The Washington Report

On May 2, 2025, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted a roundtable discussion focused on opportunities to address the cost and availability of homeowners insurance. This event was part of the Trump administration’s efforts to implement the executive order on “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis.”

The FIO roundtable brought together representatives from various sectors, including insurers, reinsurers, state regulators, resilience and consumer groups, and academics. NAR was among the participants, represented by Austin Perez, senior policy representative for insurance issues.

During the event, NAR highlighted a critical issue—home buyers are increasingly encountering insurance issues as a last-minute surprise during or after real estate transactions. Learning about the true insurance costs too late can cause buyers to walk away from the closing table or experience buyer’s remorse afterward, if they don’t know to expect double-digit annual rate increases in the future. Specific examples of insurance cost and availability issues were provided based on a member survey reporting from around the country.

Key Discussions:

• Rising Insurance Costs: Many participants identified factors driving insurance costs, including building costs and inflation, high-risk development, natural disasters, state insurance and land use policies, and litigation abuse, particularly for roofs.
• Cost and Availability Issues: Some participants noted that the insurance cost and availability issues were no longer limited to a few states but were becoming an issue in many high-risk areas across the country.
• Public Policy Solutions: Most participants emphasized the importance of government programs to help property owners strengthen their homes against natural disasters, thereby lowering insurance costs.

Among the participants, NAR was the only organization representing homeowners and the broader real estate industry. NAR will continue to educate policymakers and advocate on behalf of its members and their clients regarding home insurance and risk mitigation policies.

Read FIO's press release.

On Friday, May 2, the White House released its FY 2026 budget proposal, which suggests to Congress the preferred funding levels for a wide range of discretionary agency spending.  Importantly, this is the first presidentially-proposed budget in 4 years that has not recommended limiting or repealing the 1031 like-kind exchange, an important tax tool for real estate.  The 1031 like-kind exchange allows a property seller to defer paying capital gains tax if they use the proceeds of the sale to purchase another “like kind” property, which creates liquidity in the market and encourages property owners who no longer need or want a property to sell it to someone who does and find something more suitable for themselves.  The provision is not well-understood outside of real estate and has frequently been seen as a potential “pay-for” for other federal spending priorities, but the data shows that actually 1031s ultimately result in more taxes being collected, due to typical investments made into both of the impacted properties – a sale that may not have happened at all without it. 

The proposed budget also proposes cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) budget across a range of programs, and makes structural changes to federal rental assistance by combining many existing programs into a single grant and allowing states to determine how best to utilize the funding.  

The President’s proposed budget is not policy; it is sent to the appropriators in Congress as a messaging document sharing the White House’s spending priorities.  The Appropriations Committees will consider its proposals but ultimately will develop their own budget to reflect their own priorities and those of their constituents.  NAR is monitoring the budget-making process and actively advocating for the wide range of federal grants and programs used to support homebuyers, a healthy rental housing market, and REALTORS® around the country. 

White House Proposed FY2026 Budget Proposal

NAR submitted comments to The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) in response to its concept paper on the experience requirements for appraiser licensing.

In the letter, NAR applauded TAF for the effort to address issues with the appraiser qualifications requirements, while pointing out ongoing problems with the current methods and previous recommendations from NAR to expand experience requirements. The letter urges the Appraisal Qualifications Board (AQB) of TAF to establish equivalency credit for both education and experience in licensed and regulated fields involving valuation such as licensed real estate salespersons, real estate agents, and real estate brokers. Expanding experience used to qualify appraisers for accreditation to include that from parallel industries will help to reduce barriers to entry into the appraisal industry, while maintaining professional quality and public trust in the appraisal profession.

Read the letter

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recently issued a field assistance bulletin for Wage and Hour Division staff that provides an analysis for how workers should be assessed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). 

The guidance is a departure from the department’s 2024 independent contractor rule for how workers should be classified as independent contractors or employees. Additionally, the Labor Department explained that the 2024 independent contractor rule remains in effect for private litigation; however for enforcement purposes, the department will rely on Fact Sheet #13 from July 2008, and the Opinion Letter FLSA 2019-6. The department further explained that it is reviewing the current rule and working to develop the appropriate standard for determining a worker’s classification under the FLSA and is reconsidering the 2024 final rule. The current FLSA standard applies to FLSA investigations only and is not binding in the courts.

NAR will continue to provide updates regarding the independent contractor rule and its impact.

Read the U.S. Department of Labor's News Release