Dear CAR Member,
Thank you to all of you who attended C.A.R.’s Legislative Day in Sacramento last month. Your attendance made it a great success! A near-record 2,300 of you turned out to hear Gov. Jerry Brown address us in the morning. Brown said the economy has its cycles and at present the state’s economy is doing well, thanks to the business sector. “California is the land of sunshine and smart people. That’s why people want to be here. Silicon Valley has the smartest people in the world,” said the governor. He told REALTORS® to stay the course, stating, “REALTORS® are the backbone of what California looks like and what California is.” In the afternoon, we headed over to the Capitol to discuss with our state legislators the issues of importance to the real estate industry.
At Thursday’s Midyear Luncheon, C.A.R. CEO Joel Singer discussed how the internet has disrupted the business models of travel agencies, bookstores, and stock brokerages. At the same time, however, the internet has helped the real estate industry. More homes were purchased through an agent or broker in recent years and more sellers used an agent or broker to sell their homes. Moreover, home buyers and sellers are more educated and the transaction process is more efficient. Joel said we may have won the first battle, but warned that we have to be concerned with website traffic of portals like Zillow, realtor.com, and Trulia growing exponentially. Real estate information that used to come from the MLS is now going to these outside portals first and being delivered by third parties. If you missed the luncheon, you may view the complete presentation.
While Joel was giving his luncheon presentation, C.A.R.’s Center for California Real Estate (CCRE) was presenting a panel discussion on housing affordability just down the street at the University of California Center Sacramento. Michael Lens, assistant professor of Urban Planning in the Luskin School of Public Policy at UCLA, and Kerry Vandell, director of the Center for Real Estate at the UC Irvine Merage School of Business, provided an overview of the affordability crisis and what is at stake for California, positing that affordability hampers workforce diversification, equality of opportunity, and economic mobility, among other factors. Both professors called attention to the lack of policy solutions that focus on growing income rather than merely reducing prices and agreed that both the costs of housing and people’s ability to afford housing are equally deserving of policy prescriptions.
CCRE is an institute of C.A.R. dedicated to advancing real estate knowledge. CCRE’s goal is to arm C.A.R.’s 185,000 members with ideas that help them become more knowledgeable, professional, and insightful in their work as practitioners and stakeholders of the future of real estate. For more information, visit the CCRE website.
Finally, the Midyear meetings may have just wrapped up, but it’s never too early to start planning for CALIFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2016, held Sept. 27-29 in Long Beach. I hope you’ll join me for this year’s EXPO, themed “WHO’S YOUR REALTOR®?” This is an event you won’t want to miss! More than 11,000 real estate professionals will attend to learn something new during an educational session, network and build business connections, see what hot new business products and services are available from more than 200 exhibitors, get motivated and inspired from our luncheon speakers, recharge and enjoy spending time in Long Beach, and much more! I encourage you to take advantage of this free member benefit and check out all that EXPO has to offer. Registration is now open at expo.car.org.
Sincerely,
Pat “Ziggy” Zicarelli
2016 President
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®