The federal government has been heavily involved in promoting housing affordability since the 1930s and continues to have a critical role to play. Over the past several decades, the federal government has financed affordability by promoting development and income subsidies, but specific...

If this was a cooking show, and we were preparing to demonstrate how to create a complex dish that I'll call "The 2008 Financial Crisis," we would start out by assembling our various ingredients. In this case, our ingredients would include sophisticated financial products, rating agency...

Uniformly foundational to every legal system is the concept of pacta sunt servanda – agreements are binding. But the precise parameters of this concept differ across legal systems based, in part, upon available remedies for contract breach. Many European legal systems, including Georgia's...

Intentionally or not, every state's law regarding lien priority and post-foreclosure liability allocates risk between mortgage lenders and privately governed “common interest communities” (CICs), such as condominiums. When lenders secure their interests with mortgages on property within a...

For decades, society's disparate interests and priorities have stymied attempts to resolve issues of housing affordability and equity. Zoning law and servitude law, both of which have been robustly empowered by decades of jurisprudence, effectively grant communities the legal right and ability...

America's population of renters is growing faster than the supply of available rental units. Rental vacancies are reaching new lows, and rental rates are reaching new highs. Millions of former homeowners have lost their homes in foreclosure and, due to today's much tighter mortgage underwriting...

Homeownership in the US is on the decline and the percentage of the population that rents their residence is growing. Renters present a distinct demographic compared to owners, and most of the more vulnerable segments of society rent their homes. But the law prohibits renting a home in some...

One-fifth of all Americans today live in privately governed, common interest communities (CICs). By definition, property in a CIC is subject to restrictions on use, however many CIC properties are also constrained by restrictions on transfer. Owners may not be able to freely sell or lease their...