REAL ESTATE

Southland Starts Dip: While we’re discussing bad news, analysts for U.S. Housing Markets, a research publication of Michigan-based Lomas Mortgage USA, report that while housing starts in much of the nation rose in the first quarter, they sank in California--most notably in four Southern California counties: San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange.

A tally of single-family building permits issued in the first quarter shows San Diego County at the top of the losers list, down 21.8% from the first three months of 1992; Riverside-San Bernardino, which the researchers reviewed as a single region, was in second place, off 19.8%, while Orange County was down 12.4%, ranking eighth.

San Diego and the Inland Empire switched places on the multifamily, or rental housing, list, Riverside-San Bernardino topped the losers list with a 72.7% decline from a year earlier and San Diego in second place with a 70.7% decline.

Thanks mainly to projects by Western National Group, William Lyon Co. and the Irvine Co., Orange County didn’t make the worst-10 list in the apartment category.