Residential
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March 23, 2026
Timeshare Exit Co.'s Insurer Challenges $630M Class Deal
Insurance provider General Casualty Co. of Wisconsin on Friday challenged client Reed Hein & Associates LLC's $630 million settlement with a class of Reed Hein customers in Washington federal court, saying the figure was crafted by a plaintiffs' expert with no relevant background.
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March 23, 2026
High Court Won't Review Mortgage Firm's $8M CFPB Fine
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a now-shuttered mortgage services firm's yearslong fight against a nearly $8 million Consumer Financial Protection Bureau judgment, rebuffing an appeal tied in part to the agency's past leadership structure.
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March 23, 2026
Judge Unlikely To Halt Evictions In Md. Condo-County Dispute
A Maryland federal judge signaled that he likely wouldn't block Prince George's County from evicting condo owners whose buildings have been without heat since December, but also said he likely wouldn't dismiss the residents' claims that the county — by assisting a nearby homeless encampment — has created numerous problems at the complex.
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March 23, 2026
4th Circ. Finds Mortgage Docs Didn't Violate Bankruptcy Stay
The Fourth Circuit has declined to revive a debtor's lawsuit claiming his mortgage servicers violated bankruptcy protections, finding that none of the monthly account statements, payoff statements and tax statements the servicers sent him were related to debt collection.
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March 23, 2026
Developers Clinch $4.3B Financing For Beverly Hills Project
Cain and Eldridge Industries have secured $4.3 billion in loans through J.P. Morgan and VICI Properties to complete construction for One Beverly Hills, a luxury mixed-use project including residences, hotel rooms, retail and 10 acres of garden space, according to a March 23 announcement.
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March 23, 2026
Homebuyers Accuse Hanna Of 'Reverse Auction' Settlement
A lawsuit in Pennsylvania federal court alleging that real estate firm Howard Hanna participated in a conspiracy to inflate agents' commissions is being undercut by a similar case in Illinois, where another set of plaintiffs allegedly joined in a "reverse auction" to settle for the lowest possible price, the Pennsylvania plaintiffs' lawyers said.
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March 23, 2026
Ex-Tricolor CEO, Trustee Ink Stipulation For Beverly Hills Sale
A Texas bankruptcy judge approved a stipulation allowing for the $2.45 million sale of the Beverly Hills home of the former CEO of subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings, even as the founder and the debtor's Chapter 7 trustee remain at odds about where the proceeds should go.
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March 23, 2026
NC High Court Nixes Mold Claims Over Contract Limit
The North Carolina Supreme Court has thrown out a couple's suit against a contractor over water and mold damage to their home, finding that a one-year limitation on claims in their work contract applies over the four-year statute of limitations in the state's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
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March 23, 2026
REIT Bidding War Advances With 'Superior' Offer, New Entry
Mortgage servicing-focused real estate investment trust Two Harbors Investment Corp. said an unnamed third contestant has made an offer to acquire the company after it determined on Monday that CrossCountry Mortgage outbid a previous December offer from UWM Holdings Corp. of $1.3 billion.
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March 23, 2026
Zetlin & De Chiara Adds Construction Partner To NY Office
Construction law firm Zetlin & De Chiara LLP said Monday it has added an attorney with three decades of experience advising commercial construction as a partner in its New York office.
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March 20, 2026
SEC's $1B Broad Street Fraud Case Stays In Fla.
A private equity firm the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused of defrauding investors in a $1 billion fund will have to face the lawsuit in Florida, after a federal judge there refused Friday to toss the case or move it to South Carolina, where the firm is based.
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March 20, 2026
Texas Judge Tosses FinCEN Rule On All-Cash Home Sales
A Texas federal judge has found that the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network can't maintain its directive regarding reporting of all-cash residential real estate transactions, after the agency failed to show how the deals should broadly warrant suspicion.
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March 20, 2026
Freddie Mac Extends $512M To KC, Dallas Multifamily Portfolio
Broker Northmarq said Friday it secured a $512 million Freddie Mac credit facility to refinance and recapitalize a 13-property multifamily portfolio for Kansas City, Missouri-based real estate company Price Brothers.
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March 20, 2026
Builders Can Proceed As Class In Fee Suit, NC Justices Say
Homebuilders challenging the City of Raleigh's capital facilities fee ordinances can proceed within a certified class action after North Carolina's highest court ruled Friday that state statute requires unlawful fees be returned to the payor regardless of who ultimately shouldered the cost.
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March 20, 2026
Northwest Listing Service Can't Exit Compass Antitrust Suit
Northwest Multiple Listing Service must face Compass Inc.'s claims that Northwest abused its market power by requiring brokerages to list all properties on its platform before marketing them internally, a Seattle federal judge has said, finding Compass has plausibly alleged anticompetitive harm from the rules at issue.
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March 20, 2026
SD Lowers Maximum Property Tax Levies For School Districts
South Dakota lowered maximum property tax levies that may be imposed by school districts under a bill signed by the governor.
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March 19, 2026
Judge Digs Into Counsel Over 'Astronomically High' Fee Bid
Attorneys who represented classes of people who say they received harassing phone calls from real estate agents in violation of federal telemarketing laws are asking for way too much of the $20 million settlement, according to the California federal judge who tore into them Wednesday.
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March 19, 2026
NYC, State Take On Latest Challenge To Rent Regulations
New York and New York City separately urged a federal court this week to dismiss landlords' latest attempt to challenge 2019 changes to the state's rent stabilization laws, alleging the landlords' takings claims aren't ripe because they haven't made use of a hardship exemption yet.
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March 19, 2026
New Polluter Pay Bills Center AG Action On Insurance Costs
Recent bills would give attorneys general in three states more power to sue fossil fuel companies over climate change-related insurance costs. Such lawsuits would likely face challenges.
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March 19, 2026
Investor Home-Flipping Hits Lowest Profits Since 2008: Report
U.S. investors who bought single-family homes and condos to sell within a year for profit saw the lowest median rate of return on investment last year since the Great Recession, ATTOM said in a recent report.
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March 19, 2026
Two Harbors REIT Fields Buyout Offer To Rival UWM Bid
Two Harbors Investment Corp., a real estate investment trust focused on mortgage servicing rights, said Thursday it received a new acquisition proposal from an unnamed bidder, after reaching a deal in December to be bought by mortgage lender UWM Holdings Corp. for $1.3 billion.
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March 19, 2026
Palantir Rolls Out AI-Mortgage Platform In Startup Partnership
Artificial intelligence company Palantir Technologies announced a partnership with startup Moder to build AI-based mortgage operations, starting with Freedom Mortgage, a mortgage originator and servicer, as a pilot customer.
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March 19, 2026
Conn. Class Action Over 'Inflated' Realty Commissions Settles
A putative class action claiming antitrust violations against one of the biggest real estate firms in the Northeast has been settled, according to a judge's order on the Connecticut state court case docket.
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March 18, 2026
Fla. Panel Affirms Zillow's Win In Merger Battle
The co-founder of a real estate software company that was acquired by house-hunting platform Zillow Inc. cannot recover the money he says he is owed from the 2013 merger because his claim is time-barred and is not covered by the Florida Unclaimed Property Act, a Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday.
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March 18, 2026
Zillow Preview Appeases Compass Enough To Drop Ban Suit
Compass dropped its New York federal court antitrust lawsuit against Zillow on Wednesday, satisfied that a new "preview" feature for pre-market home listings was enough of a departure from a contested rule that banned listings from appearing on Zillow if they had been marketed elsewhere for more than a day.
Expert Analysis
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Navigating The Complexities Of NYC Waterfront Development
More than a dozen city, state and federal agencies share oversight of New York City's waterfront, presenting developers and their counsel with both challenges and opportunities to shape the regional and national economy, say attorneys at HSF Kramer.
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New NY Residential Real Estate Rules May Be Overbroad
New legislation imposing a 90-day-waiting period and tax deduction restrictions on certain New York real estate investors may have broad effects and unintended consequences, creating impediments for a wide range of corporate and other transactions, says Libin Zhang at Fried Frank.
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Compliance Is A New Competitive Edge For Mortgage Lenders
So far, 2025 has introduced state and federal regulatory turbulence that is pressuring mortgage lenders to reevaluate the balance between competitive and compliant employee and customer recruiting practices, necessitating a compliance recalibration that prioritizes five key strategies, say attorneys at Mitchell Sandler.
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What Developers Can Glean From Miami Condo Ruling
A Florida state appeals court's recent denial of a Miami condo redevelopment bid offers a detailed blueprint of what future developers must address when they evaluate the condominium's governing declaration and seek to terminate a condominium, say attorneys at Shubin Law.
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6 Questions We Should Ask About The Trump Trade Deals
Whenever the text becomes available, certain questions will help determine whether the Trump administration’s trade deals with U.S. trading partners have been crafted to form durable economic relationships, or ephemeral ties likely to break upon interpretive disagreement or a change in political will, says Ted Posner at Baker Botts.
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CEQA Reform May Spur More Housing, But Devil Is In Details
A recently enacted law reforming the California Environmental Quality Act has been touted by state leaders as a fix for the state's housing crisis — but provisions including a new theoretically optional traffic mitigation fee could offset any potential benefits, says attorney David Smith.
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Wells Fargo Suit Shows Consumer Protection Limits In Mass.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court's May decision in Wells Fargo Bank v. Coulsey underscores that consumer rights are balanced against the need for closure, and even the broad protections of state consumer protection law will not open the door to relitigating the same claims, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.
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What Calif. Insurance Ruling Means For Smoke Damage Limits
As California continues to grapple with an increasing number of wildfire claims, a state court's recent Aliff v. California FAIR Plan decision serves as a clear directive to insurers that policy language that narrows the scope of fire coverage below the California Insurance Code's minimum standards is impermissible, say attorneys at Wood Smith.
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The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine
The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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What 9th Circ. Ruling Shows About Rebutting SEC Comments
The Ninth Circuit's June opinion in Pino v. Cardone Capital suggests that a company's lack of pushback to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission comment may be evidence of its state of mind for evaluating potential liability, meaning companies should consider including additional disclosure in SEC response letters, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.
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2 NY Cases May Clarify Foreclosure Law Retroactivity
Two pending cases may soon provide the long-awaited resolution to the question of whether retroactive application of the New York Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act violates the state Constitution, providing a guide for New York courts inundated with motions in foreclosure and quiet title actions, says Fernando Rivera Maissonet at Hinshaw & Culbertson.
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Yacht Broker Case Highlights Industry Groups' Antitrust Risk
The Eleventh Circuit recently revived class claims against the International Yacht Brokers Association, signaling that commission-driven industries beyond real estate are vulnerable to antitrust challenges after the National Association of Realtors settled similar allegations last year, says Miles Santiago at the Southern University Law Center and Alex Hebert at Southern Compass.
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A Look At Trump Admin's Shifting Strategies To Curtail CFPB
The Trump administration has so far carried out its goal of minimizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's authority and footprint via an individualized approach comprising rule rollbacks, litigation moves and administrative tools, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.