For 30 long minutes, I sat within earshot of a woman who simultaneously catalogued her materialistic desires and her economic despondency to her hairdresser. Unable to escape, and admittedly engrossed by her fiscal highs and woes, I discreetly focused on my knitting and heard a tale I knew all too...

Anyone who doubts in the unraveling of the middle class is welcome to join my Chanukah celebration this year. Just please bring the latkes, no-drip candles, and some presents for the kids.

I'm a private business owner in a very down market. My income has dropped significantly lower than even...

Did you read or hear about the Long Island judge who told IndyMac Mortgage that its actions in refusing to modify a mortgage were so onerous he was voiding the lien rather than enforcing the foreclosure? http://www.newsday.com/long-island/foreclosure-ruling-sends-message-to-lenders-1.1626914

I have to admit that I inwardly cheered a bit when...

Over the course of my decades as a real estate attorney, I had many dealings with one particular lawyer's office. He was so busy representing lenders that I sometimes needed to beg one of his associates or paralegals to provide a closing date that wasn't two or more weeks away....

The not-so-reputable mortgage broker thought he had a sympathetic listener on the other end of the phone. Actually, my skin was crawling as he blathered on about his solution to our current real estate woes: "The feds have to lay off with all these rules against lenders and the banks...

I found myself in possession of a few extra dollars the other day. Overcome with glee, I ran right out to put my minimal money back into the local economy! I was certainly not on a quest for retail therapy: I visited the vitamin store to replenish some supplements, stopped...

For decades, I declined invitations to parties where the preceding word was something like "lingerie" or "Tupperware", since I knew the fun would cease as soon as the sales pressure began. I am thankful that invitations to "attend & spend" have waned over the years; my social circles seemingly have...

On the way to an appointment, I passed two piles of trash. Neither heap appeared to me as run-of-the-mill rubbish: one symbolized economic success and optimism, while the other signified defeat and despair.

The first mound of refuse was set out by homeowners having work done on their very large...

Home sellers are a frightened group these days, alarmed by the very inducement designed to relieve their sleepless nights and jumpstart the residential real estate market. Since Labor Day passed, I have felt less like a real estate lawyer and more like a character actor in an awful horror movie,...

A former client's sorrowful tone came through before I even opened her e-mail. Her subject line read: My Big Loss--Help! The correspondence itself was filled with variations on when I thought the real estate market would stop its downward spiral and head upwards again, along with a plea for assistance....

I recently attended the funeral of a friend's father. The gathering was sad but I was not so overcome with grief that I was unable to observe and absorb all the surrounding sights on the long drive to and from the cemetery.

Towards the mid-way point of the 45 minute...

Ever since I established my own law practice, the words "back to school" caused my heart to race wildly and the blood to pound so loudly I barely heard myself whimpering and grousing. Why would an A-student with framed diplomas experience sweaty palms and cardiac palpitations if I so much...

I played hooky from my own office the other day. The sky was blue, the temperature about 80 degrees, and since my gaze kept being drawn to the window, I continuously lost my place in the contract I was supposed to scrutinize. I called my husband to see if he...

"What's your profit going to be? Who will it come from, and how much will you see?" is the chorus of the song I keep singing to my clients. In counterpoint they croon a different tune: "Houses are cheap, that's what they say, if I don't buy now I'll...

My office is where deals die. Mind you, not through malpractice, and not through some unusually unlucky set of circumstances. In my real-estate focused law practice, I'm involved with the ground-level of activity of buying and selling: statistics are reported only after deals pass successfully through offices like mine. Currently,...

Even in these tough times, we've managed to hang onto our boat. While it takes quite a bit of planning and expense to entertain aboard, we like to share offshore summer days with friends. While I can't get up in arms if I've shopped for lunch only to have Mother...

Houses are supposed to be our sanctuaries, not structures that shatter self-esteem. When storms rage, homes should be our shelter; instead, they have become the epicenter of economic anguish for many.

Ideally, turning the key and crossing the threshold should provide a welcome escape from the world's woes. But when...

To every analyst, forecaster, and economist predicting they see the bottom of the real estate market, I respond as Vinnie Barbarino might: "Where? Where?" I know the bottom is there--we all do-- but much like in a polluted riverbed, it is hard to spot and treacherous to reach.

More than...

Here's my appeal to certain unemployed friends: step away from your cell phones and computers! I pray every day that you get jobs, mainly because you need the money and self respect that working brings, but also because I need you to stop incessantly pestering me to stay in touch...

Death and taxes aren't the only certainties in my life. In almost three decades of practicing real estate law, I've learned that there are certain occurrences that never vary and coin tosses that are destined to come up as "tails" every time. Whether my business is booming or sluggish, I'd...