Real Estate Daily News Buzz – December 12, 2013

Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz for the day will be.

Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 129.60 points, or 0.8%, to close at 15,843.53. The S&P 500 index fell 20.40 points, or 1.2%, to 1,782.22. The NASDAQ composite fell 56.68 points, or 1.4%, to 4,003.81. Benchmark oil for January delivery dropped $1.07 to close at $97.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

TUSD AGREES TO SELL WRIGHTSTOWN SCHOOL TO HOMEBUILDER

TUCSON – The TUSD Governing Board Tuesday night unanimously approved a $1.6 million deal for a residential development on the now-closed Wrightstown Elementary School marking it the first time the district has transferred ownership of one of its closed schools. Mahalo Development, LLC of Tucson (CELESCHITO SAPALO, managing member) plans to build up to 80 single family homes on the 9.2- acre property at 8950 E. Wrightstown Road. The sale is conditional on approval of the federal court, which is overseeing the district’s desegregation efforts, and the successful rezoning of the property.

STATE BUDGETS IMPROVING, GROWTH STILL BELOW HISTORIC RATES State budgets are slowly improving, but are still below their pre-recession peaks, according to the latest report from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). The study highlights low revenue growth for FY 2014, when states are expected to take in just 0.8 percent more than they did the previous year. Scott Pattison, Executive Director of NASBO, says even if the projections are overly conservative, that’s still dramatically different from FY 2013’s 5.7 percent growth rate. Pattison attributes slow growth to taxpayers changing the timing of when they collected income, in order to avoid higher federal tax rates that were set to begin Jan. 1, 2013, and states cutting taxes.

HILTON IPO OUTPERFORMS TWITTER BRINGS $2.35B

NEW YORK (AP) — Hilton is back, and in a big way. The hotelier, which went private in 2007, on Wednesday priced its initial public offering at $20 per share — in the middle of its expected range — for a total take of $2.35 billion on the sale of 117.6 million shares. The payoff surpasses the $2.1 billion generated by Twitter’s IPO last month. The biggest IPO of the year so far was Plains GP Holdings LP at $2.9 billion. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is the world’s largest hotel group, when measured by rooms, with 665,667 rooms across 90 countries and territories.

US RUNS $135.2 BILLION BUDGET DEFICIT IN NOVEMBER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government ran a much smaller deficit through the first two months of the budget year than the same period last year, signaling improvement in the nation’s finances. The November deficit — the gap between what the government takes in and what it spends — totaled $135.2 billion, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. That’s 21.4% lower than November 2012. And through the first two months of the budget year the deficit totaled $226.8 billion, or 22.7 per cent lower than the same period a year ago. The budget year begins on Oct. 1. Higher tax rates and a better economy have boosted revenue. At the same time, spending has slowed. Those trends helped shrink the annual deficit last year to $680 billion, the lowest deficit in five years. Private economists predict the annual deficit this year will fall further, to around $600 billion.

FDA APPROVES FIRST GENERIC VERSION OF CYMBALTA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic versions of the blockbuster antidepressant Cymbalta, offering lower-cost access to one of the most widely prescribed treatments for depression, anxiety and other disorders. Cymbalta is Eli Lilly & Co. Inc.’s bestselling drug and posted 2012 sales of $4.7 billion, making it the fifth-highest selling medication in the world. The drug’s patent expired Wednesday, clearing the way for the launch of cheaper versions of the drug from generic drug makers. Generic drugs often sell for a fraction of the price of the original branded product. Besides depression, Cymbalta is also prescribed to treat generalized anxiety disorder, diabetic nerve pain, fibromyalgia and forms of chronic pain. The FDA said it approved six generic versions of the pill from drug makers including Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., Sun Pharma Global and Teva Pharmaceuticals.

GM WILL STOP MAKING CARS IN AUSTRALIA IN 2017

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — General Motors Co. said Wednesday that it will stop making cars and engines in Australia by the end of 2017, with nearly 2,900 jobs to be lost, because of high production costs and competition. The decision could spell the end of car manufacturing in Australia as the industry will be too small for supporting businesses such as parts makers to remain economic. Toyota Motor Corp. announced it is reassessing its future in Australia. A union said 50,000 jobs in the auto industry are in jeopardy. GM’s Australian subsidiary Holden once dominated Australian auto sales, but lost market share to imported cars. Ford Motor Co., once Holden’s major rival in Australia, announced in May that it was ending production in the country in 2016. Toyota is the only other auto manufacturer in Australia. Australia had four car manufacturers before Mitsubishi Motors Corp. shut its doors in 2008.

CZECH BREWER GETS BUDWEISER TRADEMARK IN PORTUGAL

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech brewery Budvar said Wednesday that a Portuguese trade court has upheld a decision prohibiting its rival, Anheuser-Busch InBev, from selling beer under the Budweiser name in the country. State-owned Budvar has been fighting with Anheuser-Busch for over a century over use of the Budweiser brand name. The legal battle continued when Anheuser-Busch was taken over by Belgium’s InBev in 2008 to create the world’s largest brewer. In a statement, the Czech company — whose full name is Budejovicky Budvar NP — said the court in Lisbon rejected AB InBev’s challenge to an earlier ruling because its Budweiser trademarks could be mistaken for those Budvar had already registered in Portugal. AB InBev has an option to appeal but has not yet said if it plans to do so.