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News Summary for June 30

Tom Stevens testified before Congress this week in support of affordable disaster insurance for homeowners. “America’s hard-working families deserve a comprehensive federal natural disaster policy that makes natural disaster insurance available and affordable and reduces the circumstances under which insurance companies cancel these insurance policies,” he said.

Tom also continued to refute claims made by the Consumer Federation of America likening the real estate industry to a cartel. Tom was quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, explaining that real estate is “one of the most competitive businesses out there. There are really no barriers to entry.”

Comments

The NAR (and its state and local progeny) a cartel? Yes, although also intra-competitive, it, like other American business cartels, owes it law-protected status to the power of the collective purse.
In England, for example, estate agents (the equivalent of US real estate brokers and sales associates) are neither examined nor licensed. Estate agent conduct is partially regulated by the Estate Agents Act, but the Act is merely a re-statement of existing law that applies to everyone.
In America, especially those businesses which focus upon the transfer of money and / or other assets keep business competitors out by organizing and creating pools of money expended to influence state legislators.
How to tell whether or not an American business or “profession” is a cartel? Look to the legislation by which the business enterprise is regulated; it begins with the words, “To protect the public…”

About This Blog

News coverage shapes perceptions of people, organizations and entire industries.
Yet few of us understand what goes into the making of a news story. “NAR in the News” will give its readers a peek behind the scenes into how journalists cover the nation’s largest trade association and the 1.2 million REALTORS® it represents.

This blog is also a place for REALTORS® and others to express their opinions and ask questions that we will try to answer. “NAR in the News” is produced by NAR’s Public Affairs Division.


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