According to Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com’s chief economist, the housing market heated up in July, making this summer one of the best in a decade. Factors favoring buyers this summer include: the highest consumer confidence for a July since 2007; the highest nominal home process for a July on record; and the lowest July mortgage rates on record. Click here to learn more.

After climbing for the last three consecutive weeks, mortgage rates reversed course this week, falling back near the lowest averages of the year. Mortgage rates had moved up 7 basis points over the past three weeks. However, most of those gains were erased this week, as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 5 basis points to 3.43 percent, according to Freddie Mac. Click here to read the entire Freddie Mac press release.

The New York State Association of REALTORSwill hold its annual Fall Business Meetings Sept. 25-28 at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY. You won’t want to miss the opening day keynote speaker, Jeff Slutsky, founder of Street Fighter Marketing, give clever, shrewd and low-cost marketing tactics that get proven results on the local level. General Session keynote speaker Mark Sanborn, president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., will share the exciting opportunities that await you when you pursue your own potential.

NYSAR encourages all members to participate as many of the sessions do not require official committee service. For more information or to register for the meetings, click here.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the New NY Broadband Program to make high-speed Internet available to currently unserved households in rural and Upstate New York. The goal of the program is to make broadband Internet accessible to all New Yorkers by the end of 2018. More on this story can be found here.

New York State recently recommended reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which included: increasing the transparency and clarifying the scope of flood insurance coverage by creating a plain language disclosure sheet; providing policyholders with all documents created during the course of the flood claim administration process; implementing a national certification process for all engineers retained to provide structural damage assessments in the wake of a flood event; and ensuring the transparency of fees paid to engineering experts by implementing a standardized fee schedule for all engineering services. More on this story can be found here.

Democrat Charlie Evangelista and Republicans Joe Geiger and Bobby Massarini will not be on their respective party’s ballot lines in the September Primary elections to replace outgoing Senator Michael Nozzolio due to their petitions being challenged and rejected by the State Board of Elections. Democrat Kenan Baldridge was removed from the Working Families Party line for that race as well. Democratic candidate Steve Glickman was removed from the ballot in his attempt to challenge incumbent Senator Rich Funke. Audrey Dunning lost the Women’s Equality Line in her challenge to Senator James Seward. Assemblymen Kevin Cahill and Frank Skartados saw their Republican challengers removed from the GOP lines. Also, Assemblyman John Ceretto lost the Independence and Conservative lines for his race.

The Tuesday, Aug. 16, NYSAR Radio show will cover common real estate-related environmental issues. Tune in at 10 a.m. on August 16 on your PC or Mac by using the player on the NYSAR Radio page. You will need to be logged in to listen. If you have not yet created your account with the website, you will need to click on "New User" on the Member Login page and follow the prompts. Find more information as well as a list of links to play NYSAR Radio from any of your mobile devices here.

"Belly-to-belly" are some of the wisest words ever spoken about real estate marketing, according to Staten Island Association of REALTORS President Claire Bisignano Chesnoff, broker/owner of Claire Properties. She says one of her most successful strategies for earning new business is farming neighborhoods. Learn more here.

The Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) course will be offered Aug. 17-18 at the Long Island REALTOR Service Center in Riverhead, NY. Learn to specialize in the 50+ real estate market by expanding your knowledge of: current lifestyle and housing trends; how life stages impact real estate choices; and how to develop a network of resources.

Register online today or call 800-239-4432 x219. Click here for more information.

The Pricing Strategies: Mastering the CMA course will be offered Sept. 1 at the Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS in White Plains, NY. This course is designed to help residential real estate agents and brokers enhance their skills in providing clients property pricing guidance, creating CMAs, working with appraisers, and educating clients on potential misconceptions about home values.

Register online today or call 800-239-4432 x219. Click here for more information.

NYSAR is pleased to announce that enrollment for dental and vision insurance is now available year-round. Through NYSAR Member Perks partner USI Affinity, you can access competitive, flexible coverage from MetLife. As one of the largest dental insurance providers in the country, MetLife is well positioned to offer NYSAR members a range of dental options, affordable rates and a large network of participating dentists. Key benefits of the NYSAR Dental Plan include: three plan choices to suit your needs and budget; competitively priced coverage with group rates; comprehensive, nationwide network of dentists; freedom to choose your dentist; and coverage for orthodontia.

Plus, you can also purchase vision coverage as a rider to your dental policy or as a standalone policy.For full plan details and rates, visit MyREALTORinsurance.com/NYSAR or call 888-834-3713 to speak with a benefits counselor.

NYSAR’s professional insurance broker, USI Affinity, has partnered with Long Term Care Resources to offer you the choice of three long-term care insurance carriers: Mutual of Omaha, John Hancock and Prudential. Not only do you have the choice of carriers, you also have the flexibility to choose from a variety of plan options to find the plan and pricing best suited to your needs. For more information or a customized quote, call Ned Cox, NYSAR’s dedicated sales representative, at 888-834-3713 or visit www.MyREALTORInsurance.com/nysar.

The August RPAC auction item is an Amazon Tap – a compact, portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled speaker that gives you rich, full-range sound. Just tap the microphone button and ask for music, hear news, search for information, order a pizza and more with the Alexa voice service. Visit the RPAC Facebook group to place a bid or contact Derick King at dking@nysar.com or 518-463-0300 x238. Bidding will be open until the close of business on Friday, Aug. 26.

Congratulations to the Adirondack Region for hosting another wildly successful RPAC Evening of the Arts fundraiser. The region raised nearly $11,000 for RPAC during an interactive Murder Mystery Dinner Theater in Saranac Lake. More than $23,000 has been raised for RPAC over the past three years of this annual event. Thank you to the members and leaders of the Adirondack Region boards of Clinton County, Northern Adirondack, Southern Adirondack and St. Lawrence for your outstanding support of RPAC.

Local board RPAC events have already raised more than $102,000 for RPAC so far this year. Thank you to those boards that have already stepped up and hosted an RPAC event. The Summer RPAC fundraising season remains hot! For a complete list of the summer RPAC events on the calendar, click here.