The Delaware Association of Realtors (DAR) is working to pair each member of the Delaware General Assembly with a Realtor constituent. These State Political Coordinators (SPCs) will be responsible for maintaining a good relationship with their legislator and communicating with them on DAR’s public policy positions.

Each SPC will play a key role in ensuring that members of the General Assembly are informed of issues important to our members as well as current and future property owners in Delaware.

As a DAR SPC, you’ll be part of effecting positive change in our state.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve a 2-year term (EXCEPTION: 2020 State Political Coordinators will serve 3-year term).
• Advocate in support of DAR’s public policy positions, setting aside all personal views and opinions and working toward the success of REALTOR® issues.
• Build, grow, and maintain great relationships with your assigned legislator.
• Contact your assigned legislator at least three times a year and complete a field report every time you contact a legislator.
• Respond to all Calls for Action and encourage other Realtors to respond.
• Attend DAR legislative events and lead a meeting with your legislator as part of DAR’s Annual Legislative Action Day.
• Participate in and complete the required training.
• Attend quarterly SPC meetings.
• Develop a contact team of at least three other Realtor constituents of your legislator.

Apply here now!

More than 10 years after the announcement of their conservatorship, the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) remain in the same “temporary” arrangement put into place to calm the storms of the housing and financial crises of 2006 through 2008. Housing finance reform remains the single largest unfinished business of the financial crisis.

The National Association of REALTORS® has collaborated with Susan Wachter of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Richard  Cooperstein of Andrew Davidson and Company on new research exploring ideal restructuring of the secondary mortgage market.

This working paper will help you to understand why housing finance markets differ from purely competitive markets, but are similar to markets for public utilities. This approach informs the nature of reform needed to ensure financial stability going forward.

Click HERE for more information.

Monica LeBlanc (Kent County) has been named the 2019
Delaware Realtor of the Year. The award was presented by Beau Zebley, 2019 president of the Delaware Association of Realtors (DAR), during the association’s annual convention and trade show held at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino and attended by more than 600 Realtors.

The award honors the Delaware Realtor whose outstanding service has delivered positive impact to Realtor organizations on the national, state and local levels as well as the real estate industry and community.

LeBlanc has been a broker since 2014, and is the owner of Diamond
State Realty in Dover. She currently is president-elect of the Kent County Association of Realtors and serves on the Government Affairs committee. Monica is a member of the DAR Board of Directors, serves on their Strategic Planning and DelPAC (Delaware Political Action)
Committees, and represents DAR on the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Housing Committee. She holds numerous certifications and designations granted by the NAR, including e-Pro (Advanced Digital Marketing) and Graduate Realtor Institute. She also holds a Home
Builders designation as a New Construction Sales Professional. LeBlanc will represent Delaware at the upcoming NAR Annual Conference & Expo in San Francisco.

Read more here!

HUD AWARDS RECORD $319 MILLION TO PROTECT FAMILIES FROM LEAD AND OTHER HOME HEALTH HAZARDS

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded more than $314 million to 77 state and local government agencies, a record investment to protect children and families from lead-based paint and home health hazards. In addition, HUD is awarding more than $5 million to identify and address home health and safety hazards in six tribal communities.

These grants are provided through HUD’s Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Program and Healthy Homes Production Grant Program for Tribal Housing to identify and clean up dangerous lead in low-income housing. Many of the grantees announced today will work to clean up lead hazards in Opportunity Zones.

“We are committed to improving the lives of all families, especially children, by creating safer and healthier homes,” said Secretary Ben Carson. “One of HUD’s priorities is protecting families from lead-based paint and other health hazards. These grants will help states, tribes, and local communities do precisely that.”

The Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Program grants include $30 million in HUD’s Healthy Homes Supplemental funding to help communities address housing-related health and safety hazards, in addition to lead-based paint hazards. Seven local communities were awarded grants to help their ‘High Impact Neighborhood’ where they will conduct lead hazard control and healthy homes work intensively in a targeted neighborhood impacted by poor housing conditions. HUD’s new tribal grants fill critical needs in communities where limited resources exist to address substandard housing that threatens the health of the most vulnerable tribal residents.

Combined, these investments will protect families and children by targeting health hazards in more than 14,700 low-income homes with significant lead and health hazards for which other resources are not available to address these needs.

“HUD understands the close connection between health and housing,” said Matthew Ammon, Director of HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes. “This year, HUD is awarding a record number of awards to jurisdictions to directly support their efforts to identify and clean up housing-based health hazards like lead and mold.”

HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes promotes local efforts to eliminate dangerous lead paint and other housing-related health hazards from lower income homes; stimulates private sector investment in lead hazard control; supports cutting-edge research on methods for assessing and controlling housing-related health and safety hazards; and educates the public about the dangers of hazards in the home. 

Read more here!