Message from the Editor-in-Chief

Misti M. Schmidt

The Editorial Board and I are pleased to present the second issue of Volume 38 of the California Real Property Journal. In this issue you’ll find interesting and timely articles regarding two potential solutions to our state’s housing crisis. First, Jason Fernandes and Janelle Orsi’s "Housing Justice Easements: A Tool to Combat the Housing Crisis" describes a novel approach to addressing the housing crisis by proposing that homeowners create their own private affordability restrictions on homes, similar to private landowners granting a conservation easement to preserve natural lands. Then, Jason Nelson delves into using accessory dwelling units as a method to increase our housing stock, in his article, "Can ADUs Help Solve California’s Housing Shortage? Recent Amendments to Government Code Section 65852.2 May Provide the Answer."

Moving from housing into the office context (which hopefully will be separate locations for most of us by the time this issue arrives in your inboxes!), Arin Reeves provides a helpful discussion regarding eliminating bias in the workplace in "Diversity and Retention in the Real Estate Industry: Increasing Effectiveness and Reducing Bias in Performance Feedback Processes." You can receive one credit of MCLE for reading this piece if you take our test online; instructions can be found at the end of the article. The credit can be used to fulfill the State Bar’s requirement for continuing education in the area of Recognition and Elimination of Bias in the Legal Profession and Society.

The issue rounds out and digs into bankruptcy and financing with Katrina Solamatina’s, "Stay, Not Pay? The Goudelock Decision’s Impact on Owners, HOAs, and Foreclosing Lenders," discussing the impact of Goudelock v. Sixty-01 Ass’n of Apartment Owners, 895 F.3d 633 (9th Cir. 2018). Our resident comic wit has an opinion on this case as well, on page 28.