NAR Launches Email Campaign to Tout Value of Homeownership
By Inman News
The National Association of Realtors has launched an email campaign designed to educate roughly 82 million consumers about the value of homeownership and the government incentives in place that support it.
Starting last week, the three-part campaign sent out its first set of emails directly from NAR to U.S. homeowners -- about 75 million people -- and 7 million aspiring homeowners who are currently renting. The NAR anticipates that it will take about six weeks for all 82 million or so recipients to receive the emails.
The goal of those initial messages is to build awareness about federal policies in support of homeownership, and to introduce consumers to NAR and HouseLogic, the trade group's consumer-facing homeownership site, as sources of information on those policies, NAR said.
The more than $15 trillion federal debt has put pressure on Congress to look to real estate as one potential source of funds for budget deficit reduction, NAR said. In its 2012 advocacy agenda, the trade group has outlined several housing-related policies that could be targets for deficit reduction, including the mortgage interest deduction, property tax deduction, cancellation of mortgage debt, and the capital gains exemption on the sale of a home.
"Homeowners already pay 90 percent of all federal income taxes today, so they are disproportionately shouldering the burden of the federal government," the NAR said in an FAQ page about the email campaign.
"What's more, because residential real estate comprises 15 percent of the country's gross domestic product, or about $2.3 trillion annually in economic activity, it creates far more in wealth for the country than it receives in assistance from the government, so changes that would increase hurdles to the development and transfer of real estate would reduce the sector's wealth-generating ability at a time when the country can ill afford that."
Read the rest of this story at Inman News.
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