Stacking Up

There's been lots of community association news in Utah over the past several weeks, and not a lot of time to write about it.  The Utah appellate courts have handed down several cases dealing directly with community associations and homeowners, and several other cases with tangential, but significant impacts on the industry.  I'll blog about those in the next several days.

The other news deals, rather surprisingly, with progress in various community association projects.  First, a new project in the Sugarhouse area is opening soon; the controversial Urbana on Eleventh "condominium tower" will have 29 "pet-friendly" units.  Neighbors fear parking and crime issues, but many local businesses are hoping for increased commerce.  Units will range from slightly under 200k and up to slightly over 500k.

Meanwhile, progress on the City Creek project is continuing, with a good portion of the food court having its grand opening today.  That event gave rise to some new publicity and a status update on all of the buildings, nicely shown on this diagram.  Units in the Richards Court condominiums will commence in just a few months, with units in the taller Regent and City Creek Tower 1 project being available in mid-2011.  (Interestingly, the developer has little available information on the "Tower 1;" the provided link is to a skyscraper page.  That page is worth a look, since it has some photographic history of the construction, and nerdy photos, rendering and videos.

And lastly, the City Creek Project has gotten some more publicity from the New York Times, which has an interesting outsiders take on the church/state and economic issues associated with the development.  One interesting tidbit in the NY Times article notes that although the church will likely allow alcohol in some of the development, they will sell the underlying property to accommodate that while "keep[ing] the church from being in the liquor business or from benefiting from liquor sales."   (Regular readers of this blog will recall that the New York Times has written on the City Creek project in the past.

Climbing Out of the Basement?

New data from the National Association of Realtors shows a "leap" in the sale of existing homes during July, according to this article in today's New York Times. The NAR press release on the topic can be found here.

Meanwhile, Ben Bernanke thinks the U.S. Economy is ready to rebound, but this article, dealing with the "plight" of the very wealthy, suggests that the recovery may lead to less wealth inequity. Do the very wealthy even have basements?

Interesting morning of economic news, to say the least.

Local Home Sales are Also on the Rise

Yesterday's post reported a national increase in home sales; today's Salt Lake Tribune has some reporting on the local market. Bottom line: the same statistics are not kept on a local basis, but sales are up here based upon various sources of information.

KSL.com also has its own story, using different sources, here.

New Home Sales Increase

New home sales are up sharply, and well above what was expected, according to a Commerce Department report released today, and reported here, in the New York Times. Sales are still way down from last year, and some economists doubt the trend will continue, but we can hope...

CCAL Law Conference -- Day 2, Part 3 -- The Economy, Again

Another session dealing with the economy -- this time, "How to Guide Your Firm Through the Economic Slump". Four partners/shareholders of various sized firms are addressing the economy's effect on firms; all of these firms are seeing dramatic increases in revenue, and (unfortunately) parallel increases in accounts receivable.

One bit of consistent advice from all of the panelists (Hobbs & Olson clients beware) is that firms be more aggressive in following up on accounts receivable. All of the panelists report terminating clients who haven't been paying.

Two collection attorneys in California report that due primarily to the California statutory restrictions, they are accessing each routine collection matter at least 50times. Suddenly, the weather in Southern California is not quite as inviting...

All of the attorneys on the panel insist upon payment for their collections rather than accepting contingent referrals; the consistent response: "You get what you pay for..." Contingent firms, these panelists say, tend to focus only on gathering the "low hanging fruit". Those easy cases, of course, are not the most important cases to be pursuing.

"It's the Economy, Stupid"

I’m at the College of Community Association Lawyers’ law conference, and the big subject of the day is – yeah, you guessed it – the economy.

Speakers are covering a number of topics associated with the economy, and its consequences. Numerous suggestions are being made – few things are strikingly new to me, but the speakers’ repeated affirmation of Hobbs & Olson’s collection practices are reassuring. One of the early afternoon speakers suggested that firms should be considering the pursuit of personal judgments – a practice that we’ve been advocating for years. Another speaker suggested that associations should be including a budget line item for bad debt –I’ve only been recommending that for a year.

A big issue of discussion – and one that we are seeing more of – deals with lenders who foreclose and don’t thereafter pay their assessments, and other lenders who, either by virtue of mandated or voluntary policies, are not foreclosing on their units. It seems to be the consensus that those deadbeat lenders should be pursued aggressively. I agree.

Ellen Hirsch De Haan, President of the Foundation for Community Association Research, is suggesting that associations might want to consider relaxing some rules that might otherwise make sense. Do you want to rigidly enforce anti-rent restrictions, if that rental income might help the owner to pay their mortgage and/or their assessments? Are you going to rigidly enforce your single family restrictions if the children who lost their jobs (or the parents who lost their 401(k)) move in?

“Good guys”, who pay their assessments, are being penalized if the association does not pursue their neighbors, because the neighbors end up paying more. For this reason, associations should be actively pursuing their collections equally, but equitably.

And here’s a scary tale from Florida – abandoned homes there are being stripped of appliances, cabinets, copper wiring and everything else of value. In high-end communities, the strippers are apparently watching the public foreclosure records, and visiting the foreclosed, and thus vacant, homes. So, if you are aware of foreclosed and vacant units in your association, keep an eye on them.

In Case You Missed It...

The New York Times is noting that Utah's economy is also beginning to feel the nation's economic woes. In this article, the Times reports that Utah's home price drops were the sixth worst in the nation for the fourth quarter of last year.

And the article notes that although we're feeling the recession, we are likely not to see it to the same extent as many other communities, for a number of reasons, including the LDS Church's City Creek project.