An Oviedo firm plans to build a new 80,000-square-foot, $5 million-plus warehouse/distribution center in unincorporated Seminole County and create 20 more jobs.

Nutrex Research Inc., which has operated from a 27,000-square-foot facility in Oviedo since 2006, will nearly triple its space on a 5-acre site in the South Park Business Center. Nutrex’s related TSO Enterprises LLC bought the site in June for $789,791 from Oviedo-based developer M&O LP.

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The number of American households that fell behind on their mortgages increased slightly in the second quarter from the previous quarter, according to a survey released Monday, an unwelcome sign for the U.S. economy.

After falling for most of the year, the figures offer the latest indication of how the slumping job market threatens to create new problems for housing. Mortgage delinquencies, while still down from their year-earlier levels, have now edged up in two consecutive quarters after hitting a plateau last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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Hit hard when the real estate bubble popped in 2007, many South Florida-based community banks are still reeling from the aftershocks.

Over the last few years, past-due loans have mounted, funds required to offset loan losses have skyrocketed, and real estate has been repossessed and marked down, leading to a flood of red ink and a drain on capital.

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Marty Busekrus, a senior associate investment properties for CB Richard Ellis | Capital Markets in Boca Raton, FL, got a call this past Monday morning from a potential office building buyer as mania struck the stock markets. The buyer, who has been trying to buy an office building from one of Busekrus’ clients, said his seller better sell quick as the stock markets were tanking.

Busekrus contacted the seller who responded with a different take, saying instead that everyone is shifting to hard assets so he’s thinking about raising the price.

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Friday’s downgrade of the nation’s creditworthiness is unlikely to affect Florida’s finances, but the Wall Street plummet that followed it Monday could have a negative effect on the state’s long-term recovery if the panic lingers, state money experts say.

“The S & P downgrade from my perspective is more noise than anything else,” said Ben Watkins, director of the state’s Division of Bond Finance. “The real underlying concern is whether the U.S. economy is slipping back into recession. That’s what people are concerned about.”

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The University of Central Florida is out with its latest quarterly economic forecast for the state, and you should feel free to pick any two adjectives to describe it: Gloomy, sluggish, disappointing or dreary.

The forecast calls for a steady by agonizingly slow recovery dominated by high unemployment and a soft housing market. UCF economist Sean Snaith says the jobless rate will not fall below 10 percent until next year, and housing starts will remain only a small fraction of what they were during the boom times.

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As the federal government has doggedly worked through concerns about foreclosure documentation practices, federal financial agencies have aggressively resumed their sale of foreclosed properties.

Through the first half of the year, the FDIC has sold $1.073 billion in foreclosed properties. This compares to $974.7 million in the first half of last year and $482.2 million in the first half of 2009.

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With more than two months left in its fiscal year, the U.S. Small Business Administration has approved more than $16.4 billion in loans through its flagship 7(a) lending program.

But this record pace has its downside: The 7(a) program is authorized to do only $17.5 billion in loans this fiscal year. Once that cap is reached, the SBA can’t approve any more 7(a) loans until a new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

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