RPAC Washington Update: March 12

2024 NAR Real Estate Forecast Summit

On March 7, NAR held a virtual economic and real estate summit that provided an outlook on the changing commercial real estate market. Watch the video below.

NAR Thanks President Biden for Addressing Housing Supply in State of the Union

Last week, President Joe Biden announced a number of housing initiatives in the State of the Union address (SOTU), calling for a $10,000 tax credit for both first-time homebuyers and people who sell their starter homes; the construction and renovation of more than 2 million additional homes, lower closing costs and cost reductions for renters. 

NAR first sounded the alarm on the housing supply issue with original research showing a nationwide shortage of 5.5 million affordable housing units, and commends the commitment to an all-of-government approach to solve this problem.

Click below to read NAR President Kevin Sears’ statement on the topic.

Instant Reaction from Lawrence Yun: Job Growth

The latest jobs figures displayed a mixed picture. Another solid 275,000 net new payroll jobs were added in February. There are 5.5 million more jobs now compared to the pre-COVID record high in early 2020. However, the unemployment rate went up to 3.9% because a different measurement of jobs from a household survey (rather than a company survey) showed 184,000 fewer workers.
Read more from Lawrence below.

VIDEO: Advancing Advocacy with Shannon McGahn

As the 2024 election cycle gears up, please be sure to watch this video from Shannon McGahn, NAR’s Chief Advocacy Officer, on the important, non-partisan advocacy work we’re doing in Washington and in statehouses across the country to build strong communities, increase access to homeownership, and protect private property rights.

RPAC Super Tuesday Victories

On Super Tuesday, RPAC supported candidates had a great night. On March 5th, 115 Congressional seats were up for election in Arkansas, Alabama, California, North Carolina and Texas. RPAC supported candidates in 103 of these 115 races. Only two RPAC supported candidates will not advance from the primary to the general. That’s an impressive result. RPAC also engaged in 23 Opportunity Races to help some of the most ardent supporters of real estate issues facing competitive races. While many of the races are still being counted in California, it appears that all 7 of the Opportunity Race supported candidates will move forward from the primary into the general election. In Texas, RPAC engaged in 13 Opportunity Races: 11 of the candidates supported with an Opportunity Race won outright and two more will advance to a May 28th Run-off election. In North Carolina, RPAC was victorious in two of the three Opportunity Races that we executed. More details to come in the next NAR Advocacy Scoop.