Search Results for: workforce housing forum

In the town of Marshall, Missouri (pop. 13,000,) about 20% of the residential properties were vacant, along with more than a dozen commercial properties, including a hospital and a grocery store. The Central Missouri Board of REALTORS® got to work with a REALTOR® Party-funded technical assessment, whose recommendations are driving real change focused on strategic code enforcement, data-driven problem solving, and property owner education.

Using the findings of a Land Use Initiative analysis from the REALTOR® Party, the Scottsdale Area Association of REALTORS® helped dissuade the City Council from adopting the new ‘Desert Rural’ protective category that would have raised significant barriers to high-density development and trounced the rights of private property owners. 

Without a local internet use tax in place on sales from out-of-state vendors, the City of Columbia, Missouri and its surrounding county had been missing out on tens of millions of revenue dollars from the online shopping trend.  To help the municipality capture this income for essential services, the Columbia Board of REALTORS® used an Issues Mobilization Grant from the REALTOR® Party to convince voters to adopt the tax.  

There was no question that the wastewater infrastructure of Yarmouth, Massachusetts was overdue to be replaced, but the local REALTORS took no chances when a major plan that was years in the making was put to a final vote.  A campaign supported by an Issues Mobilization grant from the REALTOR Party reminded voters how important the new system was to the environment, the residents, and to the peninsula’s tourist economy.                    

Not disposing of nuclear waste in any region’s precious waterways would seem be a matter of common sense, but apparently, in Massachusetts, the corporation responsible for decommissioning the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station wants to do just that.  To protect the environment, the economy, and the health of local communities, the South Shore REALTORS® have mobilized in opposition.

Having spearheaded the effort to create a First-Time Homebuyer Savings Account program in Alabama back in 2018, Alabama REALTORS® revisited the legislation as the end of a five-year sunset clause approached.  A Call for Action reminded lawmakers how important the tax-free savings accounts are for aspiring homebuyers, and the law was not only renewed, but extended and strengthened with fraud protections and transparency measures.

Under pressure from a sensationalizing tenants’ rights organization, the New Orleans City Council proposed mandatory new fee-based registration and inspection regulations.  The REALTORS® knew these would not help the affordable housing shortage; a Land Use Initiative analysis suggested that aspects of the proposal might even run afoul of current policy.  Their opposition effectively de-clawed the new ordinances.  

For the past few centuries, the land along Maine’s coast that is twice-daily exposed by low tide has belonged to the “upland property owner.” This spring, the state REALTOR® association defeated a bill attempting to turn that ‘wet-sand’ strip over to the state, which could have made it available for commercial use.

There’s no other grassroots organization in the country that can mobilize like REALTORS®. We saw the power of our unmatched operation in action as a government shutdown loomed at the end of September – and with it, the potential for a devastating lapse of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

With help from Issues Mobilization and Consumer Advocacy Outreach Grants from the REALTOR® Party, Missouri’s state REALTOR® association spearheaded land bank legislation that will provide localities with tools to address vacancy challenges.