The ongoing California drought continued to soak up headlines in 2015

"Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink." While I'm not sure Samuel Taylor Coleridge was exactly talking about the state of California, the drought, which was officially declared an emergency June 2014, continued to make headlines throughout 2015.

The stories mostly centered around usage. The year started off by showing that Southern Californians did their part at the end of 2014 in conservation. As spring came on and reality started to set in as to the severity of the drought, Gov. Jerry Brown ushered through a $1 billion package that provided relief funds and cut the red tape on infrastructure projects in the Central Valley.

Locke Lord LLP, See More People on the Move As it pertained to water wasters, the spotlight was shining brightest on those who kept green lawns as others turned brown. Brown proposed upping the ante when it came to fines and such, and as the state clamped down on commercial usage, the business community pushed back. It appears that the average Joe has done a good job in cutting back water usage. Perhaps too good. After all, in Los Angeles, the coffers were so drained at the LADWP that it was recently announced that, you guessed it, rates will increase next year.

Brandi Green

Loan Application Defects Keep Tumbling: First American

Mortgage application defects reached a record low in November, according to First American Financial Corp. The Loan Application Defect Index, created by the Santa Ana, Calif.-based title insurer, dropped for the fourth consecutive month, down 1.3% from October and 8.2% over 12 months. It has reached its lowest level in the history of the index, and is down 23.5% compared to its October 2013 high, according to a Dec. 29 press release. Still, progress is being felt unequally across the country. "While fraudulent and mis representative loan applications are continuing to decline, a few large markets remain at risk," said Mark Fleming, First American's chief economist, in the press release.
"In particular, the concentration of risk in Florida is a concern. All the major metropolitan areas in Florida are above the national average, and Miami ranks second among the top 100 markets nationally." He added, however, that the risk of misrepresentation in Florida mortgage applications is also trending downwards; it fell 7% in three months.