California Realtors hold first-ever virtual Legislative Day
The first-ever virtual California Association of Realtors Legislative Day kicked off last Tuesday. For over 50 years, over 2,000 Realtors from across the state would descend on the Capitol annually in May to meet personally with their legislators. Those meetings were cancelled last year due to COVID-19. This year the state Realtor association opted to hold the major Realtor event virtually, which widened member participation even more.
The event covered critical housing issues such as the housing supply, the state of the housing market, fair housing challenges and affordable housing. From the start of the event, C.A.R. officials underlined the urgency of increasing the state’s housing supply and addressing barriers to homeownership.
“Closing the homeownership gap is essential to closing the generational wealth gap in our country,” C.A.R. President Dave Walsh told Realtors.
Governor Gavin Newsom addressed Realtors and lamented that the twin crises of housing affordability and homelessness have dominated state’s political conversations for decades, even before the pandemic. While the state has made great strides with Projects Room key and Home key, Newsom said there is still a lot more to do.
“At the end of the day, the fundamental truth is we need to simply build more housing at all income levels,” said Newsom.
The Governor indicated this can only be done by a combination of subsidies, political will, and a dose of accountability across the spectrum. “I consider the Realtors key partners in this work,” said Newsom.
There were also greetings from Senate President pro Tempore Toni G., Assemblywoman Blanca E. Rubio, and State Senate minority leader Scott Wilk, who pledged their commitment to housing for all.
“The pandemic has now intensified the need for housing affordability, access and opportunity,” said Atkins.
Rubio related her personal story as an immigrant and said it has given her a genuine understanding of the daily struggles and barriers immigrants and working families face. She pledged support for immigrant families, small businesses and their workers.
Wilk underlined the need to make California a safe and affordable place to call home for generations to come. He said, “This is a very real problem that affects every single California family… Realtors can make a difference in meeting the housing challenge.”
Later C.A.R. CEO
Joel Singer interviewed political columnist Dan Walters, who analyzed Governor Newsom’s handling of the pandemic and shared his own views on state politics and the future of California’s housing situation and economy. Walters said currently, the housing problem boils down to local governments’ power over land use and whether the state can initiate policies that will make them more receptive to housing construction. He remarked housing affordability is a very intractable problem which crosses many other issues.
Walters warned of the emergence of a two-tier society of which the over class are whites and Asians and the underclass are blacks and Latinos due to discrepancies in education and family income. This is only made worse by the pandemic. He stressed job creation leads to opportunity, but “the prosperity gap is widening” and he is not sure the problem can be solved anytime soon.
Legislative Day is part of the C.A.R. Spring Business Meetings during which state association officers and directors across the state share their reports with the membership. At the member and director forum, CEO Singer said in his 40 years in the industry he has never seen home prices so high and the market so competitive. While California has an incredibly hot housing market now, Singer cautioned with the continued migration out of the state, the declining population rate, the scarce inventory and the low housing affordability, California could in the future see a slower economy relative to the rest of the country.