Realtors In Town For Legislative Meetings Help Build Habitat House

Business Wire, May 11, 2004

Business Editors/Real Estate Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2004

Realtors(R) in town for the National Association of Realtors(R) Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo are volunteering their time and effort to help build a Habitat for Humanity house near the U.S Capitol. Approximately 7,500 Realtors(R) and guests are attending NAR's May 10-15 meetings.

More than 60 Realtors(R) have signed up to pound nails starting today at the Congress Building America (CBA) national build site at 215 54th St., NE, in Washington. Work on the house, which will continue through the summer, began earlier this year when over a dozen members of Congress joined NAR and other CBA sponsors in participating in a wall-raising event March 25.

"NAR is proud to work with Habitat for Humanity to build a new home for a deserving family here in Washington, the annual site of our midyear meetings," said NAR President Walt McDonald, broker-owner of Walt McDonald Real Estate in Riverside, Calif. "This week's build is just one part of NAR and Habitat's collective efforts to provide more families with affordable housing they can call their own."

NAR has built Habitat homes for the past three years in cities hosting NAR's annual convention-Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco. Realtors(R) raised the wall in March on a Habitat home in Orlando; the home will be completed in November during NAR's Conference & Expo.

NAR serves as a national underwriter of the CBA program, a nationwide partnership between Habitat for Humanity International, the U.S. Congress, and national corporate and nonprofit sponsors. The program's goal is to strengthen neighborhoods and communities by bringing members of Congress together with local Habitat for Humanity affiliates, volunteers and sponsors to build simple, decent and affordable houses with families in need.

Realtors(R) who are interested in working on local CBA builds in their congressional district should contact the Washington, D.C. Habitat for Humanity office at 202-628-9171 or visit the CBA Web site at http://www.habitat.org/gov/congress/

The National Association of Realtors(R), "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing 1 million Realtors(R) involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Information about NAR is available at http://www.Realtor.org. This and other news releases are posted in the Web site's "News Release" section.