A new year brings different challenges, some forced by changing market forces which some experts believe will usher in higher interest rates and moderate home sales. The Biden administration’s regulatory focus also bears watching. This year’s special report, sponsored by Qualia and TrustLink, addresses insights, trends and opportunities.

Up until the 1980s, legal battles placed favor on property owners over lenders fairly consistently. This trend began to reverse beginning in 1982 when the United States Supreme Court gave federally chartered savings and loans associations (S&Ls) the ability to automatically enforce their due-on-sale clauses for profit and economic viability on the following actions involving a mortgaged property:

A new law in Arizona, HB 2617, makes significant changes to Arizona’s homestead exemption and expands the rights of judgment creditors. The law went into effect on January 1, 2022, but creditors with judgments entered before then also may take advantage of the changes to the law.

It repeals law concerning excess rates and charges for title insurance; makes the agreement to use services of title or settlement service company subject to attorney review.

Week Ending December 10, 2021

The American Land Title Association published an article on December 21, 2021 written by Michael R. O'Donnell, Michael P. Crowley and Kevin Hakansson in its Title News Online publication. The article, "When an Easement Holder Ran So Far Away from the Easement's Purpose, It Lost the Easement," provided a review of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in a suit alleging that an ordinance triggered the easement's abandonment clause.

Colorado statutory law has traditionally limited enforcement of restrictive covenants. C.R.S. § 8-2-113, entitled “Unlawful to intimidate worker – agreement not to compete,” provides that all contractual restrictions on a person’s post-employment competitive activity are “void” unless they fit into one of four categories:

The Oregon Supreme Court recently reversed a decision of the Oregon Court of Appeals and determined that the lease of a vested hydroelectric water right to the state for instream uses did not qualify as the “use of water under a hydroelectric water right” under Oregon Revised Statute 543A.305(3). WaterWatch v. Oregon Water Resources Department, 369 Or. 71 (2021) (hereafter referred to as Warm Springs Hydro, after intervenor respondent Warm Springs Hydro LLC). As a result of the decision, the hydroelectric water right will be subject to conversion to a permanent instream water right.

The Georgia Court of Appeals recently affirmed summary judgment for a title insurance company in a dispute regarding an easement’s beneficiaries, holding that the insured released any claims against the title insurer and could not bring a later suit, even for claims assigned to it by another party.

As the real estate profession continues to evolve, adopting digital solutions to save time and improve customer service, the transfer of secure funds remains critical. In this episode, FNF's Linda Grahovec welcomes Jason Nadeau, Senior Vice-President and Chief Digital Officer of the FNF Family of Companies. Jason takes a deep dive into the various digital payment options, how they work, and what's appropriate for the real estate industry.

As state and federal legislatures across the United States continue to contemplate comprehensive data protection legislation, two pending laws—the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA)—are set to become effective on January 1, 2023.

Often people think about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy as something historic, dating back to the 1970s. But it should also be thought of as a site of the longest protest for Indigenous land rights, sovereignty and self-determination in the world.

For agents interested in growing their business by expanding into multiple states, we’re here to make the process simple and profitable. We offer you one point of contact to streamline your options and solutions.

At the beginning of World War II, the heir of a prominent German Jewish art collector was forced to surrender her family’s Camille Pissarro painting to the Nazis. Her heirs have been litigating for more than 15 years over rights to the painting, an Impressionist masterpiece once thought to be lost. 

Occasionally we have posted a nighttime satellite image that shows where the lights are on in one country or another. But now we have a composite image that shows the entire world on a Mercator projection and how it is lit up at night. Yeah, of course it would have to a composite, because it's never nighttime for the whole world. 

This year I did a bit more of my own writing and restarted the Weekly Roundup. I also published nearly 400 Snippets. Here are 52 things I learned:

Read More Contributed by Bill Collins, Frontier Abstract

A New Mexico court recently granted judgment on the pleadings against an insurer and found coverage, reminding the insurer that different words in a policy, indeed, have different meanings.