Residential
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March 17, 2025
4th Circ. Revives Tenant's FCRA Suit Over Disputed Debt
The Fourth Circuit has revived a tenant's lawsuit over an allegedly bogus charge from her landlord, ruling that collection agencies are not exempt from their obligation to investigate Fair Credit Reporting Act claims if they involve a legal dispute.
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March 17, 2025
At Distressed Assets Forum, Lenders Say They're Doing OK
Despite recent upticks in distress in commercial real estate and some foreboding statistics, bankers and private lenders speaking at a forum on distressed assets on Monday presented a rather optimistic outlook on being able to survive and even find opportunities in 2025.
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March 17, 2025
NY Tower Owner Buys Out JPMorgan Arm In $420M Deal
Steiner NYC closed a $420 million recapitalization of a Brooklyn multifamily tower and bought out equity partner J.P. Morgan Asset Management, guided by in-house counsel and a Latham & Watkins LLP team.
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March 17, 2025
Calif. Panel Sides With Tribe In Hotel Construction Fight
A California appeals panel has sided with a Native American tribe in its decision to reverse a lower court ruling and invalidate the city of Clearlake's approval of a hotel project on what was tribal land, finding that the city failed to comply with a state environmental law.
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March 17, 2025
Ginnie Mae Says Texas Bank Can't Undo Ruling On Lien
Ginnie Mae and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have urged a Texas federal court to grant them summary judgment in a Texas bank's lawsuit, which alleges the government wrongfully extinguished the bank's first-priority lien for nearly $30 million of collateral, saying the court already upheld the authority to terminate the lien.
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March 17, 2025
HUD, DOI To Identify Federal Land For Affordable Housing
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of the Interior will work together on identifying federal land that could be used as the sites of affordable housing, according to a joint announcement.
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March 17, 2025
Paul Hastings Guides Artemis From Founding To Takeover
When Paul Hastings partner Joshua H. Sternoff was initially pitched on repping Debbie Harmon and Penny Pritzker in creating the first women-owned real estate investment business, he thought it was a bet worth taking. About 16 years and several fundraising cycles later, Sternoff and others at Paul Hastings steered Artemis Real Estate Partners through what might be its biggest move yet.
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March 17, 2025
4th Circ. Tosses HOA Closing Fees Suit
The Fourth Circuit tossed a North Carolina property owner's proposed class action alleging that a property management company unlawfully charged excessive closing fees when she sold two properties.
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March 17, 2025
Belkin Burden Hires Tax Exemption, Zoning Experts
Belkin Burden & Goldman LLP announced Monday it has added five new attorneys from Seiden & Schein PC who will form the firm's new tax exemptions and zoning incentives department.
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March 17, 2025
High Value Dubious In $23M Easement Dispute, 11th Circ. Told
A partnership that claimed a $23 million tax deduction for a conservation easement donation failed to consider the lack of market demand for a potential quarry it used to justify the land's high value, the U.S. government told the Eleventh Circuit.
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March 17, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
DLA Piper and Klestadt Winters are among the law firms that landed work on the top New York City real estate deals to hit public records last week, with a pair of Manhattan trades topping the list.
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March 14, 2025
Fannie, Freddie Can't Avoid $612M Investor Win, Judge Rules
A D.C. federal judge on Friday upheld a $612.4 million jury verdict against the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ruling that the jury was provided with "ample evidence" that reasonably led to its conclusion that FHFA improperly amended stock purchase agreements related to the companies.
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March 14, 2025
4th Circ. Dubious Of Private Island's Win In Fair Housing Fight
The Fourth Circuit on Friday seemed poised to upend a lower court ruling siding with a gated community in a discriminatory housing suit brought by the developer of a proposed assisted living facility, with one judge lamenting a lack of analysis on whether the facility's accommodation request was necessary and reasonable.
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March 14, 2025
Calif. Insurance Chief OKs State Farm Rates Pending Hearing
The California Department of Insurance on Friday provisionally approved State Farm's request for an emergency rate hike following the Los Angeles fires, including a nearly 22% increase for homeowners, saying final approval will be contingent on the insurer justifying its request at a hearing.
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March 14, 2025
Property Plays: Buffalo, Swerdlow Group, Tampa Bay Rays
Property Plays is a weekly roundup of the latest loans, leases, sales and projects around the country. Send your tips — all confidential — to realestate@law360.com.
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March 14, 2025
Demand Tightens Florida Land Market In '24, Broker Finds
Large-acreage land transactions and institutional investors drove much of the activity in Florida's land market in 2024, with agricultural land transforming into residential, solar or other development as the state's population grows.
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March 14, 2025
3 Firms Rep Franklin BSP Realty Trust's $425M NewPoint Buy
Hogan Lovells, Reed Smith and Paul Weiss guided Franklin BSP Realty Trust's $425 million acquisition of commercial real estate finance company NewPoint Holdings JV LLC, boosting the REIT's multifamily loan offerings.
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March 14, 2025
PulteGroup GC Rakes In $3M After '23 Dip
Atlanta-based U.S. homebuilder PulteGroup paid its general counsel more than $3 million in total compensation in 2024, marking a 13% increase from his 2023 total compensation as the company raked in a record $17 billion in home sale revenues last year, according to a recent securities filing.
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March 14, 2025
Mont. Ranch Claims Ranger Retaliation In Easement Dispute
A Montana landowner told a federal judge that a U.S. Forest Service official launched a retaliatory criminal investigation after the managers of a ranch complained about public parking on an access road near the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
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March 14, 2025
Ark. Bill Aims To Ban Certain Separate Property Assessments
Arkansas would not allow accessory dwelling units to be assessed separately from a principal residence through a constitutional amendment proposed by a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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March 14, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Paul Weiss
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Mallinckrodt PLC and Endo Inc. combine, Rocket Cos. buys Redfin, and Endo divests its international pharmaceuticals business to Knight Therapeutics Inc.
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March 14, 2025
Brooklyn Man Gets 45 Months For 'Seinfeld'-Themed Fraud
A Brooklyn federal judge sentenced a podcaster and purported cryptocurrency guru to 45 months in prison after he pled guilty to scamming investors out of more than $2 million using fictitious businesses, including one apparently named after "Seinfeld" character George Costanza's fake prospective employer Vandelay Industries.
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March 14, 2025
Washington Dept. OKs Property Conversion Tax Break Regs
Washington state's Department of Revenue adopted regulations to clarify eligibility requirements for a retail sales and use tax break for the conversion of commercial property to affordable housing authorized by a 2024 law, according to a rulemaking order.
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March 13, 2025
Fla. Condo Says Insurers Unfairly Handled Hurricane Claim
A Pensacola Beach condominium complex told a Florida federal court that it is entitled to recover attorney fees and other costs associated with what it alleged was its insurers' failures to fairly handle its claim for Hurricane Sally damage.
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March 13, 2025
Sister Sues To Enforce $28M Spanish Family Arb. Award
A sister has sued two brothers in Miami-Dade County state civil court to enforce an approximately $28 million arbitral award over assets and property in Florida, Spain and the Dominican Republic, saying they tried to cut her out of a family agreement signed by their mother.
Expert Analysis
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FCRA Legislation To Watch For The Remainder Of 2023
If enacted, pending federal and state legislation may result in significant changes for the Fair Credit Reporting Act landscape and thus require regulated entities and practitioners to pivot their compliance strategies, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Regulators Must Get Creative To Keep Groundwater Flowing
Even as populations have boomed in Sun Belt states like Arizona, California and Texas, groundwater levels have diminished due to drought and overuse — so regulators must explore options including pumping limits, groundwater replenishment and wastewater reuse to ensure future supplies for residential and commercial needs, says Jeffrey Davis at Integral Consulting.
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What Upholding Of Short-Term Rental Law Means For NYC
A New York state judge's dismissal of Airbnb's challenge against the Short-Term Rental Registration Law will benefit the city's hospitality industry and exert downward pressure on apartment rents, and potentially provide a model for other local governments around the U.S. to curb short-term apartment rentals, says Alexander Lycoyannis at Holland & Knight.
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Key Provisions In Florida's New Insurer Accountability Act
Florida's recent bipartisan Insurer Accountability Act introduces a range of new obligations for insurance companies and regulatory bodies to strengthen consumer protection, and other states may follow suit should it prove successful at ensuring a reliable insurance market, say Jan Larson and Benjamin Malings at Jenner & Block.
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Fair Lending Activity: Calm On The Surface, Churning Below
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently released annual fair lending report to Congress confirms that despite the paucity of public fair lending enforcement actions in 2022, the ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ and prudential banking agencies are engaged in significant nonpublic oversight, examination and enforcement activities, say attorneys at Cooley.
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The Basics Of Being A Knowledge Management Attorney
Excerpt from
Michael Lehet at Ogletree Deakins discusses the role of knowledge management attorneys at law firms, the common tasks they perform and practical tips for lawyers who may be considering becoming one.
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Negotiating Material Escalation In Construction Contracts
As material price escalation clauses have remained popular in construction contracts despite an easing of recent supply chain issues, attorneys representing owners should understand key considerations for negotiating such clauses, and strategies to mitigate potential exploitation by contractors, says H. Arthur Black II at Brooks Pierce.
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Key Drivers Behind Widespread Adoption Of NAV Financing
While net asset value-based lending has existed for years, NAV lending has only started to move into the mainstream recently — likely due to difficult market conditions faced by sponsors including persistent inflation, high interest rates and a lack of exit opportunities, say Matthew Kerfoot and Jinyoung Joo at Proskauer.
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Beware Unique Compliance Risks In Home Equity Lending
As borrowers increasingly look to junior-lien mortgages and home equity lines of credit instead of first-lien mortgages, regulators will pay increased attention in turn and lenders will have to watch for a number of legal and regulatory pitfalls as they rush to meet this newfound demand, say attorneys at Orrick.
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4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys
Excerpt from
Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.
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New AI Lending Tech Could Exacerbate Old Bias Risks
As credit and mortgage lending businesses increasingly utilize artificial intelligence technology to help make decisions, they must be aware of the legal risks that may arise under familiar anti-discrimination laws, say Kali Bracey and Grace Wallack at Jenner & Block.
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AI Road Ahead Is Promising For Cautious Fintechs
Financial institutions should understand the conceptions and misconceptions about artificial intelligence likely to influence regulators, and proactively study potential adverse impacts and establish use case strategies and other guardrails for deploying AI, say attorneys at Jones Day.
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Why All Eyes Are On Florida's Affordable Housing Reform
Florida's Live Local Act, which took effect last month, promotes much-needed affordable housing developments with a mix of zoning preemption provisions and tax benefits that may attract interest from developers across the nation, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.