National Association

WICHITA, Kan. -- The National Association of Realtors expects a new move in Congress to wipe out the income-tax deduction for home-mortgage interest, the association's president says.Dorcas Helfant, the association's first female president, said last week that the nation's largest trade association is prepared to fight any attempt to eliminate or limit the federal deduction that for years has provided an impetus for home sales."We believe it's going to be under attack in the next Congress," she said at the convention of the Kansas Association of Realtors.

U.S. mortgage applications fell 1.2 percent last week, the fourth straight decline, as a measure of refinancing dropped to the lowest level in more than two years. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its gauge of loan demand fell to 624.6. The refinancing index decreased 6.6 percent to 1583.6, the lowest since the week ended May 24, 2002. Interest rates have risen almost a percentage point since early March, making it less profitable for homeowners to refinance existing mortgages. Refinancing has fallen 84 percent during the past year, removing a source of cash for homeowners.

Realtors' group names A. E. Davis vice presidentArthur E. Davis III, president of Chase, Fitzgerald & Co., a Baltimore real estate firm, has been installed as a 1996 regional vice president of the National Association of Realtors.A Realtor for 24 years, Mr. Davis will serve as the group's liaison for Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington. He is a past president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors and the Maryland Association of Realtors. Mr. Davis is a member of the NAR's executive committee.

For additional Baltimore convention information, call the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association at 659-7300 (local) or (800) 343-3468 (out of state).FEB. 11-16: Music Library Association at the Stouffer. Contact Edwin Quist, Peabody Conservatory of Music, 21 E. Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, Md. 21202. Expected attendance: 1,100.FEB. 19-23: American Craft Enterprises at the Convention Center. Contact Joann Brown, P.O. Box 10, 256 Main St., New Paltz, N.Y. 12561. Expected attendance: 25,000.

Realtors ask Dole, Clinton to give housing top priorityThe National Association of Realtors was among five trade associations that asked President Clinton and presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate Bob Dole to re-establish housing as a national priority recently."

Hatch is president of Residential Sales CouncilThe Residential Sales Council, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors, elected Ed Hatch president during its recent national convention in Chicago.Hatch is president of Ed Hatch Seminars of Greenbelt and a senior instructor for the council. He also teaches classes for the Maryland Graduate Realtors Institute.As president, Hatch is chairman of the RSC board of governors and executive committee. He also is a member of the Realtors National Marketing Institute board of directors.

WASHINGTON - One in five U.S. manufacturers expect to reduce spending on equipment and software this year, according to a survey released yesterday by the National Association of Manufacturers. The survey of the trade group's 79 boards of directors also showed that about 56 percent said they would boost their spending on new equipment by as much as 5 percent by year's end. One in eight say they will either eliminate jobs or keep payrolls the same through June, as factories reduce costs to shore up profits.

Tanya Corbin has worked at Hanscomb Inc. in Dallas for six years. She has risen through the ranks from administrative assistant to business manager of development for the Atlanta-based construction consultant. "I've had to work a lot harder and be persistent, but you can move up in this industry," Corbin said. From 1995 to 2000, the number of women in construction nationally rose 20 percent, from 762,000 to 913,000, according to the National Association of Women in Construction. Women made up about 10 percent of total construction workers in 2000.

For the sixth consecutive quarter, Kokomo, Ind., topped all metro areas as the most affordable housing market, according to the National Association of Home Builders' second-quarter 1998 Housing Opportunity Index.The index is a measure of the percentage of homes in a market that a family earning the median income in that market can afford to buy.Kokomo scored a 93.1, meaning a household earning the area's median income of $50,800 could afford to purchase 93.1 percent of the homes sold in the second quarter.