SBR-Authors Podcast: Finding True Happiness Through Acts of Kindness: A Conversation with Karen Olson
Creative Housing Solutions Pop Up Across Oregon
Affordable Housing on the Front Range: Inclusionary Housing Ordinances and the New Middle Income Housing Authority
Office-to-Apartment Conversions – A Good Idea, but Tricky to Pull Off (Audio)
Episode 15 | Hot! Hot! Hot! Don't get Burned by the Perils of Buying and Selling Residential Real Estate
California CRE to Expand in 2022
The Wall Street Journal has reported that recent bankruptcies nationwide in the Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) segment of the long-term care marketplace have resulted in residents losing their buy-in deposit....more
On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it will end the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program on May 1, 2025. This decision comes just shy of one year since the program’s...more
CHICAGO — Chicago Offering 12 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave to City Employees; New Policy Applies to Birthing, Non-Birthing Parents- In yet another pre-election sweetener, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that the city is...more
Take-aways From Director Chopra’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress - On April 6, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its semi-annual report to Congress required under Dodd-Frank....more
In April 2020, just weeks after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown formally ordered Oregonians to “Stay Home, Save Lives,” I asked whether construction projects could or should continue during the shutdown. While the order did not on its...more
With the U.S. Treasury’s January 2022 release of its Final Rule in the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, we began publishing this series of articles reviewing the lesser publicized aspects of that guidance (hence,...more
Habitat for Humanity builds the nation’s first 3D-printed house, the White House announces infrastructure spending plans for 2022, commercial real estate firms are left to determine their vaccination mandates, and more....more
The residential real estate market in Cleveland continues to boom, with home price values increasing by more than 10-20% in northeast Ohio over the past few years. So Shoveling Smoke thought this would be a good time to...more
Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Until January 31, 2022 - "The Department believes this additional time and a definitive end date will allow borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the...more
Over the last year, the Baltimore City Council has introduced and enacted multiple bills impacting rental housing that residential landlords will need to navigate: - In May 2020, the City Council passed the COVID-19 Rent...more
A federal judge for the District of Columbia issued a decision on May 5 striking down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) nationwide eviction moratorium....more
On April 21, 2021, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will extend certain loan origination flexibilities, including alternative appraisals on purchase and rate-term refinance...more
In Washington: Federal health officials on Tuesday suggested the efficacy rate of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine may reflect “outdated information.” AstraZeneca on Monday reported a 79 percent efficacy rate for preventing...more
While PPE, toilet paper, and groceries make price gouging headlines, consumer goods are not the only goods covered by price gouging laws in many states. Less publicized, but equally important, lodging or housing may be found...more
According to recently released market trend reports, the number of condominiums listed for sale in Northeast and Southeast Portland dropped by 20% from September 2020 to December 2020 and the number of units sold increased...more
In Washington: The White House is reportedly considering mailing masks directly to Americans. The plans have been discussed but no formal proposal has been delivered to Biden, a White House official told NBC News. Discussions...more
Lawmakers weigh moratorium extension as eviction cliff looms - Palo Alto Online – December 8 - With California's eviction moratorium set to expire in less than 60 days and 2 million people at risk of losing their rental...more
In Washington: Congress continues to debate a new coronavirus relief package, possibly as part of a government spending bill due December 11. Here are the latest developments...more
BuzzFeed has struck a deal with Verizon Media to acquire HuffPost, a mash-up that “would join a pair of digital-media giants that have found themselves searching for readers and revenue as they have fallen prey to some of the...more
Breaking down Thursday’s GDP report, which—as expected—was gangbusters in isolation but in context shows U.S. economic output “3.5 percent below where it was in the last pre-pandemic quarter, equivalent to a severe recession...more
In Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a Thursday morning letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pressed the White House for a response to the Democrats' latest coronavirus relief package proposal....more
In Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) set a Tuesday deadline for her and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to reconcile significant policy disputes if they want to pass a coronavirus relief bill before Election...more
In Washington: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday that White House negotiators seeking a coronavirus relief deal have simply not offered enough money to bring Democrats on board. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on...more
As California's housing supply and homelessness crisis continues to worsen, the state Legislature has for the past several years passed numerous pieces of housing legislation in each legislative session. ...more
In Washington - The White House Wednesday signaled it is open to supporting the Problem Solvers’ coronavirus relief bill released yesterday. The President encouraged Senate Republicans to support the deal that would...more