Real Estate Practice in the Twenty-First Century

The next century will bring profound changes in real estate law and in the ways that it is practiced. This prediction may seem rather unremarkable for any area of law or for almost any other area of human endeavor. But the changes in real estate law will be exceptional because of their relative rapidity and comprehensiveness. Real estate law, perhaps more than any other area, has changed very slowly since the beginning of the common law legal system.

The mortgage, which will be the engine for this century's developments, is a particularly striking example of this slow rate of evolution.' The instrument itself was called a mort gage as early as 1189 in England, and today's substantive mortgage law is descended directly from England's Middle Ages.