Last month, Congressman Bill Foster participated in Illinois REALTORS® “Lets Talk Real Estate” series. In this talk, Congressman Foster answered questions and gave us his input on what is happening with the real estate industry in Illinois, as well as what you can do to help him and other congressmen to help improve the state of the industry.
One of the first topics Congressman Foster talked about was flood insurance. “Floods effect both Democrats and Republicans” Foster said. Without flood insurance, you might not be able to sell your property, a case where you need it but can’t get receive it. Foster said how this needs to be fixed to make sure people can be properly covered and be able to sell their homes.
They Need Your Help
Congressman Foster stated the importance of advocacy groups and people communicating with him what is happening in the real estate industry. “We rely on advocacy groups to see what’s happening on the ground” Foster said. Foster requested that any information you can share with him to share it. “I’m not an expert without your help” Foster added. With that being said, please reach out to your representative and inform them about issues and how they can help the real estate industry. If you do not know your local representative, you can look them up here.
Q&A
In addition, Congressman Foster giving us his takes on what is happening, he also asked the room questions so he could learn more about what is happening and why. The question Foster states was, “has there been a rebound of people coming from the city to the suburbs?” The answer from the audience was an enthusiastic, “yes!” REALTORS® in the audience claimed it is because of people coming back to the suburbs to raise families, where they see better education opportunities for their children. It was also added that millennials are heading back to the suburbs, but not for the reasons you probably think. With larger housing opportunities, millennials are moving to the burbs for the bigger homes, but for sharing with others. There is ride sharing, sharing rent, but now millennials are trying to save more by sharing homes. “They are figuring it out, how can you get the most out of something and save” an individual in the audience said.
Millennials are also looked at for part of the reason why the buying market is slower and the larger, “nicer” homes are standing still on the market for longer. With millennials delaying their home purchasing by about 10 years and baby boomers and older generations downsizing, larger homes are sitting on the market longer.
Recap
If there were two things to take away from the conversation, it was stay engaged and continue to talk to your representative. Let them know the problems that are happening in the real estate industry, how they can help, as well as getting information from them to see how you can help them with their fight. Call or contact your representative with any questions, comments, or concerns that you would like them to address. Mark your calendar for April 21st, 2020, for Capitol Conference! Capitol Conference, or “REALTOR® Lobby Day” is a day for you to go down to the Illinois State Capitol and talk about issues at the state and local levels. You can read a Capitol Conference 2019 recap here.