ResalesNAR Launches Community Choice Campaign To Congress
today to encourage members of Congress to cosponsor the Community Choice in
Real Estate Act, which would prevent large banking conglomerates from taking
over locally owned and operated real estate companies.
The multi-media campaign opened with the first in a series of newspaper ads.
Ads appear today in newspapers in congressional districts represented by nine
members of the House Financial Services Committee: U.S. Reps. Douglas Bereuter
(R-Neb.), Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas), Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.), Carolyn Maloney
(D-N.Y.), Jim Maloney (D-Conn.), Michael Ross (D-Ark.), Edward Royce
(R-Calif.), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), and Dave Weldon (R-Fla.). Additional
waves of advertisements are planned in the weeks ahead as support for the
legislation grows.
Today"s New York Times, Omaha World Herald, Orange County Register, San
Antonio Express-News and The Oregonian are among the newspapers that carried
the ads, which urge constituents to call their member of Congress and ask him
or her to "do the right thing" and cosponsor the Community Choice in Real
Estate Act.
The ads read in part, "H.R. 3424 will keep the personalized service
consumers now receive from their local neighborhood real estate professionals…
We need the support of strong (congressional) leaders so that consumers and
local communities will win."
"Congressional support for keeping big banks out of real estate is growing
even faster than we had anticipated. It"s clear that large numbers of members
of Congress understand that if the biggest banks in the nation are allowed into
the real estate business, the market will soon be dominated by a handful of
large banking conglomerates whose primary goal is to cross-sell various
financial products, not to help people achieve the American dream of
homeownership," said NAR President Martin Edwards Jr. "If big banks are allowed
to gobble up local real estate firms, the result will be fewer choices for
consumers, higher costs and less competition. Consumers would also lose the
personalized customer service they now receive from Realtors who live and work
in the same community as their customers."
Big banking conglomerates are seeking permission to sell and manage real
estate through a proposed regulation before the Federal Reserve Board and the
Treasury Department. However, the proposed rule is contrary to what Congress
intended when it passed financial services modernization legislation called the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999. The Community Choice in Real Estate Act (H.R.
3424 and S. 1839) clarifies congressional intent to preclude any such action by
the Federal Reserve or Treasury.
Over 150 members of the House have signed onto the bill since it was
introduced in December by U.S. Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), Paul Kanjorski
(D-Pa.) and Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio). U.S. Sens. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.),
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Richard Shelby
(R-Ala.) introduced a companion bill last December.