REALTORS® in MD & LA Put Halt on Using Eminent Domain to Seize Underwater Mortgages
REALTORS® in Maryland and Louisiana ran successful issue campaigns to stop local governments from using their power of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages. The Maryland Association got a two-year moratorium on the practice while the state legislature studies the issue. The Louisiana...
Michigan REALTORS®–Placemaking Pioneers–Show How a Little TLC Goes a Long Way
After two years, the 'Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper' placemaking challenge launched by the Michigan Association of REALTORS® (MAR) is proving that little things make a big...
Kansas REALTORS® Get State’s 99-year-old Real Estate Transfer Tax Repealed
The real estate transfer tax had been on the books in Kansas for nearly a century, and it was showing no signs of budging. But the 7,600-member Kansas Association of REALTORS® decided enough was enough and set off on a mission to educate state legislators about the discriminatory nature of the...
Loveland-Berthoud REALTORS® Put the Fun in RPAC Fundraising with Chili Cook-off & Live Auction
The Loveland-Berthoud Association of REALTORS® (LBAR) in northern Colorado may be small, but its 370 members understand the importance of supporting RPAC. The Chili Cook-off and Live Auction they hosted this year with an RPAC Grant helped them raise a whopping $7,321 – and they had a lot of fun...
Two Chicago-Area REALTOR® Associations Host Housing Expo and Trolley Tour with Housing Opportunity Grant
The City of Aurora, on the west side of Chicago, has been lauded as a highly livable city. It has a strong down-payment assistance program, and plenty of affordable housing -- yet a high percentage of the employees working in Aurora commute from elsewhere. The 15,000-member Mainstreet Organization...
Missouri REALTORS® Use Power of Polling to Stop Tax Threat to Real Estate
For the second year in a row, the Missouri REALTORS® (MR) blocked a deep-pocketed individual from advancing his plan to eliminate the state income tax. The burden for filling the revenue void would likely have fallen on real estate sales and services, which would have hit MR’s 18,000 members...
DC REALTORS® Make “Heavy Lift” to Help Elect Champion to City Council
The 2,400-member District of Columbia Association of REALTORS® (DCAR) had long been at odds with the City Council member from Ward 1, a 16-year incumbent and a staunch advocate for higher real estate taxes and more rent control. One opposition candidate, Brianne Nadeau, looked like a promising...
Ada County (ID) Association Makes Strides in Employer-Assisted Housing
No one ever said it would be quick or easy. But the Ada County Association of REALTORS® (ACAR) stuck to its conviction that focusing on workforce housing is good for everyone in a community. The 3,000-member association is finally beginning to see results from its years of diligent Employer...
San Diego REALTORS® Help Defeat Proposed “Jobs Tax”
The Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS® (SDAR) needed a lot of signatures -- 34,000 authentic and verifiable signatures, to be exact. That was the number required to get a referendum on the ballot to overturn an onerous fee increase on developers of office buildings and mixed-use...
New Orleans REALTORS® Rally Behind Proven REALTOR® Champion Mayor Mitch Landrieu
In a rare tempest of the calendar, the 4,200-member New Orleans Metropolitan Association of REALTORS® found itself with precious little time to launch an independent expenditure campaign for Mayor Mitch Landrieu's re-election. This was thanks to an unlikely confluence of the date of its new...