• Ansbacher & Associates announced that managing shareholder Barry Ansbacher has become the first and only attorney in Florida to receive board certification from The Florida Bar in both real estate and construction law. Certification is the highest level of evaluation by The Florida Bar of competency and experience within an area of law. With 88,000 Florida Bar members, more than 4,400 Florida lawyers are recognized as specialists in one or more of 24 certification areas.
• The CoreLogic information service reports that Jacksonville home prices in September, including distressed sales, fell by 10.68 percent over September 2009. Not counting distressed sales, year-over-year prices fell 3.34 percent. Nationally, prices fell 2.79 percent. Florida was one of the five top states for the greatest depreciation, down 7.68 percent.
• The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors reported that in October, single-family and condo sales fell 31.4 percent from October 2009, from 1,411 to 968. Pending sales fell 13 percent, from 1,472 to 1,280. The association cited the end of federal stimulus and a temporary moratorium on foreclosures and short sales by some lenders as contributing factors.
• Jacksonville Bancorp Inc., the holding company for The Jacksonville Bank, completed its acquisition of Atlantic BancGroup Inc. and its subsidiary, Oceanside Bank. Oceanside Bank has been merged with The Jacksonville Bank but will continue to operate as Oceanside Bank until Dec. 6.
• Correction: Senior Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden was misidentified in a photo on Nov. 8 about the Fifth Annual Gary Pajcic Professionalism Seminar.
• As for housing prices, the median price of $142,550 fell 1.7 percent from $145,000 last October. The average sale price of $173,892 this October was down 2 percent from $177,494. The overall price drops were the result of lender-mediated sales. The median sale prices among traditional sales rose 6.6 percent, but the 22 percent price drop for lender-mediated sales led to the overall 1.7 percent decrease.
• Congratulations to Todd Simpson, principal of Reynolds Lane Elementary School, who won the $10,000 Leonard Miller Principal Leadership Award presented by the Council for Educational Change. The award recognizes exceptional school leadership and is presented annually to an outstanding Florida school principal selected from a list of nominees from throughout the state.
• Baptist Health named Frank Martire to its board of directors. Martire is president and CEO of FIS. Martire joined FIS in October 2009 with the company’s acquisition of Metavante Corp. Previously, Martire served as board chair for Metavante Technologies Inc. and as CEO for Metavante Corp., the principal subsidiary of Metavante Technologies.