Sales of previously owned homes top forecasts

The National Association of Realtors reports that existing-home sales in the U.S. climbed 7.6% in April above March’s level.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected sales last month to climb 4.7%, to a rate of 5.60 million.

The increase was 22.8 percent over one year earlier.

At the same time, inventory rose to 8.4 months at the current sales pace from 8.1 months in March.

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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022

M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201

Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
Web site

NAR aims to bar discrimination against gay people

The board of directors of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), of which relatively few Manhattan brokers are members, has amended its Code of Ethics to include a bar to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Final approval is slated for a vote in November.

The board  approved on Saturday a rule that bans Realtors from denying equal professional services to a customer on the basis of sexual orientation.

It amended Article 10 of the Code of Ethics, which addresses “duties to the public.” That part of the Code already prohibits Realtors from discriminating against customers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.

Standard of Practice 10-3 also was modified to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in any advertisements for selling or renting property.

The change, met with applause, was passed unanimously by the Professional Standards Committee earlier in the week. The measure will now go before the NAR Delegate Body for approval at NAR’s annual conference in November.

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Share This Post

Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022

M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201

Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
Web site

‘Independent contractor’ abuse is scrutinized

There’s a flurry of activity in the nation’s capital to clamp down on U.S. workers that are misclassified as independent contractors, a category under which all but a tiny minority of real estate agents fall.

According to Realtor magazine, a publication of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the government says far too many businesses are using incorrect employee classifications to avoid paying Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes.

Congress last year started looking into misclassification of employment status in an attempt to get a handle on a problem that the U.S. Department of Labor says is huge – possibly applying to as much as 30 percent of the country’s workforce.

This year, the government’s focus intensified:

‘. . . will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate. . .’

Flickr photo by marttj

BROKER WARS: Tales from the Front

This is the final part of my series on broker ethics.  In Part 1, I gave examples of breaches that I have seen in the last year.  In Part 2, I described the minimum amount of training and education that a real estate agent must have to become licensed.  In this third part, I suggest a path for dealing with the issue.

To my mind,  a code of ethics that imposes compelling penalties must be instituted and enforced.

On the Web site of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY),  I tried to find anything at all about ethical standards, as I mentioned in my previous post. But the only information on the Web site had to do with class schedules.  Not a word on what the standards might be or what to do if a consumer thought they had been violated.

I’ve been told by a onetime sales manager in a now-defunct brokerage that it is possible to report an offense to REBNY.  (How continues to mystifies me.)  However, said the manager, nothing happens if you do so.

By contrast, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has a strong Code of Ethics.  Reflecting and greatly expanding upon state laws, it has teeth.

NAR ethics code now includes sexual orientation

The late George Segal created this sculpture, installed in Sheridan Square, Greenwich Village. A tea party, it is not. Wallyg photo.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) added sexual orientation to its equal opportunity policy at its recent annual governance meeting.

The Board of Directors passed the measure unanimously, according to Realty Times.

The organization’s Code of Ethics generally has reflected the Fair Housing Act, saying that its members “shall not deny equal professional services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”

Many experts are hovering around a crystal ball

When it comes to predicting the direction of the housing market, there is no shortage of opinions.  Below you’ll find excerpts from “The Soothsayers” section of my forthcoming e-newsletter,  Realty Digest, which I write every two weeks.  My next newsletter will be issued around noon on Friday, Nov. 4.

Take your pick from the excerpts, draw your own conclusions and forward your comments to this blog:

Thanks to "spratmackrel" for this image

• Housing starts will increase by 36 percent next year and the housing sector will contribute to economic growth for the first time since 2005, according to the November survey by the National Association of Business Economics.

• First American CoreLogic predicts continued declines in most markets, albeit at a slowing rate, for the next six months, followed by a rebound in the spring.

• Harvard economist Edward Glaeser doesn’t foresee property values rising to previous levels even in attractive locales. “The harsh reality is that real estate prices that go up come down. I’ve found that for every real $1 increase in local market prices over a five-year period, prices go down 32¢ over the following five years,” Glaeser says.