The Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS® once again made a strong showing in Sacramento this year during C.A.R.’s Legislative Day on May 3rd. With over 60 local members in attendance joining over 2,500 REALTOR® members from across the state.
Those in attendance heard from Governor Jerry Brown on how REALTORS® are critical to not only advocating at the state level, but on the ground in communities across California to ensure that home ownership housing opportunity is at the top of the local agendas.
SCCAOR, SILVAR and SAMCAR members then held a joint luncheon with a special guest speaker Assemblymember Marc Steinorth who talked about his efforts to create homeowner savings accounts with this bill AB 1736, which allows first-time homebuyers to annually deduct the amount deposited in the account from their state taxes, up to $10,000 per year for individuals, and up to $20,000 for couples.
After the luncheon SCCAOR members met with Assemblymember Ash Kalra, Assemblymember Evan Low, Assemblymember Kansen Chu, and State Senator Jim Beall to discuss the biggest issues facing the real estate industry in California.
The legislation we discussed was C.A.R’s opposition to AB 1059, which would ban dual agency in commercial transactions. We also opposed SB 640 which would lay the foundation of creating a service tax in California which would not only harm REALTORS®, but also the homebuyers that would pay the tax. Finally, we addressed a myriad of bills that would increase housing supply to address affordability and availability of housing in California. AB 1059 and SB 640 are now effectively two-year bills and will not be moving forward during 2017.
Later in the week, the Board of Directors for C.A.R. sponsored additional legislation that addresses ways of creating more housing opportunity. A summary of action items from the board meetings can be found on the C.A.R. website.
You can view more photos from Legislative Day on our Facebook album.