Residential
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February 28, 2025
Opendoor Tops Revenue Expectations But Faces Tough Market
The new year has gotten off to a slow start in the home sales market, but leaders at Opendoor Technologies Inc. said in an earnings call that they think recent cost-saving efforts have made the home-selling platform a leaner, more efficient business.
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February 28, 2025
200 Organizations Fight To Protect COVID-Era Renter Rights
More than 200 national and local organizations urged Congress on Friday not to pass bicameral legislation introduced in February that would strike down a pandemic-era protection for renters at federally backed properties, arguing the provision dramatically reduced eviction rates.
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February 28, 2025
Dallas-Area Officials OK Features For $2.5B Mixed-Use Project
Planning officials in Frisco, Texas, have signed off on a parking garage, an amphitheater and a group of 10 retail and restaurant buildings for a developer's $2.5 billion project north of Dallas called Firefly Park.
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February 28, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Gibson Dunn, Skadden
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone acquires Safe Harbor Marinas, National Grid sells its green subsidiary in the U.S. to Brookfield, Apollo Global Management buys Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc., and Teleflex splits into two publicly traded companies.
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February 27, 2025
Calif. State Farm Meeting Raises Solvency Concerns
State Farm's emergency request for a 22% premium increase in California has raised questions about the insurer's financial health, but a prominent consumer group says the carrier hasn't justified that request and several others that would raise premium costs.
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February 27, 2025
PennyMac Can't Avoid Investors' Suit Over Post-Libor Rate
A California federal judge has ruled PennyMac's mortgage investment arm must face a suit accusing it of using last year's discontinuation of Libor to unlawfully lock in a lower dividend for some of its preferred stock, saying the plaintiffs have adequately pled that the company violated the LIBOR Act when it issued dividends at a fixed rate.
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February 27, 2025
Real Estate Fund Says Property Cos. Lost Investor Funds
A real estate investment fund has sued various companies associated with a man accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of defrauding investors in an alleged $1 billion scheme, telling a Florida state court that the companies made off with millions of dollars of investor funds meant to go toward specific real estate projects.
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February 27, 2025
Black Homebuyers' Predatory Loan Settlement Gets Final OK
A Michigan class of Black homebuyers have gotten final approval for their $750,000 deal to end claims against real estate companies and their investors who allegedly bought up run-down Detroit properties to sell with abusive lending terms.
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February 27, 2025
6 Firms Aid AvalonBay's $618.5M Texas Multifamily Buy
Real estate investment trust AvalonBay Communities Inc. said it has reached a deal with BSR REIT to buy eight Texas apartment complexes for $618.5 million, in a transaction advised by six law firms.
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February 27, 2025
High Court Asked To Weigh Investors' Eminent Domain Case
A pair of real estate investors want the U.S. Supreme Court to review their loss in New York state appellate court regarding a suit seeking additional compensation for a residential property that the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority took from them through eminent domain.
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February 27, 2025
HUD Scraps Rule To Boost Housing Equity
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it is scrapping a fair housing rule and replacing it with a less onerous alternative, overwriting a rule that the first Trump administration had previously repealed.
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February 27, 2025
Landlords Can't Duck Injury Claim From Dweller Not On Lease
A Washington state appeals court said Thursday that landlords must face a claim from a pregnant woman who was injured from a fall down a flight of stairs, even though she had not signed the rental lease, in an opinion that said the lower court erred by tossing the case on the eve of trial without giving proper notice.
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February 27, 2025
Starwood Execs Say Multifamily Starts Will Keep Dropping
Starwood Property Trust executives said on a Feb. 27 earnings call that they believe impending tariffs and immigration policy will drive rents up and multifamily starts down, even as the company reported foreclosing on three multifamily properties in the fourth quarter.
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February 27, 2025
Wildfires Threaten Over $2T Worth Of Properties, Risk Co. Says
About 4.3 million homes worth $2.15 trillion are facing heightened risk of wildfire damage across the United States, while intensifying climate conditions continue to impact the affordability and availability of insurance, risk modeling company ZestyAI reported Thursday.
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February 27, 2025
Invitation Expects Tighter Single-Family Rental Supply In 2025
Single-family home leasing company Invitation Homes Inc. expects housing supply to tighten in many markets this year after the firm faced pressure from new deliveries last summer, executives said during a Feb. 27 earnings call.
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February 27, 2025
Judge Won't Force Victim's Atty's Reports In Sex Assault Case
A Florida state judge on Thursday denied a request by three men, including a real estate broker, facing sexual assault charges to force discovery of reports by the victim's attorney at Morgan & Morgan PA.
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February 27, 2025
How Adams' Latest Move Might Checkmate The DOJ
New York City Mayor Eric Adams' push to permanently dismiss his federal corruption case is a clever legal strategy that appears to have backed the government into a corner, experts say.
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February 27, 2025
Q&A: Minnesota Law Prof On Hard-To-Read Insurance Policies
How hard is it to understand a homeowners insurance policy? For many, reading a policy will often raise more confusion about what's covered than if they hadn't read a policy at all, according to a new paper from experts in insurance and consumer law. Here, Law360 discusses the subject with Daniel Schwarcz, a University of Minnesota Law School professor who has built a career in studying the transparency of insurance markets.
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February 27, 2025
Housing Project To Drop Receiver After US Trustee Concern
New York City affordable housing complex Valdesia Gardens is transferring control of the property from a receiver back to the debtor after the U.S. Trustee's Office objected to the receiver's involvement and sought instead to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee.
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February 27, 2025
Mich. Bill Would Bar Local Tax Caps That Require Rate Cuts
Michigan would bar local governments from enacting property tax caps on annual revenue that require an automatic tax rate cut under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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February 26, 2025
Mich. Judge Demands RICO Pattern Details In Foreclosure Suit
A Michigan federal judge on Wednesday pressed attorneys for homeowners to point to specific criminal activities that would help the proposed class establish a pattern of racketeering activity to support their claim that a real estate developer conspired with county and city leaders in a tax foreclosure scheme.
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February 26, 2025
Ga. Judge OKs Deal To End Feds' Apartment Access Probe
A Georgia federal judge has signed off on a series of consent orders resolving a civil suit brought by the federal government against a Savannah apartment complex and a local housing authority over allegations that they denied a disabled resident an accessible apartment in spite of her repeated accommodation requests.
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February 26, 2025
NYCHA Disputes Eviction Hikes At Section 8 Conversions
New York City Housing Authority officials refuted claims that eviction rates varied significantly between the city's public housing units and those developments converted to Section 8 housing, directly disputing a report from the comptroller's office during a Wednesday oversight hearing.
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February 26, 2025
Dewberry Ruling May Lead To More Defendants In TM Fights
Plaintiffs in trademark disputes likely will consider including multiple defendants in their complaints when it's unclear who holds the profits from the alleged infringement, according to intellectual property attorneys, after the U.S. Supreme Court remanded a case because nonparty affiliates of a defendant were ordered to pay an award that reached nearly $47 million.
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February 26, 2025
Low-Key Fort Lauderdale Draws Big-Time Development
Sitting between posh Palm Beach and cosmopolitan Miami, Fort Lauderdale can feel a little overshadowed with its low-key vibe, but during South Florida's recent real estate boom, the city has carved out its own middle ground that has attracted new residents — and developers have taken notice.
Expert Analysis
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Colorful Lessons From NYC's Emotional Support Parrot Suit
A recently settled lawsuit in New York federal court concerning housing discrimination claims from a resident who had emotional support parrots highlights the importance of housing providers treating accomodation questions seriously even if they may appear unusual or questionable, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.
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Consider Best Legal Practices For Commissioning Public Art
Commissioning public art for real estate projects can provide many benefits to real estate developers and the public, but it's important to understand the unique legal and contracting aspects of the process to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, says Sarah Conley Odenkirk at ArtConverge.
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Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.
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How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future
As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.
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Fla. Insurer-Breach Cases Split On Unrepaired Property Issue
A Florida appellate court's recent decision in Universal v. Qureshi is directly at odds with a 2020 decision from another Florida appellate court, and raises important questions for policyholders and insurers about the proper measure of damages in breach claims involving unrepaired property, say Andrea DeField and Yaniel Abreu at Hunton.
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Colorado Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of 2024, Colorado's banking and financial services sector faced both regulatory updates and changes to state law due to recent federal court decisions — with consequences for local governments, mortgage lenders, state-chartered trust companies and federally chartered lenders serving Colorado consumers, says Sarah Auchterlonie at Brownstein Hyatt.
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In The CFPB Playbook: No Lazy, Hazy Days Of Summer
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is headed for a brisk fall season, on the heels of a heated summer, which included the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the CFPB funding structure is constitutional, and in advance of the November election, says Eamonn Moran at Holland & Knight.
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Basel Endgame Rules: A Change Is Coming
The Federal Reserve Board's recently announced recalibration of the Basel endgame proposal begins a critical chapter in the evolution of not only the safety and soundness of U.S. banks, but also of banks' abilities to lend and support American businesses and consumers, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Reassessing Lease Provisions To Account For ESG Initiatives
As companies seek to build ESG considerations into their businesses, it's crucial to understand how such initiatives can quickly become significant enough to compel reassessment of lease agreement provisions, and how best to modify leases accordingly, say Julian Freeman and Gabe Pitassi at Cox Castle.
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Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight
Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.
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Assessing Algorithmic Versus Generative AI Pricing Tools
A comparison of traditional algorithmic pricing models and those powered by generative artificial intelligence can help regulators and practitioners weigh the pros and cons of relying on large language models to price products or services, say Maxime Cohen at McGill University, and Tim Spittle and Jimmy Royer at Analysis Group.
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Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls
Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.