Every year at their legislative meetings, the National Association of Realtors sends members and government affairs directors to meet with their representatives on the Hill to lobby for change, usually with a list of talking points that are important on a national level. But Chicagoland real estate professionals were on hand to bring local issues to to fore as well. Find out what topped the issue lists.

Nationally, existing-home sales finished the month of April some 0.4 percent below last month’s rate and 4.4 percent lower than April 2018. But those same figures looked brighter when researchers zeroed in on Chicagoland.

NAR announces President Trump will address Midyear attendees this Friday, RE/MAX breaks their agreement with Redfin, Zillow doubles down on iBuying and more in our national news roundup.

Redfin Direct has been in testing phases in the Boston market since March, and its next market is expected to be Virginia. The new program provides a way for unrepresented buyers to have a seat at the negotiating table without an agent occupying the one next to them.

While it may be natural to assume sellers are stressing about duties that tend to fall outside of the bounds of agents and brokers, such as mortgages or moving, the survey also showed that the item at the top of the list of most respondents’ lists of concerns was getting a home ready to sell.

In national real estate news, we have the first indication that home price increases have hit negative territory, economists disagreeing about why that might be and a new hire at NAR.

Using these two sets of data released Tuesday, the market’s outlook for the next few months seems to be good, since pending home sales have been increasing and home price growth has been decreasing.

Mark Calabria discusses his plans for mortgage market, new-home sales pick up steam, millennials place homeownership above marriage and more in this week’s roundup.

To be launched in May in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, the company hopes to expand the iBuyer program to six to eight “major markets by the end of 2019,” and plans to “deploy $100 million through Keller Offers” over the course of the year.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University recently analyzed the decline in U.S. mobility to determine possible reasons for the steady downturn in residential migration. It turns out everything from “house passion” to zoning laws to multi-generational housing could be to blame.

Although disappointing on its face, the news that sales activity declined in March compared to an unusually strong February wasn’t a shock to housing market experts.

Updates on Opportunity Zone rules, tax breaks The Treasury Department released a document April 17 offering the first detailed look into regulations it is proposing around the new Opportunity Zones program. Announced as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts

Researchers warn recent measures of the first-time buyer population may not be accurate, noting that estimates from the National Association of Realtors “reflect a relatively small sample of housing transactions and therefore may not be representative of the overall market.”

New trends emerge every year, and the start of the spring selling season is a great time to take stock of what will be in demand this year. Here are a few things that today’s high-end buyers are looking for.

NAR’s Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report is full of facts and figures, but we’ve focused on a topic that may be especially close to the hearts of agents: what buyers from these various generations think of you.

In the decade following the housing crisis, Hispanic and Latino populations accounted for the majority of growth in the U.S. homeownership rate, according to a recent report from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. The 2018 “State