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Residential

  • April 17, 2025

    Fla. Senate Takes Steps To Bolster Affordable Housing Law

    With time starting to run low in the Florida Legislature's annual regular session, the Senate has taken a notable step toward addressing the state's ongoing affordable housing concerns by passing a bill that would put more weight behind 2023's Live Local Act in response to pushback from local governments.

  • April 17, 2025

    Greystar Says FTC Suit Seeks 'Radical' Expansion Of Power

    Developer and property manager Greystar urged a Colorado federal court to toss a Federal Trade Commission suit alleging it advertised deceptive rental prices, saying the suit requires a novel reading of a decades-old statute that would "radically" expand the agency's power.

  • April 17, 2025

    Cuban Island Owner Wants $36M In Helms-Burton Case

    A Cuban-American man who says he is the rightful heir to an island off the coast of Cuba that was seized by the Communist government asked a Miami jury on Thursday for an award of more than $36 million against Expedia, which the man claims illegally trafficked in the stolen property by offering reservations for resorts on the island through its website.

  • April 17, 2025

    Colo. FAIR Plan Gives Policyholders Options At A Cost

    Colorado launched the country's first new Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR, Plan in 40 years to offer residents another tool in an increasingly challenging wildfire, hail and wind market, but experts emphasized that this limited form of coverage is not intended to address affordability concerns.

  • April 17, 2025

    Colo. Insurance Bills Offer Promise But Uncertain Costs

    Colorado lawmakers are contemplating insurance bills that experts say could help improve the state's market by boosting home resilience, but there are still cost concerns and skepticism that other proposals are workable, like a state reinsurance program.

  • April 17, 2025

    Navajo Man Owed Relocation Benefits, 9th Circ. Rules

    The Ninth Circuit has ruled in a published opinion that a Navajo Nation member was wrongly denied relocation benefits after the U.S. government awarded his ancestral land to the Hopi Tribe, saying the federal relocation office relied on flawed findings and arbitrary reasoning when denying his claim.

  • April 17, 2025

    Wash. Justices Strike Down Spokane's Homeless Camp Law

    The Washington Supreme Court said a voter-approved initiative restricting encampments for homeless people in Spokane is unconstitutional, in an opinion Thursday that said the measure exceeds the scope of local initiative power because it impermissibly "tinkers" with a policy the city had previously adopted.

  • April 17, 2025

    Blackstone Sees 'Speed Bump' In Real Estate Recovery

    Officials at investment giant Blackstone told analysts on April 17 that they expected the direct impact of tariffs on its businesses to be limited, although a wider downturn could be more troubling.

  • April 17, 2025

    ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ Will Cut Examinations By Half In Broad Retreat: Memo

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to cut back sharply on its policing of nonbank financial firms, slash examinations and pull back on its use of fines as part of a dramatic shift in supervisory and enforcement priorities outlined in a new internal memo.

  • April 16, 2025

    Philly Housing Agency Seeks Out Of Suit Over Fatal Fire

    The Philadelphia Housing Authority on Wednesday urged a Pennsylvania federal court to free it from a lawsuit accusing it of responsibility for a fatal 2022 public housing fire that killed 12 residents, saying administrators of the decedents' estates failed to show that the agency directly caused the fire.

  • April 16, 2025

    Atty Expects Action But No U-Turn On New Fla. Condo Laws

    Miami attorney Joe Hernandez, a specialist in condominium law matters — and a condo owner himself — talked with Law360 about Florida condo associations' compliance with new building safety laws, the state of condo terminations and what steps the Legislature many take in its current session.

  • April 16, 2025

    Texas Ranch Neighbor Agrees Not To Use 'Mesa Vista' Name

    The owner of a property neighboring the late T. Boone Pickens' luxurious Mesa Vista Ranch hunting estate in the Texas Panhandle has agreed to stop using the name after being sued by the ranch's new owner.

  • April 16, 2025

    Real Estate Lawyers Chart Dealmaking Under Tariffs

    As real estate transaction attorneys navigate uncertainty in the market, some deals are being put on ice, while elsewhere, clients are rushing to negotiate protections from price hikes or find opportunistic deals.

  • April 16, 2025

    ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ Defends Bid To Undo Redlining Deal

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reiterated Tuesday its bid in Illinois federal court to refund a Chicago-area mortgage lender's redlining settlement, arguing that consumer advocates fighting to keep the deal in place "attack a strawman" and posit "a parade of horribles that have nothing to do with this case."

  • April 16, 2025

    Calif. Agency Says Appraisal Co. Discriminated Against Family

    The California Civil Rights Department announced it has reached settlements with a Nevada-based appraisal management company and an individual appraiser that allegedly lowballed a Black and Latino family in the Bay Area because of their race.

  • April 16, 2025

    IRS Publishes 2025 Average Residence Purchase Price Data

    The Internal Revenue Service published data Wednesday on the average purchase price for U.S. residences in different areas, which is used to determine whether bond interest can be excluded from gross income.

  • April 16, 2025

    Disbarred Atty Gets 2½ Years For Investment Scheme

    A New Jersey federal judge sentenced a disbarred attorney to 2½ years in prison after he admitted to misleading would-be investors in his financial services company with false promises before using their money for his personal expenses.

  • April 15, 2025

    Massive Calif. Fire Assessment Pass-Through Sparks Suit

    Public interest nonprofit Consumer Watchdog sued California's insurance chief in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday to stop him from allowing insurance companies to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in assessment costs as surcharges onto policyholders, claiming the decision was made without any public input, in violation of the state's Administrative Procedure Act. 

  • April 15, 2025

    Calif. Residents Sue Feds Over Tribe's Federal Status, Casino

    Three Plymouth, California, residents and a civil rights nonprofit have alleged in a suit that the federal government conspired to approve federal recognition, fee-to-trust and gaming applications for the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, questioning the constitutionality of the trust relationship between the U.S. and Indigenous nations.

  • April 15, 2025

    NY Developers Land $237M Refi For Major Mixed-Use Project

    The developers behind a 70-acre mixed-use development in Sleepy Hollow, New York, secured a $237 million refinancing for the project from Hudson Bay Capital, per an announcement from Walker & Dunlop which arranged the financing.

  • April 15, 2025

    NJ Judicial Privacy Law Is Unconstitutional, 3rd Circ. Told

    A group of data brokers told the Third Circuit that the New Jersey judicial privacy measure, Daniel's Law, is facially unconstitutional and that a federal district judge effectively "rewrote" it when he found otherwise.

  • April 15, 2025

    Trump Tariffs Could Push Rents Up, Redfin Says

    President Donald Trump's tariffs on products such as construction materials could lead to fewer apartments being made in the country and a rise in rents, according to a report from real estate brokerage Redfin.

  • April 15, 2025

    Giordano Halleran Nabs Real Estate Pro For NJ Expansion

    Giordano Halleran & Ciesla PC announced that the firm has added a commercial real estate transaction pro as shareholder, who is spearheading the firm's opening of an office in northern New Jersey.

  • April 14, 2025

    Expedia Defends Cuban Island Bookings In Helms-Burton Trial

    The former manager of Expedia's Cuba group took the stand Monday to defend the travel company's actions offering reservations for resorts on an island off the coast of Cuba that a Cuban-American man says was stolen from his family by Fidel Castro's government, telling jurors the company worked to comply with constantly changing regulations related to travel to Cuba.

  • April 14, 2025

    Greystar Faces Consolidation Of Colo. Tenant 'Junk Fee' Suits

    A Colorado multidistrict litigation panel on Monday recommended consolidating four tenant class actions against the property management company Greystar before a single state court, following a hearing where tenants argued that allowing the "junk fee" cases to proceed separately could draw conflicting court decisions.

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding The IRC's Excessive Refund Claim Penalty

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    Taxpayers considering protective refund claims pending resolution of major questions in tax cases like Moore v. U.S., which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, should understand how doing so may also leave them vulnerable to an excessive refund claim penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6676, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Bankruptcy Ruling Shifts Lease Rejection Claim Calculation

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    A New York federal court’s recent ruling in In re: Cortlandt provides guidance on how to calculate a landlord's damages claim when a bankruptcy debtor rejects a lease, changing from an approach that considers the remaining rent due under the lease to one that considers the remaining time, say Bethany Simmons and Noah Weingarten at Loeb & Loeb.

  • Do Not Overstate Fla. Condo Termination Ruling's Impact

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    A close look at the unique language at issue in Avila v. Biscayne, in which a Florida appellate court deemed a condo termination to be invalid, shows that the case is unlikely to significantly affect other potential terminations, say Barry Lapides and Edward Baker at Berger Singerman.

  • Takeaways From FDIC's Spring Supervisory Highlights

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s spring 2024 consumer compliance supervisory report found that relatively few institutions had significant consumer compliance issues last year, but the common thread among those that did were inadequacies or failures in disclosures to consumers, says Matthew Hanaghan at Nutter.

  • What Calif. Eviction Ruling Means For Defaulting Borrowers

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    A California appellate court's recent decision in Homeward Opportunities v. Taptelis found that a defaulting borrower could not delay foreclosure with an improperly served notice of pendency of action, but leaves open a possibility for borrowers to delay eviction proceedings merely by filing lawsuits, say Anne Beehler and Krystal Anderson at Holland & Knight.

  • How 3D Printing And Prefab Are Changing Construction

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    The growing popularity of trends like 3D printing technology and prefabrication in the construction industry have positive ramifications ranging from reducing risks at project sites to streamlining construction schedules, say Josephine Bahn and Jeffery Mullen at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Wave Of Final Rules Reflects Race Against CRA Deadline

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    The flurry of final rules now leaping off the Federal Register press — some of which will affect entire industries and millions of Americans — shows President Joe Biden's determination to protect his regulatory legacy from reversal by the next Congress, given the impending statutory look-back period under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • A Deep Dive Into High Court's Permit Fee Ruling

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    David Robinson and Daniel Golub at Holland & Knight explore the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that a local traffic impact fee charged to a California property owner may be a Fifth Amendment taking — and where it leaves localities and real estate developers.

  • The Case For Overturning Florida Foreclosure Ruling

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Desbrunes v. U.S. Bank National Association will potentially put foreclosure cases across the state in jeopardy, and unless it is reconsidered, foreclosing plaintiffs will need to choose between frustrating and uncertain options in the new legal landscape, say Sara Accardi and Paige Knight at Bradley.

  • Bracing For The ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ's War On Mortgage Fees

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    As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau homes in on the legality of certain residential mortgage fees, the industry should consult the bureau's steady stream of consumer lending guidance for hints on its priorities, say Nanci Weissgold and Melissa Malpass at Alston & Bird.

  • DOJ Consent Orders Chart Road Map For Lending Compliance

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    Two recent consent orders issued by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its efforts to fight mortgage lending discrimination highlight issues that pose fair lending compliance risks, and should be carefully studied by banks to avoid enforcement actions, says Memrie Fortenberry at Jones Walker.

  • Reverse Veil-Piercing Ruling Will Help Judgment Creditors

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    A New York federal court’s recent decision in Citibank v. Aralpa Holdings, finding two corporate entities liable for a judgment issued against a Mexican businessman, shows the value of reverse veil piercing as a remedy for judgment creditors to go after sophisticated debtors who squirrel away assets, says Gabe Bluestone at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Calif. Housing Overhaul May Increase Pressure On Landlords

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    Two recently enacted California laws signal new protections and legal benefits for tenants, but also elevate landlords' financial exposure at a time when they are already facing multiple other hardships, says Laya Dogmetchi at Much Shelist.