California Association of Realtors President William Brown met with Silicon Valley Association of Realtors’ leaders to discuss the economic crisis and the state trade association’s response to California’s housing market downturn.
“The situation has provided us with the opportunity to focus on our members,” Brown said, “to drill down, look into our own programs and find out what works, what doesn’t, what our members need and what is relevant.”
The Silicon Valley region has fared well despite the downturn in the market, Brown said, but noted that Tracy, Modesto, Stockton and other inland areas “are getting murdered.”
Brown said the state realtor group is now offering Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) to members. The tactics program teaches real estate agents how to handle sales and dispositions of distressed properties – short sales, foreclosures and REOs (Real Estate Owned properties) – including required paperwork changes and the tax/credit impact of those sales. The association plans to continue offering the courses in 2009, Brown said.
According to Brown, the passage of the Economic Stimulus Package was a good move by Congress, but with government plans to pump money into financial institutions, there are fears that banks will hold onto the money they receive and not deploy the funds.
“If we don’t get banks to lend money again, we will be in dire straits. We need to provide more liquidity to the market,” Brown said. “The bottom line is, things still need to be addressed. Indications are this problem is going to be with us for a while.”
The California Association of Realtors is a statewide trade association for the advancement of professionalism in real estate. The group has 177,000 members, but Brown said he expects membership to decline to 158,000 in 2009 because of the housing downturn.
The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors is a local trade association, with more than 4,500 realtors and affiliate members.
The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors provided information for this article. For more information, e-mail Rose Meily at
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In a housing market filled with short sales
and foreclosures, California Association of Realtors President William Brown said the state group is offering programs to teach real estate agents how to handle sales of distressed properties.
1 Comment
1"Renter"
at Friday, 31 October 2008 14:40
I'm impressed that the CAR is coming all guns blazing to support the National Effort to Keep People In Their Homes. Hope they don't lose sight of the main goal, which is stop house prices falling and then start them "back up" again (tm McCain). It's irrelevant that many people have little to no equity (or negative equity) in "their" homes, they are still a more deserving class of people than, say, renters who also might be feeling the pinch and would like a little help with the monthly rent.
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