Residential

  • January 24, 2025

    Property Plays: AT&T, Blue Owl, Flow Life

    Property Plays is a weekly roundup of the latest loans, leases, sales and projects around the country. Send your tips — all confidential — to realestate@law360.com.

  • January 24, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Latham, Simpson Thacher

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, a Brookfield private real estate fund acquires Divvy Homes' property portfolio and platform, Kantar Group proposes the sale of Kantar Media, and an Ares Management-led group buys a majority of Form Technologies Inc.'s common equity.

  • January 23, 2025

    4th Circ. Unwinds Rocket Mortgage Borrowers' Class Cert.

    A split Fourth Circuit on Thursday reversed the class certification of borrowers who accused Rocket Mortgage of inflating their home values, finding that not all potential class members could prove they were injured under the U.S. Supreme Court's heightened pleading standard in TransUnion.

  • January 23, 2025

    Fed. Climate Insurance Report Confirms Crises, Need For Info

    A new U.S. Treasury report analyzing climate risks and rising insurance costs is one of the most comprehensive studies of the U.S. homeowners market to date, but leaves out key data that could help inform a fuller understanding of the forces shaping the market.

  • January 23, 2025

    Rosenberg & Estis Adds NY Gov't Atty To Transactions Dept.

    Rosenberg & Estis PC has hired Lisa S. Lim, the general counsel of the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust, as a member of a city-focused development team that's part of the firm's transactions department.

  • January 23, 2025

    Fla. Insurer Tries To Toss Suit Blaming It For Black Mold Death

    A Sunshine State insurer accused of wrongfully causing the death of a woman who died from black mold contamination after it didn't send a promised team to her home to fix hurricane damage has urged a Florida judge to dismiss the suit, calling it a bad-faith case in disguise trying to get around an already pending contract dispute.

  • January 23, 2025

    Corporate Transparency Law Remains Flanked By Threats

    The Corporate Transparency Act is facing threats across the branches of government despite the U.S. Supreme Court pausing a nationwide injunction on it Thursday, with another universal injunction in place, other court battles underway and some Republican lawmakers targeting the law.

  • January 23, 2025

    Minn. Bill Would Allow Tax Break For New Housing Materials

    Minnesota would exempt materials used in the construction of new residential housing from state sales and use taxes under a bill introduced Thursday in the state Senate.

  • January 23, 2025

    O'Melveny Hires Troutman Real Estate Atty, Board Member

    O'Melveny & Myers LLP announced Jan. 23 it added a Dallas-based attorney from Troutman Pepper Locke LLP — who describes herself as a "dirt lawyer" advising property transactions, construction financing and other real estate matters — as a partner in its project development and real estate group.

  • January 23, 2025

    Colo. Tenants, Eviction Law Firm Resolve Fee Suits

    Colorado tenants and Tschetter Sulzer PC have settled two class actions accusing the eviction law firm of illegally charging attorney fees before their eviction proceedings concluded, more than a year after the firm settled a separate proposed class action that alleged deceptive debt collection.

  • January 22, 2025

    J&J Seeks To Defeat $30M Punitive Bid After Conn. Talc Trial

    Johnson & Johnson has blasted a bid requesting that it pay $30 million in punitive damages on top of a $15 million jury award to a real estate developer who allegedly contracted mesothelioma from the company's talc, telling a Connecticut state court that, "at most," it should pay $5 million.

  • January 22, 2025

    How A Lawyer Saved His Home Office From The Eaton Fire

    Dozens of Los Angeles County lawyers shared stories with Law360 of how the L.A. fires impacted their offices and practices, and one attorney recounted how he saved his home office from the Eaton blaze.

  • January 22, 2025

    BNY, Mortgage Co. Sued Over Post-Bankruptcy Collections

    Bank of New York Mellon and a mortgage servicing company face proposed class action claims that they unfairly sought to collect on second mortgages held by homeowners who declared bankruptcy amid the 2008 housing crisis.

  • January 22, 2025

    'The Hills' Reality Stars Latest To Sue Over Palisades Fire

    "The Hills" reality TV show stars Spencer and Heidi Pratt are among the latest Palisades Fire victims to sue the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power alleging an empty local reservoir made it more difficult for first responders to put out the devastating blaze.

  • January 22, 2025

    NY Lawmakers Aim To Peel Back Landlord LLCs

    A New York City real estate attorney says a bill that state legislators proposed last week to require landlords of rent-stabilized housing to reveal the ownership of their properties is written with an overbroad definition that would invite abuse.

  • January 22, 2025

    NY Assembly Bill Would Double Threshold For Mansion Tax

    New York would double the threshold at which properties incur an additional state 1% real estate transfer tax as part of a bill filed in the Assembly.

  • January 22, 2025

    The Evolution Of The Real Estate Legal Practice

    Clients increasingly expect real estate attorneys not only to prepare the documents underpinning deals, but also to understand their companies inside and out. Clients want more from their lawyers than mere legal grunt work; they want strategic advisers who can draw from a knowledge base that expands beyond property law.

  • January 22, 2025

    Real Estate Group Of The Year: Kirkland

    Real estate attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis LLP played a big role in data center deals last year, including a $3.4 billion joint venture between Blue Owl and Crusoe Energy Systems, and worked on several more notable transactions, landing their practice a spot among the 2024 Law360 Real Estate Groups of the Year.

  • January 22, 2025

    Construction Group Of The Year: Kaplan Kirsch

    Kaplan Kirsch LLP guided a Denver transit authority's $150 million first-ever progressive design-build contract and the Chicago Transit Authority's historic $5.3 billion Red Line extension, earning its spot among the 2024 Law360 Construction Groups of the Year.

  • January 22, 2025

    Neumann's Flow Life Buys Miami Site For $70.5M In Court Sale

    WeWork founder Adam Neumann's latest venture, a real estate company called Flow Life, bought a 16-acre Miami development site in a court-ordered sale for $70.5 million, or double an initial stalking horse bid for the property in October.

  • January 22, 2025

    Hawaii Floats Tax Credit For Some Insurers Of Condos

    Hawaii would allow insurers that cover the full insurable value of a condominium to claim an insurance premium tax credit under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.

  • January 22, 2025

    4 California Construction Projects To Watch In 2025

    A number of projects are underway in California, including a plan to build a new neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area on a former Navy base, a $5 billion "urban resort" in Beverly Hills and a university housing project in Berkeley that's moving ahead thanks to a court ruling and state law.

  • January 22, 2025

    Minn. Bill Seeks Cap On Property Value Increases

    Minnesota would impose a 3% annual cap on the increase in the assessed market value of a residential property under legislation in the state Senate.

  • January 21, 2025

    Trump Order Targets Housing Costs But With Few Specifics

    Housing affordability received a prominent mention in an executive order that President Donald Trump issued focused on tackling Americans' cost-of-living concerns, but how the new administration will address the issue and what that will mean for the housing market and broader real estate industry remains to be seen.

  • January 21, 2025

    Navy, Tetra Tech Strike $97M Deal Over Navy Cleanup Work

    The U.S. Navy and a Tetra Tech unit have reached two settlements amounting to $97 million, resolving claims the subsidiary billed the Navy for radiation remediation services at a former Navy shipyard in San Francisco that it did not actually perform.

Expert Analysis

  • Increased Scrutiny Raises Int'l Real Estate Transaction Risks

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    Recently proposed regulations expanding the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' oversight, a White House divestment order and state-level legislative efforts signal increasing scrutiny of real estate transactions that may trigger national security concerns, say Luciano Racco and Aleksis Fernández Caballero at Foley Hoag.

  • Financial Incentives May Alleviate Affordable Housing Crisis

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    There is a wide array of financial incentives and assistance that the government can provide to both real estate developers and individuals to chip away at the housing affordability problem from multiple angles, say Eric DeBear and Madeline Williams at Cozen.

  • Portland's Gross Receipts Tax Oversteps City's Authority

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    Recent measures by Portland, Oregon, that expand the voter-approved scope of the Clean Energy Surcharge on certain retail sales eviscerate the common meaning of the word "retail" and exceed the city's chartered authority to levy tax, say Nikki Dobay at Greenberg Traurig and Jeff Newgard at Peak Policy.

  • The Bank Preemption Ripple Effects After Cantero, Flagstar

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    The importance of federal preemption for financial institutions will only increase as technology-driven innovations evolve, which is why the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cantero v. Bank of America and vacatur of Kivett v. Flagstar Bank have real modern-day significance for national banks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Assessing The Practicality Of Harris' Affordable Housing Plan

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    Vice President Kamala Harris' proposed "Build the American Dream" plan to tackle housing affordability issues takes solid recommendations into account and may fare better than California's unsuccessful attempt at a similar program, but the scope of the problem is beyond what a three-point plan can solve, says Brooke Miller at Sheppard Mullin.

  • RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.

  • What To Expect From Evolving Wash. Development Plans

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    The current round of periodic updates to Washington counties' growth and development plans will need to address new requirements from recent legislation, and will also likely bring changes that should please property owners and developers, says Jami Balint at Seyfarth.

  • Brownfield Questions Surround IRS Tax Credit Bonus

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    Though the IRS has published guidance regarding the Inflation Reduction Act's 10% adder for tax credits generated by renewable energy projects constructed on brownfield sites, considerable guesswork remains as potential implications seem contrary to IRS intentions, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.

  • Bank M&A Continues To Lag Amid Regulatory Ambiguity

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    Bank M&A activity in the first half of 2024 continued to be lower than in prior years, as the industry is recovering from the 2023 bank failures, and regulatory and macroeconomic conditions have not otherwise been prime for deals, say Robert Azarow and Amber Hay at Arnold & Porter.

  • How High Court Ruling Is Shaping Homelessness Policies

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson to allow enforcement of local ordinances against overnight camping is already spurring new policies to manage homelessness, but the court's ruling does not grant jurisdictions unfettered power, say Kathryn Kafka and Alex Merritt at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Maryland 'Rain Tax' Ruling May Offer Hope For Tax Credits

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    A Maryland state appellate court's recent decision in Ben Porto v. Montgomery County echoes earlier case law upholding controversial stormwater charges as a valid excise tax, but it also suggests that potential credits to reduce property owners' liability could get broader in scope, says Alyssa Domzal at Ballard Spahr.

  • Decoding CFPB Priorities Amid Ramp-Up In Nonbank Actions

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    Based on recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement actions and press releases about its supervisory activities, the agency appears poised to continue increasing its scrutiny over nonbank entities — particularly with respect to emerging financial products and services — into next year, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Shipping Containers As Building Elements Require Diligence

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    With the shipping container market projected to double between 2020 and 2028, repurposing containers as storage units, office spaces and housing may become more common, but developers must make sure they comply with requirements that can vary by intended use and location, says Steven Otto at Crosbie Gliner.