Residential
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April 22, 2025
Citizens Bank Seeks Quick Win From Real Estate Partnership
Citizens Bank pushed for an early win in its loan default suit in Connecticut state court, arguing that the court should allow it to foreclose on the Bristol properties that were used to secure a $23 million loan.
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April 21, 2025
Fla. Senate Will Weigh Easing Financial Mandates For Condos
The Florida Senate will consider giving condominium associations more financial breathing room as the state puts into effect building safety reforms enacted in the wake of a deadly building collapse in the town of Surfside in 2021.
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April 21, 2025
AG Accuses NJ Luxury Tower Contractors Of Labor Violations
New Jersey's attorney general on Monday announced a lawsuit against a general contractor and a group of subcontractors for shorting workers on wages and benefits during the construction of a Jersey City luxury high-rise.
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April 21, 2025
NYU Starts Affordable Housing Clinic For Religious Orgs
New York University School of Law announced Monday it will form a clinic to help shepherd faith-based organizations through building affordable housing on their properties, as the state legislature considers a bill to eliminate obstacles for such development.
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April 21, 2025
Calif. Homeowners Say Insurers Colluded To Limit Coverage
California property owners affected by the Los Angeles wildfires accused over 300 insurers of conspiring to eliminate competition in the marketplace, forcing consumers to instead obtain fire insurance from the state's insurer of last resort, according to two lawsuits filed in state court.
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April 21, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Frenkel Hershkowitz and Kramer Levin are among the law firms that scored work on the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, with four Manhattan matters leading the way.
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April 21, 2025
Houston Mandates Registration For Short-Term Rentals
Houston's city council has passed short-term rental regulations requiring owners and operators to register individual rental units, while also implementing penalties designed to crack down on repeat bad actors.
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April 18, 2025
SEC Wins $1M Real Estate Fraud Suit Over NC Development
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scored a win in its fraud suit in North Carolina federal court against an insurance agent and his company, with a judge finding the agency has shown the defendants defrauded seven investors out of over $1 million.
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April 18, 2025
9th Circ. Won't Rethink Nixed Zillow, NAR Antitrust Case
The Ninth Circuit won't be rethinking a panel decision refusing to revive a defunct brokerage platform's case accusing Zillow and the National Association of Realtors of anticompetitively relegating its listings from Zillow's main page.
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April 18, 2025
Ore. Realtors Urge Panel To Reject Fees On Vacant Homes
Proposed legislation to allow local governments to impose fees on certain vacant homes would violate fundamental principles of property rights, Oregon Realtors told a state Senate panel.
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April 18, 2025
HUD Lists Aging DC Headquarters Building For Sale
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Government Services Administration have announced plans to sell HUD's headquarters, saying the property exceeds the department's need for office space.
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April 18, 2025
NC High Court Snapshot: Livestock Litigation Takes Limelight
The North Carolina Supreme Court's April lineup will find the justices delving into a squabble over backyard chickens in a residential neighborhood and a consumer fraud class action with Home Depot in the crosshairs.
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April 18, 2025
Fla. Jury Hits Expedia With $30M Helms-Burton Verdict
A Miami jury on Friday said Expedia and three related entities owe $29.85 million after finding the online booking companies liable for violating the Helms-Burton Act's anti-trafficking provision by offering reservations for resorts on a barrier island seized by Fidel Castro's government.
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April 18, 2025
Castlelake, Invictus Partner For $2B Residential Loan Venture
Global alternative investment manager Castlelake LP announced that it has formed a partnership with alternative credit asset manager Invictus Capital Partners to invest up to $2 billion in newly originated residential mortgages.
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April 17, 2025
Judge Warns Rocket Cos. Investor: Seek Cert. At 'Own Peril'
A Michigan federal judge on Thursday said a pension fund trying to take over as lead plaintiff in a suit against mortgage business Rocket Companies Inc. does not need the court's permission to file a renewed class certification motion, but it "does so at its own peril."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 17, 2025
CFPB 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.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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What Came Of Texas Legislature's Long-Promised Tax Relief
Following promises of historic tax relief made possible by a record budget surplus, the Texas legislative session as a whole was one in which taxpayers that are large businesses could have done somewhat better, but the new legislation is clearly still a positive, say attorneys at Baker Botts.
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Looking Behind The Curtain Of Residential Transition Loans
As residential transition loans and securitizations of such loans grow increasingly popular, real estate stakeholders should take care to understand both the unique features and potential challenges offered by this novel asset class, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Hedging Variable Interest Rates In A Volatile Market
Variable rate loans, which were an advantageous borrowing method prior to the recent Federal Reserve rate hikes and subsequent volatility, are now the difference between borrowers remaining current on their obligations and defaulting due to the sharply increasing debt service requirements of their loans, say attorneys at Cassin & Cassin.
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CRA Plays Role In DOJ Fight Against Redlining
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent consent order with ESSA Bank & Trust is a reminder that although the Community Reinvestment Act lacks a civil enforcement provision, financial institutions' CRA compliance efforts may have ramifications under various anti-discrimination statutes, say Collin Grier and Levi Swank at Goodwin.
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Colo. Eviction Case Could Transform Tenant Rights
The Colorado Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in a case that could open the door for tenants to assert allegations of discrimination and retaliation during eviction proceedings, and dramatically prolong the state's process, says Jacob Hollars at Spencer Fane.
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Harsh 11th Circ. Rebuke Should Inspire Changes At CFPB
The Eleventh Circuit's recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Brown decision, which found the CFPB's conduct had been egregious in a debt collection enforcement action, should encourage some reflection at the bureau regarding its level of attention to the reasonable due process concerns of regulated institutions, says Eric Mogilnicki at Covington.
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3 Alternatives To CRE Collateralized Loan Obligations
With current commercial real estate market conditions pushing issuers away from collateralized loan obligations, several Freddie Mac offerings should be considered as alternative exit strategies for mortgage loans secured by multifamily properties, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Fla. Banking Brief: All The Notable Compliance Updates In Q2
Florida financial institutions must now navigate minimum interest rates for attorney trust accounts, restrictions on property sales to prohibited foreigners, and a ban on weighing environmental, social and governance factors to determine a customer's creditworthiness — changes that will add to banks' compliance pressures, says Patricia Hernandez at Avila Rodriguez.
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NY Court Sends Mixed Signals On Contested Foreclosure Law
Although New York's Appellate Division, Second Department, has avoided addressing the constitutionality and retroactive application of the Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act, its conflicting pattern of applying FAPA to existing cases is creating confusion regarding the future of the law, say Christopher Gorman and John Muldoon at Abrams Fensterman and litigation support analyst Robert Marx.
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Expect CFPB Scrutiny On AI In Lending
As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prioritizes regulatory oversight of the financial services industry's use of automated systems and artificial technology, it will need to balance regulation and innovation, and companies should prepare to mitigate any potential for bias or unfair, deceptive or abusive acts and practices, say attorneys at Goodwin.
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Texas Construction Statute Of Repose Leaves Open Questions
Texas' new significantly shorter statute of repose barring certain suits against construction contractors contains some ambiguous wording that will likely raise questions to be decided by courts, says Mason Hester at Munsch Hardt.