Residential
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March 07, 2025
False Policy Info Tanks Property Owner's Coverage Suit
A New York federal judge ruled that an insurer doesn't have to cover a property owner and manager embroiled in a dispute with Vrbo tenants who fell through the balcony of a South Carolina condo, because the owner lied to the carrier and said it didn't offer short-term rentals.
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March 07, 2025
Flatiron Realty Inks $1B Credit Facilities For Luxury Housing
Flatiron Realty Capital LLC announced Friday that the private equity firm has closed on several credit facilities totaling $1 billion, adding that the facilities are intended to spur the production of luxury single-family homes in the U.S.
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March 07, 2025
DOJ Cites SDNY Prosecutors' Texts In Bid To End Adams Case
President Donald Trump's Justice Department doubled down Friday on its bid to toss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, citing newly released internal correspondence showing "troubling conduct" by Southern District of New York prosecutors the agency criticized as "careerist" and insubordinate.
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March 07, 2025
Kan. House Approves Limits On Property Tax
Kansas would limit the taxable valuation of real property and would create a property tax funding limit through protest petition under two measures passed in the House of Representatives on Friday.
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March 07, 2025
Mass. Housing Law Called Unfunded Mandate In Latest Suit
A controversial Massachusetts housing law requiring multifamily zoning near Boston-area transit facilities is facing a new legal challenge after the town of Wrentham argued in a Thursday state court suit that it's an unfunded mandate on localities.
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March 07, 2025
Jailed Developer Dropped From RICO Foreclosure Suit
A Michigan federal judge dropped a developer from a suit alleging a racketeering scheme stripped homeowners of their foreclosed homes' surplus equity, finding the harm they allege is not tied closely enough to a bribery scheme the developer later pled guilty to.
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March 07, 2025
Minn. Bills Seek Sales Tax Break For Home Construction
Construction materials for single-family and multifamily homes for first-time homebuyers would be exempt from some Minnesota sales and use taxes under legislation introduced in the state Senate.
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March 07, 2025
Marcus & Millichap Wraps Up $61M Calif. Project Refi
Marcus & Millichap's IPA Capital Markets division lined up an 18-month $60.9 million nonrecourse loan that will refinance a 28.9-acre oceanfront redevelopment project in Huntington Beach, California, the brokerage firm announced.
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March 06, 2025
Fla. Report Draws Serious Accusations Of Insurer Misconduct
A Florida analysis showing that carriers in the state were reporting millions in income losses while affiliated companies were earning billions is helping to reveal a long-standing pattern of insurer misconduct, according to consumer advocates.
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March 06, 2025
Habitat Unveils $82M Affordable Housing Production Fund
Habitat for Humanity International announced that its financing arm has established an $82.5 million property acquisition fund to support affordable housing production, guided by Holland & Knight LLP and Paradise Law Group.
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March 06, 2025
California City Abandons Battle Over Affordable Housing
A wealthy Southern California city wants to drop its appeal of a legal nonprofit's suit that was filed over the city's opposition to a mixed-income affordable-housing project, according to a filing in a state appellate court.
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March 06, 2025
Wyoming Creates Partial Property Tax Break For Homeowners
Wyoming established a tax exemption for a portion of homeowners' properties under a bill signed by the governor.
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March 06, 2025
Feds Want Foreclosure On NJ Property In $16.2M Tax Fight
A New Jersey property owned by a man who owes $16.2 million in taxes should be foreclosed on and sold to pay his debt, the U.S. government said Thursday, arguing that a property easement no longer restricts it from a sale.
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March 06, 2025
Sekisui Teams Up With Brookfield On Resi Communities
North America Sekisui House LLC has invested in five of Brookfield Residential's master-planned communities, expanding a partnership that spans 11 states and 13 markets, in a deal guided by Snell & Wilmer and Cleary Gottlieb.
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March 06, 2025
Ga. Attys Fight Bid To 'Hijack' $44M Realtor Settlement
Attorneys hoping to finalize a $44 million class action settlement in Georgia with four real estate brokerages urged a federal judge Thursday to reject a bid to "hijack" their litigation by the lawyers behind the series of landmark settlements with the National Association of Realtors and various brokerages over their fee inflation practices.
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March 06, 2025
Fla. Coverage Bill Could Add Pressure To Struggling Condos
A Florida bill that would require condominium associations to comply with building safety laws or risk their last-resort insurance option is well-intentioned, but could result in a slew of negative consequences for condo owners, insurance experts say.
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March 06, 2025
The Antitrust Litigation Surrounding NAR's Industry Rules
A year and a half after a Missouri federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors inflated fees for home sellers, the Eighth Circuit is evaluating a series of settlements in wake of the decision while the Justice Department pursues its own antitrust investigation with a court's blessing.
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March 06, 2025
La. Tax Break Doesn't Apply To Apartment's Affordable Units
The owner of a Louisiana apartment complex cannot claim a property tax exemption for the complex's affordable housing units because the units were not dedicated solely to a public purpose, a state appellate court ruled.
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March 05, 2025
Wash. Justices Won't Take Up Pemco's Fire Coverage Appeal
The Washington Supreme Court won't review a lower court's ruling that Pemco Mutual Insurance Co. must cover a woman's claim for fire damage to her former home after she was assaulted and set ablaze there by her ex-husband.
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March 05, 2025
Los Angeles County Sues SoCal Edison Over Eaton Fire
Los Angeles County joined the many dozens suing Southern California Edison over the devastating Eaton Fire on Wednesday, as the most populous county in the United States alleges in its lawsuit that the utility's faulty equipment caused the destructive blaze.
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March 05, 2025
Claimed Church Leader Ruled To Owe $1.3M In Taxes
A claimed church leader owes $1.3 million in tax debt after he was caught selling tax avoidance schemes, a Washington federal judge ruled Wednesday, rejecting his request for more time to mount a challenge and describing him as uncooperative.
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March 05, 2025
Black Colo. Homeowner Joins DOJ's Race Bias Refi Suit
A Denver homeowner joined the federal government in its suit accusing Rocket Mortgage LLC and other parties in Colorado federal court of deliberately undervaluing her home because she's a Black woman.
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March 05, 2025
Construction Co. Not Covered For $11M Verdict, Insurer Says
A construction company isn't entitled to coverage for an $11 million jury verdict against it in an underlying personal injury suit because the builder's policy excludes coverage for residential construction activities, an insurer told a Texas federal court.
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March 05, 2025
Lenders' Atty Reflects On FAPA's Foreclosure Fallout In NY
After state lawmakers in 2022 passed changes to New York's foreclosure rules, lenders left defending a spike in lawsuits challenging once-established mortgage rights faced another setback with a recent state appeals court ruling upholding the legislation.
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March 05, 2025
Willkie Farr Partner Gets $23K Fee In Suit Over Media Tip
A Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner has won the bulk of a $27,420 bid to recoup personal attorney fees after prevailing in a First Amendment feud with his former landlord's lawyer over a media leak, with a judge clipping just $3,550 for lack of a novel legal issue.
Expert Analysis
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Wiretap Use In Cartel Probes Likely To Remain An Exception
Although the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has recently signaled interest in wiretaps, the use of this technology to capture evidence of antitrust conspiracies and pursue monopolization as a criminal matter has been rare historically, and is likely to remain so, say Carsten Reichel and Will Conway at DLA Piper.
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Debate Over CFPB Definition Of Credit Is Just Beginning
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recently worked to expand the meaning of credit, so anyone operating on the edges of the credit markets, or even those who assumed they were safely outside the scope of this regulatory perimeter, should pay close attention as legal challenges to broad interpretations of the definition unfold, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Closer Look At Feds' Proposed Banker Compensation Rule
A recently proposed rule to limit financial institutions' ability to award incentive-based compensation for risk-taking may progress through the rulemaking process slowly due to the sheer number of regulators collaborating on the rule and the number of issues under consideration, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief
As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.
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In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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What's New In Kentucky's Financial Services Overhaul
Kentucky's H.B. 726 will go into effect in July and brings with it some significant restructuring to the Kentucky Financial Services Code, including changes to mortgage loan license fees and repeals of provisions relating to installment term loans and savings associations, say attorneys at Frost Brown.
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A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches
Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.
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Tax Assessment: Recapping Georgia's Legislative Session
Jonathan Feldman and Alla Raykin at Eversheds Sutherland examine tax-related changes from Georgia’s General Assembly — such as the governor’s successful push to accelerate income tax cuts — and suggest steps to take before certain tax incentives are challenged in the state's next legislative session.
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11th Circ. Ruling May Foreshadow Ch. 15 Clashes
The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in In re: Talal Qais Abdulmunem Al Zawawi has introduced a split from the Second Circuit regarding whether debtors in foreign proceedings must have a domicile, calling attention to the understudied nature of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Cleary.
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A Look At New IRS Rules For Domestically Controlled REITs
The Internal Revenue Services' finalized Treasury Regulations addressing whether real estate investment trusts qualify as domestically controlled adopt the basic structure of previous proposals, but certain new and modified rules may mitigate the regulations' impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking
With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.
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How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers
Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.