A look at the legislation affecting real estate enacted during the 2009-2010 Legislative Session. For an archive of Legislative Watch years, click here.

This article analyzes the due diligence investigations by a mortgage loan broker (MLB) into a trust deed note available for purchase by his trust deed investor.

This article discusses contemporary attitudes toward mortgage default and turns a critical eye to the social consequences and economic results of strategic default.

On November 5, 2009, Fannie Mae launched what they characterize as a Deed-For-Lease in lieu of foreclosure program. The program allows a financially-distressed homeowner who does not qualify for a loan modification to stay in his home as a tenant by exchanging title to his property for a one-year lease agreement. The program does not [...]

This article clarifies a homeowner’s contractual promise to repay purchase money debt and his contractual right to default, free of moral obligation. In California, homeowners borrow funds to assist in purchasing a home and sign a trust deed and a note containing a promise to pay the lender the entire amount borrowed. Lenders want homeowners [...]

This article examines the impact of home equity borrowing on the current real estate market bust, and the indicators of an unhealthy amount of home equity borrowing as a warning system for future housing recessions. As everyone who keeps an eye on the news knows, the real estate market, still slogging its way through the [...]

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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 [...]

Fannie Mae has set new underwriting rules making it more difficult for many homebuyers to obtain purchase-assist loans when relocating for job-related reasons. Fannie Mae will no longer consider income from “trailing spouses” in loan applications. Buyers relocating for career reasons, accompanied by their newly unemployed spouses, were formerly permitted to count the former income [...]

This chapter analyzes redundant charges imposed on buyers and sellers for the basic services necessarily rendered by lenders, escrow companies and title insurance companies to earn the primary fee they charge. The hidden costs surrounding a loan A homebuyer’s obligation to close escrow on a purchase agreement is typically conditioned by a contract provision requiring [...]