Russell Riggs

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rulemaking on Aug. 29, 2023, that revised the definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The WOTUS Rule amends the Biden Administration’s January 2023 “Revised Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’” and was issued to conform…

NAR’s 2024 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report surveyed members on their transactions with international clients who purchased and sold U.S. residential property from April 2023 through March 2024. Foreign buyers who resided in the U.S. as recent immigrants or were holding visas that allowed them to live in the U.S. purchased $22.6…

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently submitted an Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in one of the most important property rights cases in a decade. Tyler v. Hennepin County addresses the practice of “home equity theft,” where state and local authorities take foreclosed homes for tax sales, no matter how small the…

At the end of 2022, President Biden signed the FY2023 omnibus spending bill into law, which funds the government through September 2023. This legislation created a new program to reward state and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations and multijurisdictional entities for eliminating local barriers to affordable housing supply. The bill allocates $85 million to create…

National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) President Leslie Rouda Smith participated in a private White House meeting in September with a diverse group of housing industry leaders to discuss viable solutions to the nation’s housing supply and affordability crisis. She called the meeting “a candid discussion of ideas” about how to fill the historic 5.5 million…

The Inflation Reduction Act, which was recently passed and signed into law, includes an array of resources and tax incentives to help homeowners and commercial building owners make their properties more energy efficient. Studies show that if property owners across the U.S. weatherized their buildings and installed high-efficiency heating, cooling and water-heating equipment, they would…

Research shows that consumers are increasingly interested in the green features of residential and commercial buildings. The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has responded to this consumer interest by creating a robust Sustainability Program that provides leadership and strategies for sustainability that benefit members, associations and communities. For the past two years, NAR has created…

On Nov. 18, 2021, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to withdraw President Trump’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) and put in place regulatory guidance that had been in effect before the Obama administration implemented its controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule in 2015.…