Residential
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 16, 2025
CFPB 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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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April 14, 2025
10th Circ. Revives Takings Suit Over Colo. Property Law
The Tenth Circuit revived a suit filed by Colorado residents who claimed the state unconstitutionally used its unclaimed-property law to take their properties, finding the residents sufficiently claimed the state failed to provide just compensation.
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April 14, 2025
FTC Joins DOJ In Targeting Anticompetitive Regulations
The Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry Monday to look into reducing regulations that are hindering competition, following a similar move by the U.S. Department of Justice last month.
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April 14, 2025
Top Court Ruling Dooms Suit Challenging Housing Grant Cuts
A federal judge in Boston on Monday vacated an earlier ruling that had blocked the Trump administration from cutting $30 million in housing anti-discrimination grants, saying a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a similar case involving teacher training grants likely strips the court of jurisdiction.
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April 14, 2025
Pierson Ferdinand Adds Real Estate Litigator To Philly Office
Pierson Ferdinand LLP continued to grow its Philadelphia roster with the recent addition of a real estate attorney, the firm's second lateral hire in the city in less than a week.
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April 14, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Simpson Thacher and Seyfarth Shaw are among the law firms that landed work on the largest New York City real estate transactions that hit public records last week, a period that saw sizable transactions across three boroughs.
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April 14, 2025
Ala. High Court Says Condo Incorrectly Classified
An Alabama condominium unit owned by a limited liability company was put in the wrong property class by a trial court, the state's Supreme Court said, because it was not exclusively used as a dwelling by the LLC.
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April 11, 2025
Greystar Says Colo. Tenants 'Manufactured' Consolidation Bid
Greystar told a Colorado panel Friday that tenants seeking to consolidate four putative class actions alleging the property management company charged deceptive fees "manufactured the multidistrict nature" of the litigation, arguing the suits were filed by the same attorneys who could have picked one venue in the first place.
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.