SD foreclosure rates

Foreclosure rates in San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos decreased for the month of July over the same period last year, according to CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX).

The rate of San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area foreclosures among outstanding mortgage loans was 1.82 percent for the month of July 2012, a decrease of 0.31 percentage points compared to July 2011 when the rate was 2.13 percent.

Foreclosure activity in San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos was lower than the national foreclosure rate, which was 3.25 percent for July 2012.

Also in San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, the mortgage delinquency rate decreased.

According to CoreLogic data for July 2012, 5.04 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent compared to 6.67 percent for the same period last year, representing a decrease of 1.63 percentage points.

In California, the rate of foreclosures among outstanding mortgage loans was 2.17 percent for July, down from 2.61 percent in July 2011. The mortgage delinquency rate fell 1.99 percent from 7.81 percent in July 2011 to 5.82 percent in July 2012.
Insurer agreement

(AP) -- California's Insurance Commissioner says an agreement has been reached with an insurer to stop the enforcement actions his department brought for claims related to a 2008 fire in northern Los Angeles County that destroyed 489 homes.

Dave Jones said Tuesday New Hampshire Insurance Co. and York Services Group Inc. have agreed to pay a $285,000 settlement to the state.

Of the residences destroyed, 480 were mobile homes in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park.

About 370 of those mobile homes were insured by policies from the New Hampshire Insurance Co., and policyholders complained that they were in dispute with the insurer.

Jones says in 2009 his department secured additional payouts for fire insurance policyholders that resulted in about $11 million in payments to Sylmar fire victims.
LA utility bills

(AP) -- The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to back-to-back electricity rate hikes totaling a little more than 11 percent over the next two years. A second vote is required next week.

The Department of Water and Power, which has nearly 4 million customers, says the rate hikes are expected to generate $321 million by June 2012.

The Los Angeles Daily News says the average homeowner will be paying another $3.65 a month. Customers with larger homes or who use more power will see their bills rise about $18.79 a month.

Businesses will see their bills increase about $15 per month.
Tiny postponement

(AP) -- San Francisco lawmakers have postponed voting on a proposal that would make the city home to some of the smallest apartments in the country.

The city's Board of Supervisors had been expected Tuesday to consider a building code change to allow apartments as small as 220 square feet. The super-tiny efficiency units would include a bathroom, kitchen and closet.

Current regulations require apartment living rooms alone to be that size.

Supervisor Scott Wiener asked to delay a preliminary vote on the issue until Nov. 13 so he could continue discussions with critics who fear the super-small apartments would increase population density, strain city services and further crowd out families.

They are calling for a pilot project to test the new units before fully opening the door to construction.
Hines joint venture

(Bloomberg) -- KKR & Co., the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, formed a joint venture with Hines to develop a master-planned business park in Houston as it seeks to expand in real estate deals.

The partnership will build the Pinto Business Park, owned by Pinto Realty Partners, a subsidiary of Cockrell Interests Inc., KKR said Wednesday.

Roads and drainage are already designed for the 971-acre property, Houston's largest development-ready business park.
Monument contractor

(AP) -- The National Park Service announced Wednesday that Perini Management Services Inc. of Framingham, Mass., has been chosen for the $15 million repair of the Washington Monument.

Federal officials say the contractor's parent was the prime contractor for the construction of the Ronald Reagan Building, the largest building in the district.

And the contractor's team includes firms involved in a restoration of the monument completed in 2000.

The 555-foot-tall obelisk has been closed to the public since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in August 2011. The upper portion of the monument sustained large cracks when it shook violently during the quake. Engineers say scaffolding will have to be built around the monument, which will likely be closed until 2014.
Settlement claim forms

(AP) -- The Massachusetts state attorney general's office has announced that claim forms are being sent to residents who lost their homes to foreclosure and who may be eligible for payment under the $25 billion mortgage settlement agreed to by Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup and Ally Financial/GMAC.

Massachusetts borrowers are eligible for about $14.6 million in cash payments.

Massachusetts also received a payment of about $44.5 million that has been used to mitigate the impacts of the foreclosure crisis by providing advocacy to distressed borrowers facing foreclosure.
Virginia offshore wind

(AP) -- Virginia is seeking to survey a vast expanse of the ocean floor and document wind, waves and wildlife offshore to smooth the way for development of wind turbines by energy companies.

The proposed exploration 27 miles off Virginia Beach encompasses 113,000 acres, or 133 square miles, in the federally designated wind development area.

Eight companies have expressed an interest in building towering turbines there to capture wind for energy. The eight include Dominion Virginia Power, the state's largest utility, as well as international interests.

The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy is proposing two initiatives. One seeks proposals by Oct. 17 to survey the ocean bottom to determine if it can hold massive support structures for wind turbines, which would rise hundreds of feet above the surface. The other involves building platforms along the edges of the commercial lease area.
ND housing subsidies

(AP) -- Responding to a new prediction that North Dakota's population will jump 25 percent by 2025, Gov. Jack Dalrymple said Tuesday he will advocate boosting state subsidies for public works and low-income housing.

A study commissioned by the state Housing Finance Agency, presented at a conference Tuesday, forecasts that the state's population will rise to almost 842,000 people in 13 years. Statewide demand for new apartments and homes will rise by 30 percent, the study said.

Housing needs will be particularly acute in western North Dakota's oil country. The population of three counties at the heart of the state's oil development is expected to swell from the current 32,000 residents to more than 73,000, the study said.

On average, North Dakota will need to add about 6,000 more housing units -- apartments and homes -- each year for the next 15 years, Dalrymple said.
Superfund clearance

(AP) -- Federal officials say a six-acre plot in northern New Jersey that was once contaminated with radioactive thorium has been officially removed from the nation's Superfund list.

The former W.R. Grace and Co. site in Wayne, unused since 1971, underwent $125 million in cleanup efforts over 20 years.

Officials in the Passaic County community plan to turn the site into a dog park and playground. It had been on the Superfund list for nearly three decades before its removal was formally announced on Tuesday.

From 1948 to 1971, the W.R. Grace site was used to extract thorium and other elements from monazite ore.

New Jersey has 112 active Superfund sites, more than any other state.
Denver spaceport

(AP) -- A small airport outside Denver has been awarded a $200,000 matching grant to analyze the feasibility of designating the facility as a spaceport.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the grant Tuesday.

Front Range Airport, which is about six miles southeast of Denver International Airport, is seeking FAA designation as a spaceport, where private companies could launch rockets or space planes with an FAA license.

The FAA also announced a $250,000 matching grant to Hawaii for a similar study and a nearly $24,000 grant to an existing spaceport in California to buy a firefighting system.
Canadian REIT

(Bloomberg) -- Dundee Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust raised C$155 million ($158 million) in its initial public offering to buy industrial sites across Canada, according to sale documents.

Dundee Industrial REIT, created by a unit of Dundee Real Estate Investment Trust, sold 15.5 million units for $10 each, yielding 6.75 percent, the documents said.

Dundee Industrial REIT plans to buy 77 light industrial properties from subsidiaries of Dundee REIT and affiliates of ROI Capital Ltd., the Toronto-based company said in documents. The company will trade in Toronto under the symbol DIR-U.

An additional 1.75 million units will be sold to Dundee Corp. and 750,000 units to Dundee REIT's Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Cooper in a concurrent investment, according to sales documents. Cooper declined to comment.

Canadian companies have raised $1.37 billion in initial stock sales this year, 43 percent less than the same period a year ago, and the slowest start since 2008, according to Bloomberg data.
HK approved loans

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's approved mortgage loans rose 29 percent in August from the previous month as used homes transactions surged.

Loans approved totaled HK$25.2 billion ($3.2 billion) last month, with those financing secondary market sales gained 43 percent to HK$18.1 billion, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said Tuesday. Mortgages drawn- down increased by 1.9 percent to HK$16.4 billion.

The central bank is limiting the maximum term on all new mortgages to 30 years, and mortgage payments for investment properties can't be more than 40 percent of buyers' monthly incomes, up from the previous 50 percent.

"As the property market became more active in August, the number of new mortgages greatly increased," said Sharmaine Lau, Hong Kong-based chief economist at mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services.
Japanese investment fund

(Bloomberg) -- Sparx Group Co., a Japanese asset management company, will start a fund that will invest in the nation's residential properties after receiving money from a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East.

Sparx will start the fund with AD Investment Management Co., which manages a real estate investment trust, on Sept. 28 with initial capital of about 9 billion yen ($116 million), said Sparx Chief Executive Officer Shuhei Abe.

The fund, which will last for five years, has a maximum capacity of 40 billion yen and will invest in six apartment developments in Tokyo and Nagoya, he said.

The company, whose assets have dropped more than 77 percent since a peak in 2006, is widening offerings beyond equity-related products as Abe tries to bring his firm back to profitability and capitalize on what it expects will be a recovery in Japan's property market.

Land prices dropped at a slower pace for a third year as low interest rates and tax incentives supported housing demand, a government report earlier this month showed.

"Japan's property market is starting to show signs of a turnaround, yet only a limited number of investors are actually starting to invest in the market," Abe said Tuesday in an interview in Tokyo. "That means, we can offer decent returns based on high-quality assets by entering the market now."
Refurbishing desalination

(Bloomberg) -- Aqua Services and Engineering, a unit of Veolia Water Solutions, will refurbish a seawater desalination plant and boost potable water supplies in Walvis Bay, where water scarcity has long been an issue.

Veolia Water is a division of Paris-based Veolia Environnement SA, the largest water utility.

The ASE unit will install an energy recovery system to the reverse osmosis membrane system to help the Namibia plant optimize power consumption and adapt an air flotation filtration design, it said in a statement. The plant should be operational in five to six months.
Irish bargains

(Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Plc's Irish unit offered to sell properties, including 640 apartments and a hotel, for about 70 percent less than their value at the market's 2007 peak, according to the broker managing the sale.

The Gemini portfolio, containing buildings in the Irish cities of Dublin and Cork, has an asking price of 75 million euros ($97 million), according to Domhnaill O'Sullivan, a director at Savills Plc's Dublin office.

The London-based broker is selling the real estate, which also includes stores, on behalf of receivers KPMG and Grant Thornton Ltd.

"We forecast the multifamily market will continue to be very active and evolve to compete with commercial investments," O'Sullivan said. "We envisage that over 2,000 units could come onto the market in the next 12 to 18 months."