Real Estate Show Tina Grimes June Updates

Full Video Transcript Below

Alice Lema: [00:00:00] Well, hello everybody. And welcome back to the real estate show. I'm Alice Lema. I'm a broker here in beautiful Southern Oregon with John Scott real estate. I'm your host of the real estate show. So glad, you could join us again. We're gonna be talking today to the head of our local Rogue Valley Association of Realtors.

Miss Tina Grimes. One of my favorite people in the whole world to talk to on the real estate show, she's gonna be bringing us up to speed about what's going on, not only in the local Association of Realtors world, but also the national movement with the Association of Realtors. And we're also gonna be celebrating home ownership month. June happens to be home ownership month. So Tina will be talking to us about what our local associate realtors is doing to celebrate. Also some of the social media campaigns that they're doing. And we're also gonna talk real nuts and bolts about what's going on with home ownership, how we still do have a housing shortage, not only [00:01:00] in the purchase market, but also very much so in the rental market.

So lots and lots to talk about Tina Grimes Rogue Valley Association Realtors, one of our favorite people. So glad to have her on the show again today in the meantime, let's touch briefly at what's going on with our local market. You know, we had some statistics get published last week and it's always great to see the data because as we've been talking the last few last few weeks and actually last few months about what we're experiencing. Now, we have it in writing and these charts are also available on the local Rogue Valley Association Realtors, website. Super easy to find, super easy to navigate. But what I wanna point out to you is that we have a lot more listings coming on the market.

And you know, what else? The there's a big difference between where the listings are selling price-wise and where they're [00:02:00] listed at. We also have new people putting their homes on the market and they are undercuting the existing inventory to get sold. First and you know what it's working, but here we go.

We're still not predicting a crash. We still have slightly more buyers and sellers. It's still ironically a good time to do both. And quite frankly, we might make everybody happier by just having more houses on the market. Then people can have an easier time making their changes from where they are to where they want to be.

So I do encourage you to check that website, Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, look for the charts. Check out Jackson county and Josephine county. I think you'll find it very interesting. We've gotta take a quick break here and say thank you to our sponsors. We wanna especially say thanks to John L.

Scott, Ashford Guy Giles, Churchill Mortgage, and the local Rogue Valley Association Realtors. Will be right back.

Well, welcome back to the real [00:03:00] estate show folks. I'm Alice Lema, broker John Scott in beautiful Southern Oregon with one of my favorite people to interview, Tina Grimes from Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. Welcome back, Tina.

Tina Grimes: Thanks for having me. It's always good to be here.

Alice Lema: Well you're such a wealth of information and up to date on all things going on in the the world of the association realtors we haven't spoken to you for a little while you wanna maybe bring us up to speed on what's different that you're seeing in the last few months.

Tina Grimes: Well, the market is definitely starting to shift. The interest mortgage interest rates rose a lot quicker than anybody anticipated. I think the last time I was here, which was actually just a couple months ago the NAR the economist for NAR had just come out and said that, you know, he didn't expect things to slow down until probably the first of next year, cuz people were gonna start rushing to buy before interest rates got too high.

So he kind of expected the frenzy to continue, but the, and then interest rates went up 2% in just a very short period of time. Wasn't that shocking which was notwhat [00:04:00] he expected. You know, I remember his statement. He said, I think interest rates will only go up a percentage or so between now and the end of the year.

Well, that was obviously wrong. You know, so it, it has caused the market to slow down quicker than anybody I think thought, for the first time in literally years in the month of May, the inventory amount of inventory on the market went up. And that's not because we have more homes available.

Which we'll talk about here in a few minutes. It's because there were fewer buyers.

Alice Lema: So the demand, the demand demand is slowing down. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Cuz you can fix that problem one or two ways.

Tina Grimes: Uhhuh . Yeah. So I, I, we're definitely seeing things starting to shift. I know every people are still busy. The market is not dead by any stretch of the imagination, but we are, we are seeing the, the frenzy calming.

Alice Lema: Mm, mm-hmm so the idea of predicting when we might have a more normal balanced market everybody [00:05:00] keeps wondering, what are your thoughts on that? When the inventory and the buyer pool might actually be a little more, even.

Tina Grimes: You know, that's it's hard to say cuz obviously someone like Dr. Yu who's the economist for NAR, he made a very educated guess. And it was absolutely not correct because the fed raised the rates a lot faster than anyone anticipated. So at this point, I, I honestly don't know hard to tell. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the think the, you know, the rising cost of obviously the rising cost of gas, which is an obvious one, but that's gonna domino into other things, cuz groceries are gonna go up, cuz it's gonna cost more to get 'em to the stores and, and just cost of goods in general is gonna go up because the transportation to get them to the stores requires gas, which is gonna cause everything to go up.

And I think that's gonna, that's gonna slow people down because what they, you know, even with the rising interest rate, they could have maybe still afforded to do [00:06:00] something. If the other costs hadn't risen exponentially at the same time, but there's gonna be a lot of buyers now that are gonna push, pause and go, I may need to wait a little bit because you know, that's a lot of money going out the door.

Alice Lema: Well, and we've had some huge percentage of our buyers just not qualify. And it wasn't that they don't qualify at all. It's they don't qualify for the kind of home they wanted and now they're frustrated and upset and they just don't wanna right, make the, make the leap.

Tina Grimes: So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I it's it's so it's tough to say, because normally when you see it shift away from being a seller's market, it turns into a buyer's market. But I don't know that that's gonna happen, cuz like we just said, a lot of buyers are just not gonna enter the market right now.

Alice Lema: So. So what kind of a market does that leave us with? We've just never been in this territory.

Tina Grimes: I was gonna say, we've never seen this before, so I don't know. yeah. Well, and we still, you know, maybe, maybe those who were [00:07:00] in the business back in the eighties, when interest rates were 18%, maybe they could tell us, but yeah.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Well, and, and we're doing a lot of research on what happened back then to get some, some help and some guidance to be able to speak with the general public about it. But it's, it's just not the same, not the scenario that it was back in the eighties.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. It, it, isn't, there's a lot of things that are different, so it won't be exactly the same. And, I mean, I've, so I've been involved in our local, well, I've been here at the association since 2000 and prior to that, I worked at one of our local real estate offices. So in the local real estate industry for almost 25 years, and I've never seen it, like it is right now.

Alice Lema: So, yeah, but we are a resilient group.

Tina Grimes: We are, we're very much, we will figure out how to adapt and not just survive, but thrive. That's what we do.

Alice Lema: Exactly. And, and people depend on us to do that. So, yeah. So one of the things I noticed is that the listings are increasing. But they're [00:08:00] coming on the market at a much lower price. Yeah. Have you been noticing that as well?

Tina Grimes: I I've noticed the median price going down. Yeah. Which, and, and just clarify for the listeners, median, an average are not the same thing. Thank you. Important difference. Yeah. Median means it's the thing exactly in the middle. So it just tells you that half the homes are more than that. And half the homes are less than that. So but, but, but it is an indicator when you see that median price coming down, it means that more than, you know, they, the, the overall they are coming down because that's the midpoint And yeah, I've seen that dropping.

And, and a lot of it, like I said, is because the frenzy is calming down. So they're not thinking they're gonna be able to get, you know, 20, 30, $40,000 over what they originally asked.

Alice Lema: So mm-hmm, mm-hmm yep. Everybody has to adjust both directions. Yep. Yeah. So one of the things that I don't think the general public is aware of is that your website has a lot of this data available to the general public.

It does a lot of the charts and, and reports that we refer to [00:09:00] are on there.

Tina Grimes: It does. And we just recently re completely redesigned our website. So it's much easier to find now, too. . So, yeah, if you go to , that's. So RV ar.realtor no.com.org. the.realtor is the, the thing. And then there's a tab right on the front page that says market statistics. And a lot of the stuff that Alice and I just talked about is right under that tab.

Alice Lema: So well, and it's very, very interesting data. And as more and more people like to have that component in their decision making, I think our local Rogue Valley Association Realtors is doing such a great service by making all of that available.

It's super readable. It's easy to find, and it really gives you a good picture of what's happening while we're transitioning. Cuz that's hard. It's hard to, to get your feet on the ground during these, these weird transitions.

Tina Grimes: Yes. . Yeah, we're, we're all navigating a new normal in more ways than one.

Alice Lema: So how are the, how are the market [00:10:00] movements affecting the people that need a place to live?

You know, we always talk about houses and, and numbers, but let's talk a little bit about the people.

Tina Grimes: As far as I'm not quite sure, but

Alice Lema: we still have an ongoing shortage housing shortage just in general, especially in Southern Oregon.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Yeah. There's a, so there's a national housing shortage. Recent statistics show that we are 5.5 million units short of where we should be.

Alice Lema: Oh, wow. yeah.

Tina Grimes: Nationwide. So and that it would take it would actually take us over a decade to catch up, if we started building at an accelerated rate. So yeah, it's, it's a mess. It's we're, it's, we've never seen anything like this before. It started 14 years ago in 2008 when everything crashed. And so many people left the end of the construction industry.

And then it got exacerbated when the economy started coming [00:11:00] back after that crash, with the red tape, with the added costs of building. And this is, this is where the government comes into play is that, you know, they've gotta figure out a way to make it easier for, for people to build homes and build apartment complexes and build, I mean, contractors don't run a nonprofit business.

They need to make a living . Thank you. And you know, when they, when they're looking at 60, $70,000 in fees, before they even break ground, That's an impossible lift. So you know, so that's, we we're, you know, we, at the local level, the Oregon realtors at the state level, the national association of realtors at the national level in partnership with the national home builders at the federal state and local levels, we're constantly talking with legislators about, you know, how can you ease the red tape?

How can you make this better inspired cause affordable housing is not gonna happen just because you mandate. Affordable housing is gonna happen when the supply exceeds the demand. That's just basic high school economics. right. It's [00:12:00] supply and demand, you know? Yeah. We've gotta, the supply has to exceed the demand and the supply is not gonna exceed the demand unless we get more building happening and more building is not gonna happening unless you make it less onerous to build.

So you know, trying to have that conversation, trying to figure out ways to where the red tape can be eased and the fees can be eased. You know, even if they delay the billing of it until after the house, you know, make it part of the closing.

Alice Lema: Oh, that's an excellent idea.

Tina Grimes: Instead of requiring the contractors to pay 'em before they can even break ground, I mean, there's things that you could do.

So just trying to figure out those and, and navigate those pieces and figure out ways we can get things going, because it, it is, it is a national crisis literally is a crisis.

Alice Lema: So, well, I don't, I don't think people realize that it's been 14 years in the making right. So that's a long time to let it get worse and worse. Mm-hmm and now you add the COVID and the supply chain problems. Yes.

Tina Grimes: And, and then of course, like you mentioned, it's exacerbated here in Southern Oregon because we lost [00:13:00] 2,500 homes in the Almeda fire. So, and then there was that. You know, it's, and, and that was the bulk of 'em, but then homes were lost.

Same similar fires going on at the same time, there were homes lost in Josephine county, homes lost out in the Northern part of Jackson county. I mean, we just, we had a, we had an unprecedented kind of perfect storm of events.

Alice Lema: And, you know, we did have a small batch of people that were in the Paradise, California fire that relocated here and lost their home here again again.

I know. Yeah. And, and I don't know that I know more than once. Many of those folks are still here. I think they all live in some city somewhere mm-hmm but so the housing shortage starting in 2008, and really affecting the ability for contractors to build and then not coming back into the business. What can be done legislatively besides you know, just, just you guys talking to them, what can the general public do?

Tina Grimes: I would urge you just to reach [00:14:00] out to, you know, your congressmen, your legislators at, at your county commissioners, all levels. So the municipalities just reach out to them and say, you know, it's time to get creative.

We can't keep doing things the same way. We've always been, you know, well, the definition of insanity, keep doing the same thing and expect different results. We can't keep doing things the same way and expect to solve the problem. We've gotta get creative. We've gotta look at new ways to incentivize home building.

We can't mandate affordable housing. We have, we have to start figuring out how to increase the supply, cuz that's what's gonna create affordable housing. Mm-hmm mm-hmm and. And that will, you know, it will organically also solve the rental crisis is, is if we have more supply, then there's gonna be more availability, both for home, both for purchase and for rent.

Alice Lema: Well, and that's another crisis that's that's brewing that I, I just don't think enough attention is being given to what's going on with those poor tenants. We're talking to Tina Grimes Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. She's gonna be our guest today. We've got lots more to [00:15:00] talk about what's going on statistically here in Southern Oregon, but also ongoing conversation about the housing shortage.

We're brought to you by the Rogue Valley Association Realtors. Thank you. Also, John L. Scott, Medford, and Ashland and Guy Gils, Churchill Mortgage. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsors.

Well, hello again, everybody. Welcome back to the real estate show. I'm Alice Lema, your host here today. We're talking to Tina Grimes of the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. And right before the break, we were talking about the ongoing housing shortage in both not only purchase market, but also rentals.

And you had a very interesting idea, Tina part of the burden that the contractor's bear is having to spend, would you say 60, 70,000 before they even break down? Break ground.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. And break ground sometimes, obviously it depends on the municipality, but I've heard, I've heard stories of it being that high mm-hmm I mean, at a minimum you're talking [00:16:00] 25 to 30,000.

Alice Lema: So mm-hmm, mm-hmm well, and some, some regular homeowners that are trying to add ADUs because that's, that's part of what Oregon is promoting.

Yeah. They're being asked to put in sidewalks in some situations, right. And sometimes that can be as much as another $30,000. Right. And I, I loved your idea. Is it your idea to have these these expenses maybe come at the end of the construction instead of the beginning?

Tina Grimes: I'd love to take credit for it, but no. It's, it's talk conversation. I've heard at both state, national meetings. It was also something that I got floated. This was even before, this is pre pandemic. So probably five, six years ago we had at the time Kelly Matting was the Medford city planner. And she and someone else came to one of our board meetings and said they were looking at an idea of maybe making it that way, but it never went anywhere.

So. It, you know, it's, it's an idea that's been floated, but it never has been put into play really to my knowledge, if I'm wrong, somebody please [00:17:00] correct me.

Alice Lema: That's a great idea. Yeah.

Tina Grimes: You know, and it, it, so it's, it's just, like I said, we gotta figure out creative ways. We can't keep doing things the same way we've always been doing them. Right. And that includes our, the, you know, it it's, it's on the private sector side, as well as the public sector side. Mm-hmm , we've gotta, we've gotta work together. We've gotta figure it out. I know the national association of realtors put together a comprehensive plan that they presented at the federal level that included things like, you know, incentivizing, converting vacant commercial spaces to residential.

Alice Lema: I love that idea, you know, zombie malls.

Tina Grimes: You know, incentivize people to go to trade school and become construction workers and subcontractors. And that's a great idea. Figure out ways to get, get it moving, just get, get it moving so that we can actually start making some progress.

Cause. Like I said, you know, if we just keep building at the same rate, we're currently building, we're gonna continue to be five and a half million units behind on a national level.

Alice Lema: And how long would you say [00:18:00] that would take to .

Tina Grimes: the national association estimated that if we started, let me pull up the number here. They said even if we started building at an accelerated. Rate it would take more than a decade to dig out.

Alice Lema: Wow. Well, you know, that's not much different than how long it took for us to get into this fix. Right, right.

Tina Grimes: It's gonna take us as long to get out as it took us to get, get in.

Alice Lema: Wow. Well, that's sad.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. And the longer we wait to start accelerating the building rate, the longer it's gonna take us to dig. Cuz we'll just keep getting farther and farther behind.

Alice Lema: So, so in your work with some of these bureaucracies and municipalities, how are the creative ideas received when you bring, bring some of these options to them?

Tina Grimes: I'll say it generally, genuinely depends on who you're talking to. really some, you know, they're all for it. They, you can see the lights come on and they start thinking, oh, maybe, you know, it inspires them. Others, you talk to 'em and they're so focused, and this is not a criticism [00:19:00] it's cuz everybody has their own viewpoint on this.

I'm I'm sharing mine. But they're so focused on just mandating affordable housing, which when I say that, so that everybody knows what I mean is like, if they, you know, if a contractor comes to them and then says, I'm gonna build five homes, they mandate that one of those homes be at a lower rate of, you know, they have to sell it at a lower cost.

So that it, it be, it is affordable. So they're mandating certain segments of affordable housing. Well, that doesn't work cuz it, it, you know, then the contractor has to charge more for the other, other units to make up for that unit being sold at a loss basically. And it just, it doesn't, it doesn't work in my opinion, again, I'm sharing my opinion.

So so the people that are, you know, that believe that that is the solution, they're not as receptive, but. You know, we'll just keep having the conversations. That's, you know, that's all we can do. That's the best. And it is a good thing to do is just continue to have the conversation, build the bridges, build the relationships cuz to quote [00:20:00] one of our fellow realtor when Colin Melan, he always says, if you're not at the table, you're on the menu. So but let's make sure we're still at the table.

Alice Lema: Yeah, that's priceless. Yeah. Yeah. And the contractors complain bitterly. We have many, many companies in the construction world that would love to do more. But they just can't get that 50. And sometimes it's even more than $70,000. If depending on the project you're doing got.

Tina Grimes: Then they have a hard time the subs to do the best then. Yeah. Trying to get that. Yeah. And then trying to get the supplies and the materials and that's, that's, that's been a more recent issue, but yes. Yeah, the supply chain has become a big factor in it. And the, and the added costs that they're having to pay to get stuff to them.

Alice Lema: Right. Right. And the delays and all that, all those projects left sitting cost money, and then people don't have a place to live still. So we just don't have much good news in in that department. And it would sure be great if the general public could start getting a [00:21:00] little more involved, like you said, talking to the commissioners, talking to your, your representatives and let your voice be heard.

Some of these ideas are really good and. Like you said it's not just mandated, it can actually be put into yeah, put into work.

Tina Grimes: Well, and, and who knows, you know, in those conversations, that's why I said the good news is, is that we are having the conversations. We're gonna keep having the conversations because those conversations, you may go in with one idea just firmly in your head on either side. ,and as you have the conversation, you start realizing, oh, well, what if we took a bit of yours and a bit of mine and we, and you come out with something completely new that nobody had ever thought of.

Alice Lema: Yep. That's what we need.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. And that's what we need. That's that's what we're, that's why, that's why we're gonna keep having the conversations is cuz we're waiting for that golden moment.

Alice Lema: mm-hmm so, and I like the idea of postponing, some of the expenses and you know, while you were you're speaking, I was wondering for homeowners, we were talking about homeowners, adding units. You know, if they have a big yard and [00:22:00] then having all these expenses, what if they only had to pay half up front?

Right. And then the rest could be put on their tax bill. Or maybe that would work for the contractors, the, the builders, instead of having to put everything up front, maybe just do half.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Something, I mean that that's, but that's the kind of conver, that's the kind of things we need to talk about. How could we make this work? Can it work? Can, you know, is it feasible and, and work through the logistics and, and, you know, the biggest challenge is, is any of these ideas, whether you're talking a mandate or whether you're talking you know, in incentivizing the private sector, There's always gonna be unintended consequences of anything you do.

So you have to, you have to try and think what those unintended consequences could be, and which is the best case scenario rather than the worst case. So, yeah.

Alice Lema: Well, the shortage is definitely palatable. And like you said, it's great that we have listings more available for people to purchase, but it's really more cuz so many buyers left the market than right.

What you're saying is people well, and [00:23:00] although people are listing, we are getting more.

Tina Grimes: And the affordability index is, is going the wrong direction. So because of that, yeah. And you know, the interest rates mainly.

Alice Lema: So many of the tenant occupied homes are getting put up for sale, but I don't know what you're hearing from other agents, but we're not seeing other investors purchase those. They're being purchased by owner occupied and it puts ever more pressure on our poor tenant population.

Tina Grimes: Yep. Yeah. And So, again, I'm, this is, this is my opinion. I'm gonna caveat that. But I think a lot of that has to do with the rent control bill that got passed a couple years ago. Investors, a lot of investors left the market at the time and we're not seeing a lot of new investors come into the market because they, they can't necessarily recoup their costs when they're limited on how much rent they can charge.

Alice Lema: Mm-hmm . Well, now that the interest rates went up. You know, even they've gotta pay a mortgage yeah. As high as the rents are In Oregon. It's, it's [00:24:00] not penciling like it used to. Yeah. So layers and layers of steps in the wrong direction. And it is. Yeah, but it's very, it's very hard on the tenants. And I do see some construction for apartment buildings and bigger multifamily, especially in the burn zone.

Mm-hmm , that's encouraging to see that those projects are getting off the ground.

Tina Grimes: I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that's, and that's been, that's added to the challenge here in Southern Oregon. Is that a, a portion of the construction, the new construction that has been happening, has been rebuilding homes that were lost in the fire, not building homes that were gonna go on the market necessarily.

Right. Right. So, which needed to be done. I'm not saying that I'm not saying that nothing that needed to happen. But it has added constraints to our inventory for sure.

Alice Lema: Mm-hmm and it's not, it's not a net gain of the housing units. We're still playing right catch up. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's it certainly is difficult.

Well, and as the market changes and you were speaking [00:25:00] early about the recession and the well, not the recession, but inflation, the inflation numbers are making it difficult on tenants and buyers. They're both struggling with their monthly budgets now. Yep. And the impact that, that has on their ability to continue to live here.

You know, we do have a certain number of people that are just leaving the area, which is unfortunate. Yeah. Yeah. So the Rogue Valley Association Realtors tracks a lot of these numbers, you do a lot of education. You also do a lot of community work. You wanna bring us up to date on any activities that are gonna be happening this summer?

Tina Grimes: Well, honestly, we're still kind of in the planning process coming out of the coming out of the pandemic and not being able to do anything for a while. We do, we have some stuff in the works, but it's all still so early in the planning process. I don't have any details to share. Okay. We're planning on doing, I, I don't know any dates or anything yet, but we are planning [00:26:00] on doing for the members, it'll be a huge event that will be a fundraiser. Trying to decide whether it's, you know, how, how the funds are gonna be split up. But we definitely wanna get back to supporting who we have historically supported, which is habitat for humanity.

We wanna get funds back into our first time home buyer grant that Access administers for us. Get, you know, get some funds back into that. And then there's a couple of other housing related charities. We always try to do housing related charities. There's so many amazing charities around here. But given who we are, we try to connect the head with the heart Uhhuh yeah. And focus on housing related charities.

So yeah, so we're, we're excited to get back into it and get, get some fundraising going again. Cuz I know, I know they need it and we have, we need it too, cuz you know, it's it makes us feel like we're definitely part of the community when we can do things like that.

Alice Lema: Yeah. That's awesome. Well, keep me posted how that's going. Because People forget the realtors, you know, live in the community too. And they do give back a lot. They donate a lot of [00:27:00] time. A lot of 'em donate their some of their commissions and they also help to promote programs like the Access yeah. Down payment assistance.

Tina Grimes: It's yeah. It's first time. Yeah. Well it's, it can be used for down payment. It can be used for pretty much any closing costs. Okay. So down payment assistance, closing cost assistance.

Alice Lema: We'll have to talk more about that sometime. Yeah. We go do a whole show on that.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Let's let's get some money back into it, cuz it's been dry for a year and a half now. Yeah. Let's get some money back into it then. We'll we'll we'll have I, we can invite Denise from Access. Yeah. We'll have them for us. She can come on with me and we'll, we'll talk about it.

Alice Lema: So that sounds like a great idea. We're gonna have to take a quick break. We're talking to Tina Grimes, Rogue Valley Association Realtors. We'll be right back.

Well, welcome back to the real estate show folks. I'm Alice Lema. I'm a broker here in Southern Oregon with John Scott real estate. Welcome back to our show. Just wanna give you a quick reminder that this will be repeated tomorrow on Sunday at six o'clock here on K CMX. News talk radio 880 getting [00:28:00] back to our very interesting interview with Tina Grimes, Rogue Valley Association of Realtors.

And right before the break, Tina, we were talking about community involvement with not only the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, but realtors in general.

Tina Grimes: I, yeah, I think you'd be hard pressed to find any charity, any community effort in this valley in Jack, which we covered Jackson and Josephine counties, but in, so in the rogue valley that a realtor is not somehow involved in it, honestly.

You know, we have 1500 realtors between the two counties and I think there's at least one in every charitable effort in this. I, I, I, I would be surprised to find out if there is one that isn't .

Alice Lema: Yeah, yeah. As a group realtors are very involved in caring yeah. In the community as general, not only in the housing realms, but also other parts of the community as well.

Tina Grimes: Well, and I think a big part of that is because they, they see the value that home ownership brings to a community as a whole. You know, NAR has done multiple studies on the [00:29:00] benefits of home ownership, not just to the people that live in the home, which we all know that there are many benefits to the homeowners, but, but the benefits to the community at large

You know, they've done studies where kids, kids that are in school do better if they're, if they're in a home that is owned. Because they're, they feel more stable and they're not gonna have to move and change schools and they're less likely to anyway and that parents are less stressed. You know, all these studies they've done. I know I grew up, you know, my parents rented a lot until just before I went into sixth grade and I went to four different elementary schools.

 Yeah, because we rented and we were constant, we, so we moved like every couple of years and then we moved to, we, they bought a house in Jacksonville. Right before I went into sixth grade and then I, we didn't move again until I grad, after they didn't move until after I graduated from high school.

Alice Lema: That's an incredible difference in stability. Yeah. For a child. That's very interesting.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Yeah. So you know, I [00:30:00] was, I was blessed in the fact that we went to the same church all that time. So I had a stable set of friends at church, but I, you know, school was changing a lot.

Alice Lema: That's a lot of moves yeah, that's a lot of moves and I bet that's a common story. Mm-hmm with people with kids that are still rent, renting. Yeah.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. So I'm sure that that's, you know, a factor in this study. You know, and then you've also just been the financial benefit, you know, there's, you can see this all over the place that people who own a home have much, they're much more stable financially, cuz they have that equity.

You know, there's the tax incentives for home ownership. You know, and we've, we've all rented at times in our lives and it's, it's a necessary thing. Yep. It's a necessary need to have rentals available. Cause we all have to do that at one point in our lives or another. And but it still requires somebody owning that property in order for it to be made available as a rental.

So mm-hmm, mm-hmm, , you know, the home, ownership's a hugely valuable thing to the community and to the people that own it.

Alice Lema: And one of the interesting stabilizing things [00:31:00] that people forget is once you have that mortgage payment, your mortgage payment stays the same. Your , insurance might go up a little bit.

Yeah. But when you're a tenant even in rent controlled Oregon, your, your rent can go up. Yeah. 7% or more every year.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Yep. And it, it's a huge, yeah. It's, that's something that people kind of don't think about and you're right. Yeah. It's it something you have to factor in?

Alice Lema: Yeah, so, well, we should have some of the, the new homeowners new first time home buyers come and talk to you guys at Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, because I think the agents see it, but it would be so great for you to see it.

They are almost in tears. Mm-hmm and it takes them about two months of living in their new home to really understand that nobody's gonna kick 'em out, right. That they can, they can have a, a steady budget and they have some stability in their life. And then if you know, they were lucky enough to [00:32:00] purchase a couple years ago, then they had an extra 50 grand right. just outta nowhere.

Right. But but really it is so moving and I, I just think maybe we should do that. We should collect some number of them and, and bring them by. Yeah. So that we can help, help promote home ownership.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. I love that idea. Yeah, it's it's as you many people may not know, but June is home national home ownership month, you know, every month has multiple things that it is.

But one of the things that June is, is, is home ownership month national home ownership month. And, and so I would, I love that idea to maybe do something to promote . We'll have to keep that in mind. Maybe for next June, we can use that as a big promotion for home ownership month. Yeah, you're right.

I mean, you know, I, so many times people think, and I, and I can tell my own personal story renting. I used to think man, I can hardly wait to own my own home so I can paint my wall, whatever color I want to, you know, and it was those little superficial things. And then the first time I actually did buy my own home.

I realized it was so, so, so much more [00:33:00] than just being able to paint the wall, whatever color I wanted to. And yeah, it is a very, it is a very emotional involved thing.

Alice Lema: The gratitude is enormous. And so, yeah, I think we'll work on that. So we've got a couple of, of things we're gonna work on here. We're gonna try to get our, our local municipality to front, all the fees for the contractors or half, and the same with the homeowners that wanna add units.

So we got that, I got that right down. And then we're gonna try to collect some of the first time people, you know especially those that came out of the crash. There were a whole bunch of 'em that went through short sales and foreclosures and they had to wait seven or 10 years, or because of circumstances, they waited seven or 10 years.

Those stories are remarkable. Yeah. That they were treated like first time home buyers, cuz it had been so long, but right. Yeah. Going from home ownership to tenant back to home ownership, we should definitely do that. The stories are amazing. I think the general public would really be surprised especially if they're homeowners and have been [00:34:00] homeowners for a long time.

And they'll be reminded of what it was like, you know, before they had a house, that you really are more vulnerable, more at risk out there as a tenant. Mm-hmm . So with the few minutes we have left and this being national home ownership month are there any reports or events or social media posts that are gonna be put out by the Rogue Valley Association Realtors?

Tina Grimes: Oh yeah. We'll, we'll be putting stuff out quite frequently on our Facebook page which is open to the public. So Rogue Valley Association of Realtors.

Alice Lema: It's a great page by the way.

Tina Grimes: If you wanna go check that out, we'll be posting stuff there periodically throughout the month. And and then if you just, also, if you just Google national home ownership month, you're gonna get a ton of stuff from the national association of realtors as well.

So a lot of articles about the benefits of home ownership and those kinds of things. So it's, yeah, there's a lot of information out there about it. And, and, and also in that will be some good suggestions about how to have conversations with your [00:35:00] legislators too, about, about increasing supply.

Alice Lema: Oh, that would be helpful. Yeah. That would be helpful. That's a, yeah, we should promote that. Yeah. We can get more people involved in talking to the legislatures if we made it easy for them to do that. Yeah. Yeah. So do you, do you have email addresses and things like that for the, the local Legislatures.

Tina Grimes: If, if you just Google your legislator, it's all public information. Okay. So yeah, just Google your legislator's name, or even if you don't know your legislator, just You know, you can actually just, I've done this before, when I have not been sure who it is. I'll just put in, you know, who is my legislator and it brings up these different sites and then you can look it up.

Alice Lema: Oh my gosh. That's great. Yeah. Well, I think we're gonna do that and we're gonna start trying to get it out to people's to make it easier. Cuz as a group Southern Oregonians are very creative. I bet we could solve these problems. Yep. We've gotta put our heads together.

Tina Grimes: I think we can too. And, and it's, and it's not a partisan thing. That's what we've gotta get [00:36:00] away from. It's not a partisan thing. Oh, I totally agree. Not a Republican or Democrat or independent or libertarian or whatever you wanna call yourself thing. It's strictly about getting people in homes and we've, you know, I know we've just got a few seconds, but the, this massive national shortage is why we're seeing so the increase in homelessness too.

Alice Lema: So, yep. We'll have to talk about that next time. Tina Grimes, it'll solve multiple problems. Rogue Valley Association Realtors. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thanks again.