NAHREP is hosting its National Convention and Housing Policy Summit on March 16-18 in Washington DC. Almost everyone I speak to these days is talking about how technology is affecting the real estate industry, and especially how it is changing the way real estate agents prospect and conduct the sales process. For years, companies like Zillow and Realtor.com generated traffic and sold leads to agents. This model is being phased out and replaced with a more efficient process where lead generators make initial contact, pre-qualify buyers or sellers, and hand a warm lead to an agent in real time. This is better for the customer and better for the agent. However, it will drastically reduce the number of agents that are needed nationwide. NAHREP will host a session where executives from some of the top online firms will discuss these trends and which agents are likely to succeed the most. For information about the NAHREP convention and other sessions for lenders and agents, visit www.nahrep.org/convention.
The usual solutions will not solve the current housing affordability crisis. Any solution that does not begin and end with a sustainable plan to radically increase housing supply is just noise. The barriers to increasing housing supply are complex and require the crucial cooperation of both public and private sectors, and more education.
It has been long understood that a nation of stakeholders makes for a strong union, and for that reason, closing the minority homeownership gap has been a goal and a topic of discussion for decades.
Between 2008 and 2012, more than six million people lost their homes to foreclosure, property values lost almost 40%, and non-distressed home sales fell to all-time lows. It was, without question, the worst real estate market since the great depression. Not surprisingly, the historic dip in the market was followed by a decade-long bull market, the likes of which we have never seen before. Residential real estate is a cyclical market. The...