%1

An appeals court judge ruled Friday that a bankruptcy court should consider additional evidence in the chapter 11 filing of a Bronx real-estate project that could potentially disqualify the case, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The project’s developers, who filed the appeal against the lender-backed bankruptcy filing, didn’t get their desired outcome of an immediate dismissal, but the ruling also didn’t kill the possibility for the case to be thrown out. Judge Ronnie Abrams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said the developers of the project at 286 Rider Avenue filed new materials “critical to the underlying determination [of] whether the bankruptcy case was properly authorized” after bankruptcy judge Lisa Beckerman allowed the case to move forward. Judge Abrams said that she was sending back the case because Judge Beckerman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York didn’t have an opportunity to review the materials before her ruling. The bankruptcy case threatens to strip the developers, Toby Moskovits and Michael Lichtenstein, of their equity interest in the property where they had planned to build a 105-unit apartment building. Joyce Kuhns, a lawyer representing Ms. Moskovits and Mr. Lichtenstein, told Judge Abrams on Thursday that the developers needed this case resolved quickly because they were facing a tight deadline. A lucrative tax exemption program known as 421a, which applies to developers in New York City who build multifamily housing on underutilized land, is set to expire in June, and its future is uncertain, Ms. Kuhns said in an oral argument. To qualify for the current exemption, projects must commence construction on or before June 15.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday that it disbursed about $2.9 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance funds to 665,000 renters and landlords during November, putting the program on pace for full-year 2021 obligations of $25 billion-$30 billion, Reuters reported. The Treasury also said that it disbursed $1.1 billion to communities deemed eligible for more funds as part of a reallocation process started at the end of September. More than three quarters of these transfers were accomplished through voluntary transfers between communities in the same state. Rental assistance funding of $46.5 billion was approved in two COVID-19 aid bills in December 2020 and March 2021. But the locally administered program was slow to ramp up, with some jurisdictions taking longer to launch programs and others facing less demand from renters and landlords. Communities that had obligated at least 65% of their first-round allocation were eligible for additional funds, while those allocating less than 30% stood to lose funds.

One of the best-known buildings in Downtown Sacramento from the early 2000s real estate boom appears to have financial difficulty, with an ownership group filing for bankruptcy last week, the Sacramento Business Journal reported. According to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, the entity known as 12th & K Partners LLC, which is connected to the Cathedral Building on the northwest corner of 12th and K streets, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday, claiming both assets and liabilities in the range of $10 million to $50 million. Bob Clippinger, president of Los Angeles-based Clippinger Investment Properties Inc., is the signatory to the filing, which states the location of principal assets as 1020 12th St. in Sacramento. In 2019, 12th & K Partners appeared to sell at least a portion of the Cathedral Building to another investor. Records show the Ziegelman Family Trust bought 1131 K St. for $1.59 million. That amount, however, seems unlikely to be for the entire building. At that time, 12th & K Partners was also facing pressure from lenders over the note on the building, which was $11.1 million in arrears as of a 2017 foreclosure filing in Sacramento County Superior Court. Plaintiffs in that case filed to have it dismissed a few months later. However, there appears to be another foreclosure pending against the same property, by SBS Trust Deed out of Westlake Village. According to a listing for the filing on foreclosure database Superior Default Services Inc., 1020 12th St. has been set to go to auction several times in recent months, most recently set for Jan. 13, with a listed sale price of $11.8 million.

A 105,000-square-foot mansion in Bel Air, Calif., dubbed "The One," could become the most expensive property to sell in the U.S. when it hits the auction block next month, CNN.com reported. The hillside property, which spans over a sprawling 3.8 acres, will be listed on January 7 at an eye-watering $295 million, with an online sale held February 7 to 10 via Concierge Auctions. From its elevated perch, the home boasts 360-degree ocean and alpine views as well as ones of downtown Los Angeles. Taking around a decade to complete, The One is being marketed as the first and only residence of its size in Los Angeles, thanks to new regulations passed in the city during its development that now limit the size of single-family homes, to reduce the number of so-called megamansions being developed. The property's developer, Nile Niami, aimed "to build one of the finest properties across the globe," Kirman said. But bringing the property to market has not been without its issues. CNN reported this past September that the property's value was once estimated at $500 million, and that the owner defaulted on more than $100 million in loans and debt, according to court documents. Over the summer, the home was placed in court-ordered receivership for complicated real estate deals, an alternative to foreclosure, to pay its debts.

Americans borrowed more than ever to buy homes in 2021. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that mortgage lenders issued $1.61 trillion in purchase loans in 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported. That is up slightly from $1.48 trillion in 2020 and above the previous record of $1.51 trillion in 2005. The mortgage boom reflects a thriving housing market and the corresponding run-up in prices over the past year. Many of the forces that pushed Americans into the housing market in the early months of the pandemic — low interest rates and a desire for bigger homes — continue to drive up prices and mortgage balances. What’s more, many Americans got raises and built up savings during the pandemic, giving them the means to buy. The rate of home-price growth has slowed in recent months but remains near record levels. Home prices rose 19.1% in the year that ended in October. Sales of existing homes in 2021 were expected to reach their highest level since 2006.

During the first week of every month, the white sheets of paper show up, jammed behind doorknobs, laid on porch chairs or tables, dropped on concrete patios. Janahya Sugick, a nail technician and mother of three, received her first late notice in June 2020, after her hours had been cut and her paycheck had dwindled because of the pandemic. Soon after, her apartment complex filed for eviction. But even though she couldn’t immediately pay, Sugick was not evicted. Instead, she is regularly served eviction papers and then charged hundreds of dollars in fees to avoid removal, in a way that she and other residents of the Brooks Crossing apartments, a 224-unit complex south of Atlanta, say has become commonplace, the Washington Post reported. Management of Brooks Crossing has filed for eviction against its tenants more than any other landlord in the Atlanta area, a total of 427 times since April 2020, according to data from the Atlanta Regional Commission. That equates to 1.9 eviction notices per unit there between April 2020 and early December 2021.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued two joint letters yesterday regarding important legal housing protections for military families, according to a CFPB press release. One letter was sent to landlords and other housing providers regarding protections for military tenants. A second letter was sent to mortgage servicers regarding military borrowers who have already exited or will be exiting COVID-19 mortgage forbearance programs in the coming weeks and months. The letter to landlords and other housing providers reminds property owners of the important housing protections for military tenants, some of whom may have had to relocate or make other changes to their housing arrangements in response to the crisis. While military families enjoy the same legal protections and privileges afforded to all other homeowners and tenants, they also have additional housing protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which is enforceable by the DOJ and servicemembers themselves. The letter to mortgage servicers comes in response to complaints from military families and veterans on a range of potential mortgage servicing violations, including inaccurate credit reporting, misleading communications to borrowers, and required lump sum payments for reinstating their mortgage loans. These complaints are being reviewed for compliance by the CFPB with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and other applicable requirements.

The swift arrival of a new coronavirus variant has rekindled economic anxieties in Washington, D.C., as congressional lawmakers, business leaders and consumer advocates begin to worry whether there is enough federal aid to shield Americans from another round of financial despair, the Washington Post reported. Over the course of the nearly two-year pandemic, Congress has committed nearly $6 trillion toward combating the contagion and bringing a battered economy back from the brink. But some of the most significant programs to keep businesses afloat and help households pay bills have expired or run out of funds, raising new risks for the future of the country’s recovery, particularly as the omicron variant wave begins to take hold. There’s no federal money left to keep restaurants open. The aid for concert halls and other customer-starved performance spaces has nearly gone dry. Federal officials ended their primary effort that pumped money into small businesses with sagging balance sheets, and they stopped paying out extra sums to workers who are out of a job. Federal student loan protections are expiring imminently, meaning students’ bills are set to come due early next year. A stimulus initiative under President Biden that provided monthly payments to more than 35 million families with children may have issued its last round of deposits this past Wednesday. And attempts to extend those tax benefits — or address a wider array of longer-term financial issues facing parents — have stalled again on Capitol Hill. “I’m concerned that you’re going to have many, many vulnerable Americans, Americans with young children for example, falling between the cracks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), adding: “January looks like a tough month with respect to omicron.”