FEATURE: 2007 REALTORS® CONFERENCE & EXPO

Looking Back, Moving Forward

BY WENDY COLE

To be a REALTOR® in the early 20th century meant not only witnessing one of America’s great cultural moments, but also helping to define it.

Americans were on the move in those years, from their rural, agrarian roots to increasingly industrialized cities and, eventually, to the suburbs beyond. At the same time, immigrants poured through such debarkation points as New York’s Ellis Island in search of the same dream that stirred their American cousins — a better life and homes of their own.

The rise of the new middle class — seekers of the American Dream — fueled the increasingly shared yearning for “house and home.”

The nascent real estate profession was there as well, ready to begin establishing a national framework, emphasizing organization, expertise, and values. Its cornerstones were entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and modern business methods.

One hundred years later, they still are. Tens of thousands of REALTORS® will converge for the 2007 REALTORS® Conference & Expo Nov. 13–16, in Las Vegas, a place with its own deeply felt admiration for risk-takers.

By attending this year’s forums, seminars, and training sessions, you’ll find numerous opportunities for professional growth.

NAR’s second century is yours, and the American dream of home ownership is still at the heart of your calling. Let Las Vegas be the place to help you reach your dreams.

When NAR began a century ago, just as today, enormous social transformations were afoot, posing challenges and opportunities for practitioners. In the midst of change, however, home ownership became cemented as a defining American goal, enabling real estate professionals to serve as crucial intermediaries.

Our national leaders were active allies: Herbert Hoover considered home ownership to be a hallmark of democracy, standardizing home-building practices, persuading banks to provide mortgages, and promoting the professionalization of the field.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, another passionate supporter, promoted such REALTOR® policy ideas as special safeguards for home ownership to guarantee social and economic stability.

As the country changed, the profession itself also evolved. Ninety-eight percent of the 126,000 real estate brokers listed in the 1910 U.S. census were men. By World War II, women showed that they could do the job as well as men. As historian and author Jeffrey Hornstein notes, “Rosie the Riveter was a five-year factor, but Rosie the REALTOR® came into the workforce, stayed, and helped transform the economy.” Today, 59 percent of REALTORS® are female, and 13 percent are nonwhite.

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