REALTORS Recognized for Increasing Affordable Housing

Posted by RealEstateRama

August 15, 2008

WASHINGTON - August 15, 2008 - (RealEstateRama) — The city of Asheville, N.C., has been named an Ambassador City by the National Association of Realtors® and the U.S. Conference of Mayors for expanding affordable housing.

Asheville is receiving the designation in recognition of the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force, aimed at addressing the city’s growing need for affordable housing. The city, Asheville Board of Realtors® (ABR) and more than a dozen other groups joined forces to help create the city’s first ever affordable housing plan.

“Realtors® build communities and care about the lack of affordable housing in many of our towns and cities,” said NAR Immediate Past President Pat V. Combs, of Grand Rapids, Mich., and vice president of Coldwell-Banker-AJS-Schmidt. “Successful partnerships like this are crucial to developing comprehensive affordable housing plans that will help Asheville’s residents successfully obtain and maintain quality, affordable housing.”

U.S. Census data shows that two-thirds of Asheville households make less than the area’s median income. As a result, more than 40 percent of renter households cannot afford their monthly rent payments and nearly one-third of homeowners struggle with their mortgage payments. In addition, of North Carolina’s major cities, Asheville has the lowest annual median income but the second highest average monthly rent.

To address many of these challenges, the affordable housing plan created by the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force recommends zoning changes, incentives for building affordable housing and redeveloping public housing, a free tax-preparation collaborative, an employer-assisted housing initiative, and an affordable housing public awareness campaign.

At an event today, Pat V. Combs along with Realtor® Bonnie Boyd, 2008 chair of the NAR Housing Opportunity Advisory Board, joined Dustin Joyce, Council for the New American City, in presenting the Ambassador for Cities plaque and $5,000 to Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy and ABR President Terry Horner.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Information about NAR is available at www.realtor.org. News releases are posted in the Web site’s “News Media” section in the NAR Media Center.

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