from the $700 billion bank rescue package, although U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has publicly opposed that idea.

“I don’t think all the ammunition’s been unleashed yet” that could help contain the financial crisis, Bair said. The loan modification program could help stabilize the housing market, she said. And the FDIC plans to finalize tomorrow its bank liquidity plan, which guarantees newly issued senior bank debt and money in deposit accounts that many businesses use for payroll.

“Despite the problems we’re facing in our economy, the vast majority of banks remain well-capitalized and safe and sound,” Bair said. Many of the problems rippling through the economy originated in less-regulated industries outside the banking system, she said. The system needs more and better regulation, she said, especially the complex securities products that magnified the problems in the mortgage market.

“I think we all could do a better job of explaining that rationale” for the $700 billion bailout, she said — that injecting government money into banks will free up funds for lending.

Regulators haven’t come up with a single metric that would quantify whether banks are using the rescue money as they should, she said. But they will be monitoring banks’ financial reports and looking at lending activity, she said: “If they do not lend, the economic crisis will worsen.”

Bair grew up in Kansas, raised by parents who emphasized the value of thrift after living through the Depression.

“We’ve kind of lost touch” with those values, she said, and “it would be nice to get them back.”

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Gov. Charlie Crist unveiled proposals that would give university boards of trustees authority over day-to-day operations and personnel while giving the Board of Governors governance over longer-range planning.

The proposal calls for the boards of trustees to have the option of establishing — with Board of Governors approval — a differential tuition higher than the base rate charged in-state undergraduates, a release said.

The differential would be limited to a maximum of 15 percent annually.

The Bright Futures Scholarship Program would continue coverage of base tuition, and tuition changes would not affect Florida Prepaid College Plan contracts, the release said.

Under the proposal, 30 percent of the differential tuition revenue generated would be used for need-based student aid. The remainder would pay for faculty recruitment and retention, programs to improve graduation, and retention and other needs identified by universities.

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Successful top executives offered advice on making strides in business amid a tough economy at the Association for Corporate Growth logistics conference Nov. 20 in Ponte Vedra Beach.

In an afternoon session at the Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort, three CEOs experiencing downturns in their industry offered tips on making strong moves during a weak economy. The following are ways they found growth in distressed sectors:

• Randal Drew, CEO, Parc Management LLC, Jacksonville.

Parc operates water and theme parks throughout the nation. It started in 2007 with seven parks it acquired from Six Flags Inc. and will operate 28 properties by the end of the year.

Drew said some of the ways they outperformed the industry despite fuel costs and a slow economy was:

- Making a big effort to offer higher quality products, such as Angus steak burgers and all-beef hot dogs at its park concessions.

- Having a “bottom-up” mentality in which decisions are made at the local level instead of the national level.

- Have a very well-defined set of values. And the values and vision should drive all of the business’ processes.

- When there is a process break down, talk about where it broke down and how to move the system forward instead of blaming individuals.

- Most importantly, have trust in relationships. Build bonds with families and communities. Parc also does a lot of business focus groups and sends “secret shoppers” into its parks.

• Jim Smith, CEO, Vira Manufacturing Inc., Perth Amboy, N.J.

Vira specializes in designing, manufacturing and installing retail store fixtures globally. The company had revenues of $48.6 million in 2007 and is projecting $53.5 million in revenues by the end of this year.

Smith said the company has been impacted by the downturn in the retail industry — in particular a decline in new stores. But he said the company has taken actions including:

- It has reduced debt by $6 million.

- The company has established global partnerships.

- It has developed products for technology, such as a tracking system that notifies parents where their child is inside and outside the mall. Also creating green products.

- The company created customer loyalty programs.

- It is selling from the top, down. And Smith not to overlook employees.

• Mark Woods, CEO, Pride of Iowa LLC, Marengo, Iowa.

Pride of Iowa is a national distributor of sandwiches, plated entrees and hand-held convenience foods.

Woods said he’s done plenty of things wrong with his business in years past, but he’s made many changes to help the company grow. They include:

- Don’t have delusions of who you are. “I’m a sandwich guy, but I’ve got to get up in the morning feeling good about it,” he said. “Start the day every day knowing who you are and how you’re going to win.”

- His company bought another building for expansion and changed management.

- It expanded into new markets with “sticky” customers such as big-box retailers. It also moved into new markets, including schools, prisons and the government.

- The company has worked with new products, but he said: “If we don’t do it well, we don’t try to reinvent it.”

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Virginia senators John Warner and Jim Webb are urging the Pentagon to delay the final decision to move a nuclear aircraft carrier to Mayport Naval Air Station.

“We’re not going to lose this carrier,” Webb is said at a Thursday news conference with Warner, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen.-elect Mark Warner.

The Navy's proposal to move a carrier to Mayport "borders on fiscal irresponsibility,'' said Warner and Webb in a letter to Defense secretary Robert Gates.

Florida's Congressional delegation hit back, saying it's crucial to disperse the Navy's East Coast fleet of aircraft carriers. All of the carriers are nucelar-powered after the last conventionally-powered carrier, the Mayport-based USS John F. Kennedy, was decommissioned last year.

Rep. Ander Crernshaw received a classified briefing Thursday at which the Navy explained its rationale for moving a carrier to Mayport. Crenshaw noted that the Navy has three nuclear maintenance facilities on the West Coat but only one on the East Coast at Norfolk, Va.

"I left today's briefing convinced that any other decision would have been tantamount to a dereliction of duty," Crenshaw said.

The transfer of a nuclear aircraft carrier to Mayport brings with it huge economic benefits to Northeast Florida. The Navy estimates there will be $426 million in construction projects at the Mayport base just to get it ready to be the home port for a nuclear carrier. The ship carries a full-time crew of 3,200, who would be based here after the ship arrives, which is estimated to be 2014.

All of the Navy's nuclear aircraft carriers on the East Coast are now based at Norfolk, Va. Supporters of a move to Mayport say the carriers are susceptible to attack, and spreading out the fleet makes it more secure. Earlier this week, it was learned that Navy officials have made a decision to recommend that one of the carriers be moved to Mayport.

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Stein Mart reported a net loss of $14.1 million, or $0.34 per share, in the third quarter.

Net sales also were down 10.4 percent to $298.8 million for the 13 weeks ended Nov. 1. compared to $333.3 million during the same period last year. Likewise, comparable store sales also were down 12.6 percent.

In a news release announcing the results. officials said, “in light of the severity of the current economic environment, management has accelerated various initiatives begun earlier this year to increase sales, motivate existing customers and attract new ones, reduce expenses and maximize cash flow.”

Some of those initiatives include adding more name brand merchandise, marketing geared toward Stein Mart being a different type of discount store, suspending cash dividends and repurchasing company stock.

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A sobering afternoon forecast

David Darst, Morgan Stanley’s chief investment strategist of its Global Wealth Management Group, shared this forecast as the afternoon keynote speaker at the ACB conference:

There is a 70 percent change that the American economy will experience a 19th Century-style recession, where access to credit is cut off, Darst said. There is a 10 percent change that the country experiences a Japanese-style recession, which would be 12-14 years of a flat economy, he said.

There is a less than 10 percent chance that the economy would be as troubled as the one marking the Great Depression because regulators have already helped by cutting interest rates and taxes. The chances of the economy entering such as dismal period are lessened by automatic economic stabilizers, such as unemployment insurance. There is also a 10 percent chance that dismal predictions were wrong and the economy and stock market will improve "smartly" by mid-2009.

"This market is driven purely by psychology and sentiment," he said.

Making deals in a weak economy

Loan demand has slowed and unsecuritized financing is gone, but there are still ways for companies to receive financing in the weak market, said a group of financial experts Thurday at the Association for Corporate Growth, a two-day meeting in Ponte Vedra of private equity firms.

Right now there are two primary source of financing for capital: senior bank debt and private equity, said Stephen Goldman, senior vice president of commercial lending at Bank of America in Jacksonville, who spoke to about 600 people that were expected to attend the event.

Goldman, who said he could not speak for all lenders at his bank, said many lenders are simply looking for a strong balance sheet and credit-worthy companies.

On Wednesday, many conference attendees participated in tours of Jaxport, Cecil Field and Cecil Commerce Center. On the second day, conference goers gathered for speakers and presentations at the Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort outside of Jacksonville.

From a private equity standpoint, acquisitions have slowed this year and a lot of consumer businesses and retailers have been impacted, said Patrick Boroian, partner at Brockway Moran Partners based in Boca Raton, another of the speakers in attendance on Thursday.

“In the last 30 days we’ve seen more businesses that have to get financing” and the lenders who are not as healthy are not renewing these business’ lines of credit for the next quarter, he said. However, “we’re seeing better quality companies than what we’ve seen in last four or five years.”

In terms of what equities will look like in 2009, Carl Roston, a partner at Akerman Senterfitt, said “we can’t look into the future” but there will be great opportunities to buy companies, though not at the multiples levels and pricing in previous years.

“Diversification is important,” especially when business slows in one sector, he said.

Goldman said the finance deals are getting back to the basics where lenders are looking at their leverage of funding for three years or less, which means the companies will have to seek more funding from private equity groups.

Lenders will also look at the relationship between the private equity groups and the businesses they’re investing in to make sure they are standing by their clients through the downturn.

“From a commercial banking perspective, it’s critical for the companies and private equity firms to really get to know your bankers,” Goldman said. “If they know you and [the historical relationship] they are more comfortable to do business with you.”

As part of a panel, Randolph Smith, a Grant Thornton LLP partner, said drayage and intermodal is playing a bigger role in the trucking industry, which has been spurred by high fuels costs, driver shortage and growth of international trade. Revenues through intermodal operations increased in last quarter by 23 percent to $513.2 million, he said.

The industry’s total revenues are expected to shrink by 4.2 percent in 2008. Plus, reduction in manufacturing production and declining retail spending are causing a reduction in the industry’s revenues and margins.

Jonathan Skelly, PCE Investment Bankers distribution team leader, said logistics and operations technology is increasingly used by the more savvy providers. To get the most out of purchased software you need to understand its potential and have employees understand it, not just a hired consultant.

John Anderson, Fenway Partners Resources Inc.’s managing director, said private equity firms play a variety of roles in warehousing, including being an owner, merging a third-party logistics operations into the warehouse, have its companies using the warehouse and could be warehouse avoider by using more efficient transfer of goods from ships to trucks or rail.

Fenway Partners’ criteria for involving itself with warehouses are:

• Return on equity

• Link between warehousing and core business

• Competitive advantage of a role in warehousing

• Exit attractiveness

It's more than a credit "crunch"

“It’s like a massive earthquake has occurred in the credit markets, said Chris Vukas, senior managing director of UPS Capital, among the 600 or so in attendance at the ACG logistics conference in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Representatives of UPS, a global manufacturer and a trade financial consultant, spoke about the credit markets impacting global supply in a session titled, “In Concert or in Conflict: Financing a Global Supply Chain to Increase Corporate Value.”

“Essentially leverage has just been crushed down on the entire global supply chain,” Vukas said.

This was largely due to costs of transits, including costs of fuel becoming very expensive up until recently.

“With deleveraging, the prices have come down across the board,” he said. “In a very short period of time, we’ve essentially gone from a seller model to buyer model in physical products.”

Coupled with that was the tightening in the financial markets, he said.

From a manufacturing standpoint, William Davis, vice president and treasurer of KAZ Inc., said reading in real time and expecting real time results are no longer there.

One example cited by Davis was when the global thermometer manufacturer had one of its third-party suppliers in China not able to commit the products because it could not get financing.

That meant KAZ could not get the revenue from those products and had to pay a penalty to the retailers to fill the empty shelve space.

The end buyers are saying they no longer want to use the letter of credit, and so the “suppliers need new ways of getting the financing,” said Buddy Baker, an independent Trade Financial Consultant.

“You have to have visibility, flexibility and agility,” said Scott Szwast, director of marketing UPS International Freight.

Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton starts conference on upbeat note

Mayor John Peyton helped kick off the conference for private equity firms and lenders interested in investing in Florida private companies by briefing attendees on Jacksonville’s opportunities.

Jacksonville is not without challenges, including a poor housing market and rising unemployment, but there are “some things that are defying gravity,” Peyton told ACG conference attendees.

The area’s strong fundamentals include three interstates provide tremendous logistics opportunities, three rail hubs and the western most port on the east coast, he said. The expansion of the Panama Canal in 2015 will spur larger ships to take advantage of the ports on the east coast.

That's why the MOL Line Ltd and Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd are coming to Jaxport. The city-owned and recently privatized Cecil Commerce Center will aid with the distribution of goods. Conference attendess received a tour of Jaxport, Cecil Field and Cecil Commerce Center on Wednesday.

“The icing on the cake is that the [U.S.] Navy has chosen Jacksonville to be the home of a carrier,” said Peyton. “We are probably perceived as the most military-friendly city in America.”

He added that the consolidated government lessens bickering and provides a “one-stop shop for economic development.”

Keynote speaker: Lt. Gen. Gus Pagonis, the Gulf War logistics head

The morning keynote speaker, retired Lt. Gen. Gus Pagonis, emphasized the need for a single decision maker when it comes to supply chains. Pagonis, who ran the military’s logistics during The Gulf War, said businesses’ problems are often due to poor logistics management.

By making a long-term commitment to fellow Sears employees, Pagonis said he was able to ensure loyalty. He also was able to improve the company’s supply chain by having his manager give three positives and three negatives, with potential solutions, every week. The strategy and the improvement of a supply chain spurred a front-page Wall Street Journal story lauding the company’s supply chain.

Pagonis said formal education was important but informal education was essential. That’s why he had new hires coming out of college work at distribution centers for a year before moving them to corporate headquarters.

In a later session, Pagonis said a supply chain is a concept not an organization, and is different for every business. “Logistics is just one of the spokes of the supply chain,” he said. At Sears, Pagonis put a moratorium on IT solutions because he said they are tools not a complete solution. Proper IT use can cement the supply chain but it can also confuse those who are on the ground.

In the same way he tried to support the solider who carries the rifle, supply chains need to support those who are part of the supply chain and the customers it serves. Pagonis said one’s company supply chain administration should reflect the supply chain workers’ diversity. Education is also key, and that’s why Pagonis promoted college education to a distribution center outside of Barstow, Calif., Many of the bilingual recipients of the college education were then promoted and helped the company better manage its Hispanic work force.

Staff writers Mark Szakonyi and Rachel Witkowski are reporting throughout the day Thursday from the Association for Corporate Growth logistics conference in Ponte Vedra Beach.

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The U.S, economy in the past 2 months "has declined faster than any of us have seen in our careers," Bank of America chief economist Lynn Reaser said Wednesday at a lunch hosted by the Economic Roundtable of Jacksonville.

Reaser said the economy is in the midst of a slide right now, but signs of growth should emerge by mid-2009.

Among the forecasts made by Reaser at Jacksonville University's Davis College of Business:

• The Fed will drop the federal funds rate to half a percentage point by the end of 2008 as it focuses on fighting the recession.

• "Consumers are absolutely terrified," and will cut back on spending into 2009.

• U.S. home sales may be starting to bottom out, as more people are drawn to the market by lower home prices.

• U.S. home prices are still falling, but at a slower rate. She forecasts that nationally, home prices will drop another 10 percent before bottoming out in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

• The nation's Gross Domestic Product should begin to grow again by mid-2009.

• Unemployment will top out around 8 percent before the economy starts to recover.

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Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. said all of its retail grocery locations are now selling a prepaid card from nFinanSe Inc.

Winn-Dixie customers can buy the nFinanSe reloadable prepaid cards at the company’s 521 grocery stores and load funds onto them at their discretion, a release from the companies said. The cards, part of the Discover network, can be used to make purchases at merchant locations nationwide, including online and over the telephone, and to access cash at ATMs, the release said.

The cards cost $5.95 to purchase and have a $2.95 monthly maintenance fee, the release said.

Winn-Dixie (NASDAQ: WINN), based in Jacksonville, has stores in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

nFinanSe (OTCBB: NFSE), headquartered in Tampa, provides stored value cards and operates a network of load locations.

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Two key measurements of the housing market show that the sector is a long way from ending its historic slump, but the South showed slight improvement.

A new report from the U.S. Commerce Department shows housing starts reached an annual rate of 791,000 last month, the lowest level since the department began tracking starts in 1959. The October rate plunged 4.5 percent from the revised reading of 828,000 in September.

On top of that news, building permits fell 12 percent to an annual rate of 708,000 in October, breaking the previous low of 709,000 in March 1975. The annual rate for September was revised to 805,000. Building permits are an indicator of building activity in the next three to six months.

The declines last month were led by a 31 percent drop in the Northeast, where construction of single-family homes fell to a record low. Home starts dropped 13.7 percent in the Midwest, but rose 7.5 percent in the West and a 1.5 percent in the South.

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AT&T (NYSE: T) gave the Duval County School System a four-year, $400,000 grant to ensure students who started high school this year will graduate in 2012.

The grant funds the AT&T Aspire initiative, Communities In Schools of Jacksonville. The funds will expand the organization’s existing high school dropout prevention efforts to a total of six Jacksonville schools and more than 1,000 students.

AT&T Aspire is a national initiative. In addition to program grants it also funds a student shadowing initiative, underwriting of national research and support for 100 state and community dropout prevention summits.

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A two-day conference for private equity firms and lenders interested in investing in Florida private companies kicked off with tours of Jaxport, Cecil Field and Cecil Commerce Center.

About 600 people are expected to attend the Association for Corporate Growth conference that highlights opportunities in the area’s growing logistics industry.

One of the attendees, Kris Pedersen, vice president of Alliance Development Group, said the real estate developer is interested in Jaxport because it has been looking for a “different avenue” to diversify its business.

Lenders as a whole have tightened down on lending, which has slowed developers on the residential and commercial real estate side, he said. Alliance is looking at the export industry because it has the potential for growth. More specifically, Pedersen said Alliance is interested in after-market car exports and some military business.

With the value of the dollar being low until recently, “all of the other countries could be looking for us to purchase the aftermarket” autos, he said.

The conference at Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort and Spa will include the following speakers and presentations Thursday:

• As the morning speaker, retired Lt. Gen. Gus Pagonis will talk about leadership under fire. He will also speak about the “tailored” supply chain.

• David Darst, Morgan Stanley’s chief investment strategist of its Global Wealth Management Group, will give an investing outlook for 2009.

• Lisa Mancini, CSX Corp.’s senior vice president of human resources and labor relations, will give an update on the railway’s $724 million public-private infrastructure initiative to create an efficient link between Mid-Atlantic ports and the Midwest.

• Bill Byrne, a Holland & Knight partner, will host a panel on supply chains.

Check jacksonvillebusinessjournal.com tomorrow for updates on the conference.

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Gift card purchases are predicted to suffer this holiday season as consumers continue to monitor the current economy and their wallets.

The National Retail Federation's annual gift card survey projects that gift card sales will fall nearly 6 percent this holiday season, to $24.9 billion, down from $26.3 billion last year.

Only 53.5 percent of consumers plan to purchase gift cards this year, compared to 56.6 percent last year, with average spending of $147 on the cards this year versus $156 in 2007.

“Since gift cards never go on sale, some price-conscious shoppers will be passing up gift cards in favor of holiday bargains," said Tracy Mullin, president and CEO of the trade group. “Retailers may need to make minor adjustments to holiday plans as fewer people may be hitting the stores in January to redeem gift cards.”

Men plan to spend the most on gift cards this year – an average of nearly $157 – with consumers over the age of 45 spending the most, $168 on average, according to the survey.

The trade group reported that many consumers say that gift cards are impersonal and that they would rather buy merchandise on sale this season.

But despite the projection, more people will be asking for gift cards this year, according to a survey released by the trade group last month. Nearly 55 percent of consumers want to receive gift cards this year, up from nearly 54 percent last year, said the report.

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Fannie Mae could lose its listing on the New York Stock Exchange if it doesn’t boost its per-share price above $1.

The Washington, D.C.-based mortgage giant (NYSE: FNM) said Wednesday its stock price has fallen below the exchange’s price requirements for too long, according to a regulatory filing.

The average closing price of Fannie Mae’s stock for the 30 consecutive trading days ending Nov. 12 was less than $1 per share.

As a result, the company’s common stock and each of its listed series of preferred stock are subject to suspension and delisting unless the company notifies the NYSE by Nov. 26 of its plans to cure the deficiency.

If it does, it will have six months from Nov. 12 to bring its stock price up to required levels above $1 for 30 consecutive days.

In its first quarterly report since being seized by the government, Fannie Mae reported a record third-quarter loss of $29 billion last week.

Fannie Mae said it is working with its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Authority, to explore options to up its per-share closing price but has not yet determined its response or any specific action that it will take as a result of the exchange’s notice.

Fannie Mae stock closed up 4 percent at 47 cents a share on Tuesday — about $40 less than the price it was trading at a year ago.

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Homebuilders’ confidence that there will be a resolution to the housing crisis anytime soon is at an all-time low, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

As the financial crisis worsens, the job market weakens and an overwhelming uncertainty hangs over the economy, builders fear it will take major incentives to bring homebuyers back to the table.

“Today’s report shows that we are in a crisis situation. If there’s any hope of turning this economy around, Congress and the administration need to focus on stabilizing housing,” NAHB Chairman Sandy Dunn said. “Beyond the work that is being done to help reduce foreclosures, Congress must immediately incorporate such incentives for qualified buyers in a new economic recovery package.”

The housing downturn has already resulted in about 3 million jobs lost in construction and related industries.

The index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.”

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