SAN DIEGO — National Association of Realtors’ President Kevin Brown wants to unlock housing inventory by changing a tax rule that has not moved in three decades.
Speaking with Clelia Peters from ERA Ventures at Inman Connect San Diego last week, Brown detailed his push for the More Homes on the Market Act, a bipartisan bill that would double the capital gains exclusion on home sales for the first time since it was set.
The capital gains bill
Brown said the bill would raise the capital gains exclusion to $500,000 for single filers and $1 million for married couples filing jointly, up from limits he said have never been indexed for inflation. He said the change would release inventory currently held back by owners who face a capital gains penalty on their equity gains, a factor he said is separate from interest rate lock-in.
Brown said roughly 64 percent to 65 percent of properties in California sit above the current threshold, and he cited 13 million households nationwide in the same position. He said the bill has bipartisan support and pointed to a conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who he said asked him directly to pursue a follow-up to the 21st Century Road to Housing Act.
The lobbying operation behind the housing act
Brown detailed the advocacy work behind the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, a bill he described as a merger of 50 individual bills that already passed with bipartisan support. He said NAR’s 10-person lobbying team, led by Shannon McGann and Patrick Newton, met with Congress roughly 5,000 times, aided by a federal political coordinator assigned to every member of Congress.
Kevin Brown
Brown said he testified before the Senate Banking and Housing Policy Committee the same day Congress voted to approve the bill. He said NAR had prepared for a signing ceremony the following day, with 17 seats reserved for the organization compared with two for other groups — a sign, he said, of the association’s influence with Congress and the White House.
Though the signing did not take place as planned, the bill still became law, marking the most significant housing legislation to become law in decades.
Retreat from MLS rulemaking
Brown said NAR has pulled back from directing rules at the local MLS level following legal review tied to the Sitzer | Burnett settlement. He said outside counsel found that even NAR’s optional rules carried the same liability exposure as mandatory ones, prompting a review that led NAR to change, modify or eliminate rules across its books.
He said NAR’s current approach is to support the broader MLS ecosystem rather than dictate MLS policy, a shift he attributed to reducing legal risk for members following the settlement.
Assumable loans as a rate solution
Brown floated assumable mortgages as one option for addressing rate lock-in. He described a model in which a buyer takes over a seller’s existing low-rate mortgage and layers on secondary financing, producing a blended rate below the near-7-percent rate on new conventional loans.
Building the strategic plan around member input
Brown said NAR’s strategic plan was built from direct outreach to members rather than a single approach applied broadly. He said the association conducted surveys, focus groups and one-on-one meetings with brokers, resulting in eight priorities ranging from technology tools to association modernization to legal protections for members.
His message to agents
Brown closed by drawing a distinction between data and knowledge, saying consumers increasingly access housing data directly but still lack the expertise to interpret it. He said the value real estate professionals provide comes from translating that data into guidance during a transaction, including managing negotiation and emotional volatility on a client’s behalf.
