Democratic Convention: Casting the Vote
DENVER - REALTOR® Michael Eaves, a broker specializing in commercial real estate investments for Long & Foster REALTORS® in Bel Air, Md., is one of nearly 100 delegates who are REALTORS® at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Eaves serves as a delegate in Maryland. Watch some of his video reports from the convention floor on Wednesday. Democratic Convention: NAR Lobbyist Surveys ’09 Agenda
DENVER – No matter who comes out on top in the presidential race, several REALTOR® issues are likely to be at the forefront of the national legislative agenda, NAR Chief Lobbyist Jerry Giovaniello said at the 2008 Democratic National Convention here yesterday. (Hear it in his own words: Watch video highlights of Giovaniello talking about these key REALTOR® issues.) During a housing reception hosted by NAR, the National Association of Home Builders, and the Independent Community Bankers of America, Giovaniello predicted small business health care will be one of the first orders of business in Congress. “Whichever party is elected there’s going to be a lot of resources devoted to coming up with a workable, bipartisan health care plan,” Giovaniello said. The government will also take a closer look at modernizing the financial system for housing. By early 2009, lawmakers will have a clearer picture of what needs to be done based on the Continue reading "Democratic Convention: NAR Lobbyist Surveys ’09 Agenda" » Democratic Convention: Housing, Without Walls
These three and others have gathered in this restaurant about half a mile from the national democratic convention center to participate in a town hall meeting about the other housing crisis, the one hitting low- and moderate-income renter households (Watch some video highlights.) More than six million renter households must pay more than 50 percent of their monthly income for rent, leaving them little for food, transportation, and health care. Cisneros, who now heads up a company that develops housing for working families, says lawmakers in 2009 must address the homeownership slowdown without ignoring the ongoing, yet far less visible, crisis in the rental world. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, another participant, agreed that the challenge for housing advocates is to keep him and other lawmakers on top of both problems at once, an admittedly tough task given the primacy of the homeownership market to the overall U.S. economy. “Housing is the economic crisis of the country,” he says. “But you need to keep us honest. We need to stay focused on rental housing.” It might seem incongruous to have a discussion about low-income rental housing at a swanky bistro but this incongruence is part of what makes the town hall discussion effective; it’s bringing together the high-profile world of Hollywood and New York City with the high-power Continue reading "Democratic Convention: Housing, Without Walls" » Democrats Meet in Denver, Amidst is the REALTOR® RRobert Freedman, Senior Editor DENVER – Sixteenth Street is packed beyond imagination. This wide boulevard, redeveloped by the city about two dozen years ago into a downtown pedestrian mall with service by a cheery electric streetcar , is where you find much of the throng that’s gathered in this city to attend the 2008 Democratic National Convention. You have protest groups in which everyone is dressed in black, and those in which everyone is dressed in pink; you have vendors hawking a dizzying array of stickers, buttons, and T-shirts of the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, Barack Obama; you have an even dizzier array of people with their credentials hanging prominently around their necks; and you have security personnel, many armed with black and glistening automatic weapons, on every street corner and in the doorways to the restaurants and stores. But amidst this chaos it’s the truck that’s been making a loop up and down 16th Street and around the delegate headquarters at the nearby Colorado Convention Center that attracts my attention: It’s a sign truck with a gigantic REALTOR® R and the message “Make sure you use a REALTOR® to get real results,” sponsored by the Colorado Association of REALTORS®. I know I’m not the only one here who takes a professional interest in this friendly reminder of what sets REALTORS® apart from others who sell real estate; out of 4,233 delegates in town, Continue reading "Democrats Meet in Denver, Amidst is the REALTOR® R" » 
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DENVER - It’s too dark to see clearly in Osteria Marco, one of Denver’s trendy bistros, but the person sitting against the back wall is definitely Spike Lee, the famed movie director, and in the center of the room actress Susan Sarandon. And not far from the two of them is Henry Cisneros, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during President Bill Clinton’s first term. 
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