BUSINESS BRIEFS
Remote-control shopping arrives
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Oceanic Time Warner Cable's 180,000 digital cable subscribers now can purchase items on the Home Shopping Network with a few clicks of their remote control. The new service officially launched yesterday after several months of trials. HSN said Oceanic is the first cable companies to launch the "Shop By Remote" service.
The network said it also is testing technology in select markets on the Mainland.
Oceanic customers already can order pizza and other foods for home delivery via their remote controls.
UNITS FOR SALE AT NEW TIME-SHARE
After starting construction a year ago, Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced it has begun sales at its 179-unit Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas time-share at Princeville Resort on Kaua'i.
Prices for two-bedroom units in the two- and three-story complex above 'Anini Beach start in the low $30,000s for one week of use per year. The first units are scheduled for completion in 2008.
HOME PRICES FALL IN SAN DIEGO
LOS ANGELES — San Diego County kicked off California's housing boom six years ago with dramatic price rises and became one of the nation's hottest real estate markets.
Now it has attained a more dubious distinction: It's the first major California real estate market to see its median home price fall below year-ago levels, according to data released yesterday.
Another once-sizzling market, Los Angeles County, saw home prices in June rise at their slowest year-over-year rate since 2001.
San Diego County's median price for new and existing homes in June was 1 percent lower than a year ago, a stark contrast to the 20 percent-plus annual gains it was posting during the peak of the boom two years ago, according to data from DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate research firm.
