2023 Canon City Real Estate Preview

Committee’s focus is how to best service community, neighbors

By Chelsea Kovac Special to Daily Record

In our membership at the Royal Gorge Association of Realtors, we take pride in serving and supporting our community. We pride ourselves on helping our friends and neighbors move through transitions in their lives, and we work hard to support their goals taking care to act ethically, diligently, and with great responsibility We have a wonderful Realtor community and our board recognized a need to support our hard-working members this year

With that, the Membership Cares Committee was born We have always had an amazing public relations committee that has worked hard to reach out to community members in need They wore two hats sometimes in their ability to also help members through tragedy and hardship

In our committee, we strive to support our members through difficult times with gifts of service, beautiful flower bouquets made by our own Hallie Kerr, and business and financial support When someone is facing tragedy, injury, or illness, we ask ourselves and our members “what can we

do to help them?”

We also take great joy in celebrating our members in their successes Birthdays, milestone years in business, new babies born into the happy homes of our members, and many more victories! We are a strong community unlike

any other I’ve seen in our ability to work in cooperation to support our clients All of us on the Membership Cares Committee are proud to serve with a fantastic group of Realtors that puts focus on our members so that they can feel a rally of support, and

with that, continue to serve our community and neighbors

If you have any questions, our members are excited and proud to speak with you about what we’re doing each quarter

Members as of Dec 1, 2022, include Chair: Jen-

nifer Vernetti of Exit Elevation Realty, Myra Smallwood of Remax Royal Gorge, Tessa Lloyd of Exit Elevation Realty, Hallie Kerr of Exit Elevation Realty, Sandy Smith of Properties of Colorado, Chris Donley of Chris Donley Real Estate, Chelsea Ko-

vac of HomeSmart Preferred Realty, Pamela Gentry of My Home Colorado, and affiliate members Debbie Betts of The Mortgage Company and Juhrhee Hill of White Lightening Home Inspections

We are excited to continue to serve!

Realtors CEO meets with White House officials to discuss housing supply, affordability

By Special to Daily Record

WASHINGTON National Association of Realtors Chief Executive Officer Bob Goldberg joined White House officials and industry representatives Wednesday to discuss the Biden administration’s response to housing supply and affordability constraints affecting the country NAR President Kenny Parcell followed up the meeting with a letter to White House officials(link is external) outlining numerous priorities the trade association believes would help address these ongoing challenges

“When it comes to affordability, the administration has several tools it can use now to reduce

costs, especially in highercost markets where housing options continue to diminish,” said Parcell, a Realtor® from Spanish Fork, Utah, and broker-owner of Equity Real Estate Utah “Reducing fees for first time homebuyers, providing more Housing Choice Vouchers, and providing incentives for more housing providers to participate in that program would provide direct and immediate support for renters and aspiring homeowners

“NAR continues to stress that government must invest in boosting our nation’s housing supply if we are to make housing affordable in the long run We need to invest in new construction, make zoning reforms, and provide tax incentives to spur more

housing investment and conversion of unused commercial space into residential units.”

On Capitol Hill, NAR is working to advance the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act and the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, two pieces of legislation it argues would increase affordable housing options The former would mobilize private investment to build and rehabilitate 500,000 affordable homes over the next decade, and the latter would improve the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

On Wednesday, administration officials and representatives from various real estate groups specifically discussed several measures to promote housing opportunity: reductions

in the Federal Housing Administration’s Mortgage Interest Premium and the Government Sponsored Enterprises’ (GSE’s) guarantee fees; efforts to expand and improve the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program to assist tenants; and support for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s affirmative fair housing initiatives NAR has advocated on behalf of each proposal

In the meeting, NAR stressed its continued opposition to proposals that some have advanced to place rent caps on GSEbacked rental properties, which it contends would be detrimental for renters, small businesses and housing providers. In the letter to administration officials, Parcell wrote that propos-

als to place control or stabilization measures on rental properties backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which represent a significant share of the market would cause considerable harm to the rental housing sector in America.

“Such policies would drive housing providers from the market especially smaller, ‘mom-andpop’ landlords who own just a few units and are unable to absorb rising costs that increase at a rate higher than rents do,” Parcell said

NAR will continue to engage with the administration and other industry groups to advance reasonable market solutions that result in the greatest benefit for Americans and the economy, promote fair

housing and racial equity, and support underserved communities

“Amid mounting, ongoing concerns about rising inflation and escalating mortgage rates, NAR greatly appreciates the ongoing opportunities the administration has afforded to industry leaders, housing advocates, and civil rights leaders to collaborate with administration officials on ways to tackle these consumer and market obstacles,” Parcell concluded

The National Association of Realtors® is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1 5 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries

COURTESY PHOTO

The Public Relations committee of the Royal Gorge Association of Realtors made a donation to the Cañon City High School Senior FunFest this month