Category Archives: State and Local Resources

Pacific Southwest REALTORS® Advocate for Transit-oriented Smart Growth

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Housing affordability is the top priority for California’s governor.  It's the principal challenge for the mayor and the San Diego City Council.  And it's of utmost concern to the Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® (PSAR), with 2,000 members in the trenches of the local real estate industry, where rents have skyrocketed in the past decade, and would-be first-time homebuyers are struggling.  PSAR recently used a REALTOR® Party Smart Growth Action Grant to co-sponsor a report that convinced the city to adopt a handful of policy measures to help ease the crisis.

The grant was used to support the work of Circulate San Diego, the region's leading nonprofit concerned with transportation and sustainable land use issues, as it developed recommendations for transit-oriented development. A prime focus of the plan was updating the city's existing Density Bonus program, along with other incentives making it easier for in-fill development to move forward.

Tracy Morgan Hollingworth, Government Affairs Director at PSAR, served on the technical advisory board of Circulate San Diego's Transit-Oriented Development report.  Its goals were to:

  • Reduce costs for new affordable and market-rate mixed-use developments near transit
  • Generate more economic development from region’s transit investments
  • Create better links between homes and jobs through transit
  • Reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions by accommodating future growth near transit

Shortly after receiving Circulate San Diego's report, the City Council unanimously voted to adopt five new incentives based on its recommendations.  Rather than increasing density rates, the new ordinances make it faster and simpler to build housing units that are already allowed.  The incentives include: an increase in the existing Density Bonus Program, which rewards developers for including a certain number of low-income units in their building projects; reducing the parking space minimum for units built close to transit stations; and allowing low-income units to be built up to a mile away from market-rate units, within a single development project, for construction efficiency.

Hollingworth notes that the beauty of the new ordinances is that they simply remove obstacles that have discouraged building where increased density has already been approved.  "It's about maximizing density to the allowed limits, not increasing the density rates.  This will add desperately needed housing units where there's existing infrastructure, and give developers and builders a fair degree of flexibility. And because it covers the entire city, it takes some of the pressure off individual neighborhoods struggling to update their community plans, which can be a lengthy and tortured process."

Rafael Perez, a PSAR member active in city politics, attended many Circulate San Diego meetings and provided testimony for the City Council.  He notes that the coalition of organizations supporting Circulate San Diego in this complex effort was highly unusual in its diversity. "You'd expect to see environmentally-focused groups getting behind transit-oriented development," he says, "but the presence of the REALTORS® and other business groups brought valuable angles of expertise, and a critical balance, to the process.  And for the City Council to have found the recommendations acceptable on both sides of the aisle, tells you how universally beneficial they'll be.  For REALTORS®," he adds, "our involvement also demonstrates our vested interest in the region, and helps to disprove the all-too-common notion that we're only interested in sales."

To learn more about how the Pacific Southwest REALTORS® are working to help San Diego maximize housing density and implement transit oriented development initiatives, contact Government Affairs Director Tracy Morgan Hollingworth at 619-222-8155.

Delaware REALTORS® Use REALTOR® Party Mobile Alerts to Save Itemized Deductions

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But with the recent loss of GM and Dupont jobs, and casino profits dwindling, the deficit on the state of Delaware’s $4 billion budget this past fiscal year was close to $400 million. Something had to be done to help fill the gap.  The Delaware Association of REALTORS® had managed to dissuade the legislature from pursuing a statewide property tax, and had received a strong indication from the Joint Finance Committee that it would not be looking to eliminate itemized deductions from the state tax code.  But then it did.  And the REALTORS® responded in force.

Maria Evans, Government Affairs Director of the 3,800-member association, explains that the bill, which threatened both mortgage interest and property tax deductions, was introduced just under the wire, and the association issued a Call for Action in short order. This was the first time that Evans, a veteran GAD, had used REALTOR® Party Mobile Alerts.  It couldn't have been simpler, she says.  "It was easy for me to set up, and easy for our members to take action.  I drafted the text message to our members, and a basic form letter that could accommodate additional personal comments.  The REALTOR® Party team talked me through the set-up; I was working on this fairly late-night, and they were right there with me. We had to get it out ASAP.  With just a few clicks, constituents were voicing their opposition to the bill."  The fact that the system is address-based means that legislators are only hearing from their own constituents, which has a much stronger impact on the receiving end, she notes.

What really amazed Evans is that the REALTOR® Party followed up with a finely targeted text message alert to those who had not yet responded, and then another, after a calculated amount of time.  Before the dust had cleared, more than 1,100 REALTORS® had taken action: a remarkable response rate of 31%, the highest, by far, for Delaware.  The click-through rate, according to the National Association of REALTORS, was an astonishing 87%—a national record, and far above the average state CFA click-through rate of about 15%.  The REALTORS® also reached out to the general public through the Consumer Advocacy Outreach Program, which generated a modest but helpful response.

"The volume of emails from our REALTOR® members was amazing!" says Evans. "We had a caucus across the aisle, and needed just one more vote, and we got it.  The emails to legislators also allowed us to hold on to the votes we had.  There is no doubt in my mind that it was our initiative, with the help of the REALTOR® Party, that carried the vote."  The Speaker of the House had no doubts either, as Evans and the President and General Counsel of the Delaware REALTORS® learned when he called them in to his office.  "He was livid that the state had been forced into an unprecedented extraordinary session, and placed the blame squarely on the REALTORS®.  For my part," reports Evans, "I was happy to accept that credit!"

The REALTORS®' success in defending the mortgage interest and property tax deductions came at a cost, however: in the three-day extraordinary session, the legislators hiked the transfer tax by 1%, a whopping 33% increase. Evans got right to work, and is hopeful that in January, it will be amended to exempt first-time home buyers and possibly primary dwellings, as well.  "We need to make sure the legislators understand that not all prospective buyers are investing in beach houses," she says.  "This is going to hurt kids living in their parents' basements, and working people scraping their pennies together for a first home."

To learn more about how the Delaware REALTORS® are using REALTOR® Party tools to protect property rights by engaging members in the legislative process, contact Government Affairs Director Maria Evans at 302-734-4444.

Miami REALTORS® Kick off Year of Advocacy with Community Engagement Projects

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Miami Association of REALTORS®, with more than 46,000 primary members, has to think BIG to deliver the most impact with the REALTOR® Party programs, explains Senior Vice President of Housing & Government Affairs Danielle Blake.  In order to use REALTOR® Party resources efficiently, the Miami Association, through member engagement and feedback, developed a list of projects designed to bring significant improvements to nearly every corner of greater Miami.

To build the bundle of projects, the Miami Association invited its membership to a brainstorming session; more than 200 members, many of them members of the NAR’s Young Professionals Network (YPN), attended and submitted ideas with gusto: "REALTORS® work and live in all our communities," says Blake, "and they know what the needs are."  Each final project was led by the REALTOR® who proposed it, and supported by a team of fellow REALTOR® volunteers and a REALTOR® Partner, typically an elected official.  The group came up with the following projects, among others:

  • In Miami Gardens, an incorporated city home to the Hard Rock Stadium where the Miami Dolphins play, REALTORS® kicked off the US-441 beautification project in anticipation of Super Bowl LIV in 2020: the mayor, city commissioners, residents and several REALTOR® members re-painted the façade of a prominent corner commercial building.
  • The REALTORS® have partnered with the Ludlam Trail, a former railroad track that is now a recreational path, in sponsoring community events from car shows to yoga classes to movie nights, all branded with the REALTOR® name and logo.
  • The REALTORS® are supporting the Underline, a large-scale project capitalizing on the unused space beneath the 10-mile elevated Metrorail between Miami and Coral Gables.  More than 100 members participated in a kick-off bike ride sponsored by a portion of the bundled grant.
  • Making use of both Housing Opportunity and Diversity Grants, the REALTORS® partnered with the local National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) chapter in hosting a condo-financing conference attended by 350 real estate professionals and members of the public.  A white paper produced by the Miami Association of REALTORS®’ task force had influenced an FHA policy change, resulting in a significant increase of insurance compliances for condominium buildings.
  • Inspired by the REALTOR® Village, a shipping-container community in the Philippines, built in cooperation with NAR, the Miami REALTORS® are tackling the housing affordability crisis by developing a container house prototype in the City of South Miami.  The REALTORS® have navigated complex city zoning and setback requirements, partnered with the county to donate the land, and identified a local architect and contractor with container-home experience. With the enthusiastic support of an enlightened mayor, the tiny house is becoming a model reality.
  • Miami REALTORS® are passionate about giving back to people of all backgrounds and abilities.  With support from a grant, more than 40 Miami REALTORS® dressed up to serve dinner to more than 500 individuals in need at Chapman Partnership, a non-profit committed to empowering the homeless in Miami. The association is working to make the event an ongoing volunteer opportunity, and a number of REALTORS® who participated are working on future corporate events with Chapman Partnership. 

The REALTOR® Party grants have also helped to create a dog park, and sponsor multiple Better Block projects that have spurred citizens and elected officials to make lasting improvements. 

The great thing about the effort, says Blake, is that it succeeds on so many levels:  "We were finally able to use these wonderful REALTOR® Party programs on a substantial level.  We're interacting with elected officials, who, in turn, are recognizing the input and expertise of the REALTORS®.  We're engaging our membership, and our YPN, in particular.  We're helping our communities, and we're crafting housing policy!  None of these projects, nor any of this positive effect, would have happened," she concludes, "without the support of the National Association of REALTORS®." 

To learn more about how the Miami REALTORS® are using REALTOR® Party resources to improve their communities on multiple levels, contact Danielle Blake, Senior Vice President of Housing & Government Affairs, at 305-468-7015.