Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has recently proposed a split roll under Prop 13: while residential properties would only be reassessed on transfer, commercial properties could be reassessed annually. The Mayor anticipates that this change would bring in up to $8 billion in annual tax revenues for state. Read more.... Continue reading

This morning’s Wall Street Journal’s headline reports that delinquencies on home mortgages ticked up in the second quarter. The graphics tell an interesting story: states that have only judicial foreclosure have a disproportionately large share of loans in foreclosure, while states that make a nonjudicial foreclosure procedure available have a disproportionately small share of loans in foreclosure. Continue reading

As we watch the slow-motion trains lumbering toward each other in Washington, more and more observers begin to contemplate that it could really happen: a US debt default. What does it mean in real estate? Much of the press in the last week tells us that investors have moved from... Continue reading