A digest of recent court cases affecting real estate.

A look at the legislation affecting real estate enacted during the 2009 Legislative Session. For an archive of Legislative Watch years, click here.

This article digests the circumstances accompanying foreclosure and the steps which a government should take to curb the rate of foreclosure. As federal, state, and local governments continue to try to tame high foreclosure rates, the ability of economists, real estate brokers, and investors to predict and explain foreclosures remains limited. Until the government can [...]

This article reports on the effect of sticky prices on real estate prices. Now that the housing price bubble has burst, we need to know more than ever about the economic factors that cause real estate prices to decline quickly or slowly. Also important is whether those factors affecting price can help us predict the [...]

This article examines the nature of the current financial crisis and the urgency of the government’s role in curbing the economic blight. Let brokers, not government manipulation, set prices By now, it’s obvious to all that something has gone terribly wrong with the American economy. Comparisons are made to past recessions in hopes of divining [...]

This article analyzes the psychological underpinning of our recent Millennium Housing Boom in California, specifically the disproportionately influential number of speculators who bought, dragging others with them, during the final phase of the housing boom believing home prices would increase for ever more. Between 2002 and 2005, the Millennium Housing Boom ignited and formed a [...]

This article comments on whether America’s future recovery from the Millennium Boom can be predicted by studying post-war recessionary and recovery cycles. Few would question the severity of the current Great Recession which officially started December 2007, fallout from the Millennium Boom. Trillions of dollars in personal wealth evaporated along with approximately half of the [...]

This article responds to the recent town hall discussion on real estate held by Assemblyman Ted Lieu in Riverside, California on July 30, 2009. Frustrated homeowners and real estate professionals packed Riverside City Hall on July 30, 2009 to discuss California’s foreclosure crisis with state Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-El Segundo). Lieu is responsible for the [...]

Real estate related issues pending before the United and California Supreme Courts.

This article examines the myth of a California’s hostile business environment. This article is part of the first tuesday California Myths series. “There is absolutely nothing golden about California. It is the worst state in the nation for business. Companies would rather do business in the heart of a frozen tundra or on the edge [...]