Hasbrouck Heights, NJ – (June 10, 2021) Greater Bergen Realtors® (GBR) hosted their annual midyear virtual meeting on Thursday, June 10, 2021. The first portion of the meeting included all of the local association updates, which included an update on the construction of the association’s headquarters. GBR President Alireza Memar presented as part of the building update the rendering of the outside of the new building and announced that the projected move-in day is to take place sometime in late summer.
During the meeting, the Rising Star award was presented to Linda Libock of Howard Hanna Rand realty in Closter, New Jersey. Ms. Libock is a new agent who joined the industry in 2018 – from day one, she has taken her career to the next level with the mentorship and guidance from her peers and her manager Lisa Comito. She said, “All good things are possible when you are patient, eager to learn, work hard, is Kind to all, and work in an office that has a Broker Manager like Lisa Comito, who inspires and instructs her agents every day, and is completely supportive of all that you do, the result will always be a success!”
On the national front, 2021 NAR President Charlie Oppler provided those in attendance an update of what happened during the NAR legislative meetings. On the advocacy front, NAR is working with members of congress on the Rescue Bill presented by President Biden to address some of the issues include Capital gains, SALT deduction, 1031 Like-kind exchange. The goal is to help protect as much of the tax incentives for homebuyers.
Mr. Oppler highlighted the NAR Fair Haven – a simulation designed to understand discrimination, housing, and the protected classes. NAR is committed to providing more educational programs to educate REALTOR® members about bias through courses such as the At Home With Diversity.
Charlie also introduced NAR’s pilot program was presented during the meeting that focuses on educating high school and college students on the number of career paths within the real estate industry, as well as providing education on how to build generational wealth.
Our closing and keynote Speaker, Newsday Reporter, Olivia Winslow, gave our members an insightful presentation on the investigation in Long Island and housing discrimination. The three-year investigation highlighted the role the real estate industry played in dividing Long Island. During the investigation, undercover testers met with real estate agents from the top 12 agencies across Long Island. Olivia shared with our viewers that the housing discrimination in Long Island has been visited before the Long Island Divided investigation. In looking through the Newsday Archives, Olivia shared it was looking into periodically why there were segregated housing patterns on Long Island.
Although Long Island is more diverse in the past, with 64 percent of the population being white, 18 percent Latino, 9 percent black, and 7 percent Asian, the segregated housing patterns were visible. After running their investigation, Newsday found evidence of widespread separate and unequal treatment of minority potential home buyers and minority communities. The evidence suggests that minority homebuyers face a substantial risk of discrimination. As a result of the investigation, Olivia shared, “There has been quite a bit happening in local government and in state governments as a result of Newsday's investigation. Locally, Nassau and County governments have beefed up their human rights commissions with administrative law judges who can handle housing discrimination complaint." For more information and updates on the Long Island Divided investigative report visit www.newsday.com/divided.