- New York federal judge dismisses suit against Bank of America Corp. over “hustle” high-speed mortgage approval process for allegedly defrauding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
- Midtown TDR Ventures LLC and Midtown GCT Ventures LLC, real estate developers that currently own Grand Central Terminal, file a complaint against the City of New York and SL Green, another developer, claiming that they were robbed of potential profits from air rights when the City and SL Green worked to rezone the area in which Grand Central sits and devalued the property.
Author Archives: Shea Cunningham
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Notices of Abatement vs Defects of Title, Roger Bernhardt, 38 Real Property Law Reporter 51 (Cal CEB Mar. 2015).
- Cities and Health: A Response to the Recent Commentaries, Michael K. Gusmano, Victor G. Rodwin, & Daniel Weisz, NYU Wagner Research Paper No. 2658320.
- Property and Secrecy, Amnon Lehavi.
- MSA Geographic Allocations, Property Selection, and Performance Attribution in Public and Private Real Estate Markets, David C. Ling, Andy Naranjo & Benjamin Scheick.
- REIT Leverage and Return Performance: Keep York Eye on the Target, Emanuela Giacomini, David C. Ling & Andy Naranjo.
- Is Poor Financial Literacy a Barrier to Home Ownership?, John Gatherwood & Joerg Weber.
Monday’s Adjudication Roundup
- Union pension funds have filed a petition for cert in the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is liable for failure in oversight of 26 trusts of over $30 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities.
- S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejects claims that its in-house court is unconstitutional in suit against Atlanta investment adviser, Timbervest LLC.
- The D.C. Circuit allows reconsideration of HUD’s disparate-impact defense in American Insurance Association case, where the lower court had interpreted the Fair Housing Act to allow suits in which seemingly neutral actions have a discriminatory impact.
Friday’s Government Reports Roundup
- Authorities partnered with NGOs to create “Community and Supportive Services” Programs (CSS) under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) grants for public housing redevelopment. A study analyzed the programs in Nashville and Atlanta, and found several shortcomings.
- The S. Census Bureau released information from 2014, finding that there was no significant change in median household income or official poverty rate since 2013, but the percentage of people without health insurance decreased.
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Green Cities? Urbanization, Trade and the Environment, Rainald Borck & Michael Pflüger, IZA Discussion Paper No. 9104.
- The Impact of Foreclosure Delay on U.S. Employment, Kyle F. Herkenhoff & Lee E. Ohanian, NBER Working Paper No. w21532.
- Are Bigger Companies Better for Low-Income Borrowers?: Evidence from Payday and Title Loan Advertisements, Jim Hawkins, Journal of Law, Economics and Policy, Forthcoming.
- Price Expectations and the U.S. Housing Boom, Pascal Towbin & Sebastian Weber, IMF Working Paper No. 15/182.
Monday’s Adjudication Roundup
- NY bankruptcy judge dismissed suit against DLA Piper for misappropriation of over $36 million in payments to cover mortgage-backed securities. The judge cited NY law that “prevents wrongdoers and their successors from pursuing claims that arise out of their own misconduct.”
- NY federal judge denied “Act of God” defense made by National Electronic Transit Corporation for damage caused to machines stored in warehouse during Hurricane Sandy, instead finding that the company was under-prepared for the storm.
- RBS Securities has settled to pay $129.6 million for claims made by the National Credit Union Administration for the sale of mortgage-backed securities, which may have led to the failure of two credit unions.
- NY federal court denied Citibank’s bid to relate FDIC’s suit over failure as trustee for mortgage-backed securities to a suit accusing the bank of mishandling mortgage-backed securities in pooled loans.
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Housing and Mortgages in Transition Economy, John E. Anderson.
- Underwriting Sustainable Homeownership: The Federal Housing Administration and the Low Down Payment Loan, David J. Reiss, Georgia Law Review, Forthcoming.
- Mortgage Refinancing, Consumer Spending, and Competition: Evidence from the Home Affordable Refinancing Program, Sumit Agarwal, Gene Amromin, Souphala Chomsisengphet, Tomasz Piskorski, Amit Seru & Vincent W. Yao, NBER Working Paper No. w21512.
- Stock Prices, Regional Housing Prices, and Aggregate Technology Shocks, Jiro Yoshida.
- Information Diffusion in the U.S. Real Estate Investment Trust Market, Masaki Mori, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2015.
- A Neurological Explanation of Strategic Mortgage Default, Michael Joseph Seiler & Eric Walden, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Vol. 51, No. 2, 2015.
- The City as a Commons, Sheila Foster & Christian Iaione.
- Attempting to Collect on Barred Mortgages, Roger Bernhardt.
