Residential
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February 11, 2025
Ex-Texas Mayor Fails Retrial Bid On Federal Bribery Charges
A Texas federal judge on Tuesday shot down a bid by Laura Jordan, the former mayor of Dallas suburb Richardson, and her husband to get a new trial based on new evidence, saying the convicted fraudsters never showed the government suppressed the evidence in question.
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February 11, 2025
Couple's Chickens Are Pets, Not Poultry, NC Justices Told
A North Carolina couple urged the state's highest court to back a state appeals court's ruling finding their 60-plus chickens are household pets, arguing that a jury was improperly instructed that chickens can't be pets under their neighborhood's restrictive covenant.
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February 11, 2025
Fla. Senate Committee Advances Resilient Building Tax Credit
A Florida Senate committee unanimously voted on Tuesday to advance bills to create a resilient building tax credit program, develop guidelines for green and gray infrastructure to address rising sea levels and require public hearings for state park land management plans.
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February 11, 2025
NY State Bill Creates New Route To Rent Stabilization
Democratic New York State lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday that would create an additional mechanism for municipalities outside of New York City to opt in to rent stabilization, an alternative to the current standard that opponents have seized on in litigation.
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February 11, 2025
Ark. Homeowners Want Short-Term Rental Law Suit To Continue
Two Fayetteville, Arkansas, homeowners fought the city's summary judgment bid against their suit over its short-term rental ordinance, arguing in Arkansas federal court on Tuesday that the city law is unconstitutional.
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February 11, 2025
Eaton Fire Victim Wants Sanctions Against SoCal Edison
A victim of the recent devastating Eaton Fire in Altadena has told a California state judge that Southern California Edison and its attorneys should face sanctions for allegedly concealing efforts to reenergize electrical transmission lines while the blaze was still burning last month.
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February 11, 2025
Insurer May Need To Pay Landlord Row Atty Fees, Panel Says
A California state appeals court found in a partial reversal that an insurer may not be owed more than $300,000 in disputed attorney fees following a $925,000 settlement it contributed to on behalf of a landlord it insured over a tenant dispute.
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February 11, 2025
Colo. Bill Would Offer Spread-Out Property Tax Payment Plan
Colorado would allow residential and commercial property owners to pay taxes in four installments, rather than two, under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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February 11, 2025
NJ Bill Seeks Tax Credits For Housing At Abandoned Sites
New Jersey would create corporate and gross income tax credits for completed residential housing projects at abandoned commercial building sites under a bill introduced in the state Senate.
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February 11, 2025
NY Bill Would Direct New Tax Revenue To Property Tax Cuts
New York state would require money derived from new or increased taxes to be used to reduce local property taxes under a bill introduced in the Senate.
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February 11, 2025
Joint Venture Wraps Up $131M Ariz. Apartment Complex Sale
A joint venture between real estate companies Rockpoint and The Related Group sold a 388-unit Phoenix apartment complex to Goodman Real Estate for $131.1 million in a deal guided by Marcus & Millichap's Institutional Property Advisers division, the brokerage firm announced Tuesday.
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February 11, 2025
Investor Oaktree Closes $16B Distressed Debt Fund
Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management on Tuesday said it had closed a $16 billion distressed-debt fund aimed at providing capital to companies in a variety of industries, with Kirkland & Ellis advising.
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February 11, 2025
NYC Mayor Says Bribery Case Is Over, Despite Silent Docket
Amid an absence of activity on the court docket, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared Tuesday that the federal bribery case against him "will no longer continue," following reports of a U.S. Department of Justice memo directing prosecutors to drop the case.
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February 11, 2025
Developer Trio Tops Out $197M Nashville Residential Project
A trio of developers including PMG, New Valley and RMWC announced that their 16-story, mixed-use project in Nashville, Tennessee, has completed its vertical construction and will open to residents by the end of the year.
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February 10, 2025
Lawmakers Look To Strike COVID-Era Renter Rights
Federal lawmakers introduced bicameral legislation on Monday that would repeal a provision of the COVID-19 stimulus bill under which landlords must provide 30-day notices to tenants who have missed rent payments before beginning eviction proceedings.
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February 10, 2025
Calif. Ruling Holds Wildfire Debris Not A Coverable Loss
Two California homeowners didn't have a covered claim for wildfire debris that infiltrated their home, a state appeals panel ruled, saying there was no evidence the debris caused the kind of loss or damage required for coverage.
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February 10, 2025
Morgan Stanley Exec Sees US Real Estate Poised For Upturn
There is a lot of volatility and uncertainty in the world today, but a number of conditions point to the U.S. real estate market still being well-positioned to forge a recovery over the next few years, a leader of Morgan Stanley's real estate investment arm told attendees at a recent conference in Miami.
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February 10, 2025
DC Apartment Owner Finds Ch. 11 Buyer Via Credit Bid
The owner of a Washington, D.C., apartment building told a Delaware bankruptcy judge it found a buyer for the property who will acquire the asset through a credit bid.
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February 10, 2025
QXO Rips Roofing Co. For Misleading Investors On $11B Offer
QXO Inc. accused Beacon Roofing Supply Inc.'s board of directors on Monday of "cherry-picking" and manipulating performance metrics in statements urging shareholders to reject an $11 billion hostile takeover bid, adding that its offer is compelling, especially given the lack of competing proposals.
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February 10, 2025
Meet The Attys Who Advised A Homebuilder's $5.8B Spinoff
Legal teams at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP helped home construction company Lennar Corp. complete a $5.8 billion spinoff of its land site purchase platform, Millrose Properties Inc., according to a recent announcement.
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February 10, 2025
Calif. Residents Say Co. Can't Prove Price-Fixing Conspiracy
Two California residents urged a federal judge to grant them a win in a suit accusing them of conspiring to overcharge a buyer that wants to acquire their property to build a city, saying the buyer can't prove they participated in any price-fixing scheme.
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February 10, 2025
Dallas Loses Bid To Reinstate Short-Term Rental Ban
A Texas appeals court has ruled that two Dallas ordinances criticized for effectively banning short-term rentals don't gel with property rights enshrined in the state's constitution, siding with landlords who do business on Airbnb and Vrbo.
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February 10, 2025
Ill. House Bill Seeks Study Of Eliminating Property Tax System
Illinois would direct its Department of Revenue and the governor's Office and Management and Budget to determine the possibility of eliminating the state's property tax system and replacing the revenue with income tax receipts under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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February 10, 2025
Greenberg Traurig, Kirkland Guide $195M Hotel, Condo Loan
Property owner, operator and developer GFI Capital Resources Group Inc. borrowed a $195 million mortgage loan for its downtown Manhattan hotel and condominium building in a deal guided by Greenberg Traurig LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
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February 10, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Greenberg Traurig, McDermott Will & Emery and Pryor Cashman are among the law firms that landed work on the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, with an SL Green Realty Manhattan transaction leading the way.
Expert Analysis
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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 Practical Guidance
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.
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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.