System caused by political fighting. bnsf has boosted its rail transport business by 600% the last decade all of that due to the northern boxen shale in north dakota. and now with the keystone pipeline getting shot down, canadian rail companies are ramping up as well. rail costs the producers more, but it s worth it because the pipeline shortage is forcing them to give refiners deep discounts because of delay. you re taking advantage of existing rail mainline infrastructure that s already there, and you have flexibility to get the different markets wherever there is a receiving terminal. reporter: now, rail cannot replace the capacity of the keystone pipeline, but environmentalists are still angry. a state department report done during the keystone debate showed rail to be even more potentially hazardous for the environment than transport by pipeline. putting a really dirty
Doesn t it? beater varnes from the biz on capitol hill tonight. this has become a huge problem. that s right, shep. relate at this track reports that banks now own 872,000 foreclosed homes. almost twice as many as before the financial crisis began. and they are in the process of foreclosing on a million more properties. now, this is obviously bad news for regular home sellers. banks usually sell these properties at deep discounts. last year at an average 36% discount, compared to the sale of a non-foreclosure property. and banks sell hundreds of thousands of other homes before they even get to foreign under agreements with struggling homeowners which pus even more downward pressure on prices, shep. shepard: the value of homes on paper, it s startling how much they keep going down. yeah, analysts say that all of this could keep a lid on home prices for years. i are going to have overhang of distressed values keeping
Projected here. due to people really letting go a bit. reporter: retailers are pulling out all the stops with deep discounts. 50% off at gap plus another 20% if you bought this past weekend. last-minute customers will be treated especially well. you ll have these ambassadors standing there with special gift cards, special discounts, because they want you in the store and they re going to reward you for that. reporter: the national sales outlook is optimistic. las vegas retailers face an uphill battle. with the highest unemployment rate in the country. people aren t spending what they used to spend. reporter: the national retail federation had been predicting a 2.3% increase in holiday sales this season. now they think it will be a full point higher. t.j. winick, abc news, new york. we certainly reported the sale of luxury goods is also up and some people say is an indicator the economy could be turning around. we see a lot of indicators but you always hope.
A little bit. reporter: retailers are pulling out all the stops with deep discounts. 50% off at gap plus another 20% if you bought this past weekend. last-minute customers will be treated especially well. you ll have these ambassadors standing there with special gift cards, special discounts, because they want you in the store and they re going to reward you for that. reporter: the national sales outlook is optimistic. las vegas retailers face an uphill battle. with the highest unemployment rate in the country. people aren t spending what they used to spend. reporter: the national retail federation had been predicting a 2.3% increase in holiday sales this season. now they think it will be a full point higher. t.j. winick, abc news, new york. we certainly reported the sale of luxury goods is also up and some people say is an indicator the economy could be turning around. we see a lot of indicators but you always hope. let s hope so. some incentives out there when i go shop
In general. not just for the online retailers like amazon and ebay which you expect to make a big push today. for the big box retailers as well. like wal-mart, like target and best buy. they are all trying to via for online shopping dealers with issues like deals like free shipping, deep discounts. they are trying to get some of that money that s coming out of your possibility that you are spending online this year. shepard: a lot of deals to point to out there? there are so many deals out there this year, shep. too many to name. but i did scour the web for some of my favorites. here is a look at somewhat i picked out for you today. today ebay was offering 10% off the apple ipad. we also got word that target was offering a scepter 19-inch hdtv for 149. the x box 360 being sold by wal-mart ran for $249. amazon sold a tom tom g.p.s. for 99.99. pretty good deals. shepard: sounds good. looks like stores are seeing