Agents employed at the top 30 Brokers in CA The above chart contrasts the number of employed agents in July 2008 with August 2009 at California’s 30 largest brokerages. Take a moment to see who is successfully riding out the recession, and who is falling victim to the crisis. What costs are brokers cutting or [...]

A digest of recent court cases affecting real estate.

This article examines the role of loan-to-value ratios in mortgage loan originations and addresses the need to curb bond market volatility by limiting lender risk-taking. Despite lessons learned from lending practices that precipitated the Great Recession of 2008, Wall Street Bankers still prefer the government to let the financial markets freely maneuver an unregulated course. [...]

This article deconstructs the supposed widespread dissemination of California’s population to other U.S. states. This article is part of the first tuesday California Myths series. The weight of California taxes is driving everyone out of the state. Rich and middle-class alike are jumping ship and fleeing to tax-shelters like Arizona and Nevada. California’s tax-base is [...]

This article examines the relationship between a homeowners’ negative equity position and foreclosure. Conventional wisdom holds that foreclosures are triggered when homeowners owe more on their mortgages than the market value of their homes, a financial condition called negative equity. This condition, now being experienced by a huge proportion of California’s population, is feared by [...]

This article comments on the unfounded conspiracy theory held by inflation pessimists that the Federal Reserve’s increased lending will invariably trigger massive future inflation. To provide a crutch for the ailing banks that overextended themselves during the Millennium Housing Boom by making too many high-risk real estate loans, the Federal Reserve (the Fed) infused massive [...]

This article examines the recent changes to the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA), also known as Regulation Z, and digests proposed future changes. 11/24/2009: Updates appear in blue. The purpose of the act The Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA), also known as Regulation Z (Reg Z), was originally enacted in 1968 to protect consumers by providing greater transparency by [...]

This article discusses the Federal Reserve’s pre-emptive use of monetary policy to quash real estate inflation booms, and contrasts this possible use with the current policy of merely ‘cleaning up’ recessions once they occur.

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