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The 2026 President of the San Mateo County Association of REALTORS® (SAMCAR), Linda Crose-Andersen, and Board of Directors were ceremonially sworn into their term by Installation Officer, 2026 California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.) President Tamara Suminski, at SAMCAR's 2026 Installation on Friday, February 6, 2026 at the Oceano Hotel in Half Moon Bay. Also honored were SAMCAR's Past Presidents, Outgoing Directors and Committee Chairs, and award winners for 2025 REALTOR® of the Year, Affiliate of the Year, Community Service, and Homeowner Hero Awards.

The San Francisco Association of REALTORS® (SFAR) is mobilizing Realtors and their clients to push for major changes and paused implementation of the SF Fire Sprinkler Retrofit mandate. SFAR has put together a petition for Realtors and their clients to sign asking the Mayor and Board of Supervisors to form a Technical Advisory Committee of experts to review the feasibility of the mandate, recommend major changes and exemptions, and to stop implementation and enforcement until the committee has released its findings.

It is with sadness that we inform our members that Joan Ryan has passed away. Ryan was the first executive officer of the San Mateo County Association of REALTORS® (SAMCAR) after the merger of four local boards in 1995. She led the association until 1998 upon her retirement. Prior to her role as SAMCAR CEO, she was the executive of the former North Board from 1981 until the formation of SAMCAR.

The monthly San Mateo County home sales reports and infographic for JANUARY 2026, with data from MLSListings, Inc., are now available for you to share on your social media, e-mail and other marketing.

It is with sadness that we inform our members that Susan Wang has passed away. She joined the association on 01/25/88 and was with the Coldwell Banker San Carlos and San Mateo offices. SAMCAR was notified of Susan's passing by her brokerage. A celebration of life will be held on Friday, February 20 at 3 PM at the San Mateo Buddhist Temple on S Claremont.

MLSListings offers daily training webinars as well as an on-demand video library posted on YouTube. Read more for the schedule of MLSListings upcoming online training webinars.

It is with sadness that we inform our members that Eddie Chow passed away in April 2025. He joined the association on 01/08/76 and was the Broker of Ed Chow & Company. SAMCAR was notified of Eddie's passing by his family.

San Mateo County home sales reports and infographics (with data from MLSListings, Inc.) for all of 2025 are available for you to share on your social media, e-mail and other marketing (remember to use the hashtag #SAMCARStats when sharing on social media).

On Wednesday, January 7, 2026, President Trump shared via a Truth Social post that his administration is "taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes" and "will be calling on Congress to codify it". The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) to issued a statement from Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn, sharing that NAR "is encouraged that the administration and members of Congress are focused on addressing the nation's housing affordability and supply crises. We share the goal of ensuring there are enough places for people to live and of expanding access to homeownership—especially for first-time buyers—and ensuring that housing policy strengthens communities rather than limiting opportunity." Read more for additional data and reporting on the impact of institutional buyers on the housing market.

The quarterly San Mateo County home sales reports and infographic for FOURTH QUARTER (Q4) 2025, with data from MLSListings, Inc., are now available for you to share on your social media, e-mail and other marketing.

On Tuesday, January 6, 2026, C.A.R. Chief Economist Jordan Levine shared a California Housing Market Update presentation at the SAMCAR Marketing Meeting on Zoom. Read more to download the slide presentation.

On Wednesday, December 17, 2025 SAMCAR members from the Peninsula, Coastside, and Pacifica Government Affairs Committee gathered at the SAMCAR office for a special holiday luncheon to celebrate accomplishments addressing advocacy issues throughout the year. Lee Ginsburg (Intero Real Estate), Frank Vella (Starboard Commercial Real Estate), and Judy Taylor (Compass) were honored as the 2025 SAMCAR Government Affairs Champions for their dedication to advancing private property rights and advocating politically on behalf of Realtors and housing providers in San Mateo County.

"As the year comes to a close, I want to take an opportunity to thank you all for putting your trust in me to lead SAMCAR in 2025. We share some remarkable achievements this year thanks to our collective efforts..." (Read more for a special farewell message from 2025 SAMCAR President Frank Vella, including key highlights from this year at SAMCAR.)

In 2025, the SAMCAR Foundation awarded more than $36,000 in grants and donations to a dozen charities in San Mateo County thanks in large part to the generous support of SAMCAR members and sponsors. Read more for a detailed report of 2025 charitable giving.

On Tuesday, December 9, the SAMCAR Foundation Council, Marketing Meetings and Special Events Committees hosted the fifth annual "Judy Ploshay Memorial Holiday Auction" at the Monterra Credit Union corporate headquarters in Redwood City, treating guests to breakfast sponsored by Janet Pepe Davis, and lively bidding with auctioneer Alan Kirth for a chance to take home auction items donated by SAMCAR members and local businesses, and support several beneficiary charities. The auction raised over thirteen thousand dollars in total for several beneficiary charities: Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room, Coastside Hope, Pacifica Resource Center, San Carlos Education Foundation, SchoolForce Belmont-Redwood Shores Public School Foundation.

The SAMCAR Board of Directors adopted the 2026-2028 Strategic Plan at their November 2025 meeting, subsequent to a Strategic Planning retreat in October 2025. The three-year plan focuses on strategic initiatives that broadly align with key priorities: direct engagement (the "go to the people" initiatives), thought leadership (competence and content strategy), and procedural integrity (evaluating, rationalizing and documenting). Read more to view the entire plan and track progress.

The SAMCAR office will be closed and staff will be offline on the following holidays in 2026. When the holiday falls on a Monday, the Tour Sheet deadline is 12 PM on the prior Friday.

On Monday, November 17, 2025, the San Mateo City Council voted to pass two local ordinances dealing with policies extending state law provisions to include relocation assistance for no-fault evictions for tenants with a tenure of less than a year from 12 months to 11 months and adhere to requirements for property owners to notify tenants displaced due to substantial rehabilitation when the new or substantially remodeled unit becomes available. Thank you to all the SAMCAR members who made your voices heard, calling on the council to direct staff to focus instead on building on the successful emergency rental assistance program, align ordinances to what is already found in State law, increase housing supply, tackle restrictive permitting, and educate both renters and housing providers on the numerous resources available in the community.

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 18) – The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) has installed its 2026 Leadership Team. C.A.R. President Tamara Suminski, a Southern California real estate broker, will lead the team. Serving with Suminski are President-elect Mark Peterson, Treasurer Nikki Coppa and Chief Executive Officer Phil Hawkins. The 2026 officers begin their official term this week at the close of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®' (NAR) Conference and Expo held in Houston, Texas. (Read the full press release on the C.A.R. website.)

On Thursday, November 13, volunteers from SAMCAR's Young Professionals Network, SAMCAR YPN, visited Samaritan House to help package food items for distribution to our neighbors in need.
Volunteers carefully sorted and assembled over 180 packages of nutritious produce and protein designed to provide complete, healthy meals for local families facing food insecurity. We extend our sincere gratitude to Samaritan House for organizing this essential distribution and for providing the opportunity to partner in their mission.

Using the same password across multiple accounts is like using one key for your house, car, and office. Convenient? Yes. Safe? Absolutely not. Using a unique password for each of your online accounts is a simple fix that can protect you and your business. MLSListings put together a quick video that shows how this works and why it matters -- watch here: www.youtu.be/eYXfg1JzY2c

Voting 4-2 with one council member absent, the Redwood City Council on Monday, October 13, 2025, acted in favor of adding three new provisions to the Anti-Displacement Program. Both SAMCAR and the California Apartment Association (CAA) argued against the ordinance, which now includes up to four months of relocation assistance (dismissing state law's one month requirement), expands the property eligibility assistance from five units to two units or more (going after small mom and pop housing providers), minimum lease terms, and providing tenants with the right to return after a substantial remodel at the federal Fair Market Rate (not at previous rent).

On Thursday, October 9, 2025 the San Mateo County REALTORS® Foundation gathered dozens of local real estate professionals at Topgolf in Burlingame for TEE UP FOR CHARITY, a fundraiser event raising more than $5,400 to benefit housing-related charities in San Mateo County.

BroadwaySF is offering SAMCAR members a special discount code for their 2025 Season with shows including SHUCKED, SUFFS, STEREOPHONIC, MOULIN ROUGE!, THE BOOK OF MORMON, THE NOTEBOOK: THE MUSICAL, and more!