Attendees at NXT 2025 in Houston, Texas, had the opportunity to attend a live taping of NAR’s Advocacy Scoop podcast, hosted by NAR Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn and Vice President of Advocacy Communications and Outreach Patrick Newton.
The podcast episode, recorded Thursday afternoon at NAR NXT: The REALTOR® Experience, comes on the heels of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, as well as the November elections.
McGahn and Newton opened the show discussing the government shutdown and NAR’s advocacy efforts to end it. “We were one of the first, and I would argue the most effective, advocacy organizations reaching out to Congress, communicating the urgency and the impact on housing and the economy,” said McGahn.
Throughout the shutdown, NAR communicated stories from NAR members directly to Congress to illustrate the impact the extended shutdown was having on the economy and families across the country.
NAR Advocacy reached out to all 535 members of Congress, sharing letters, economic impact data and firsthand accounts from REALTORS® nationwide that illustrated how the shutdown was affecting home sales, closings and insurance renewals. NAR’s Washington team also held more than 80 high-level meetings on Capitol Hill during the shutdown with congressional leaders and key committee chairs.
McGahn and Newton highlighted some of the electoral wins NAR was involved in for the 2025 election cycle through its state and local issues mobilization program and independent expenditures. Funds for those programs are used for advertising or organizing in support of a candidate but are not coordinated with the candidate’s campaign.
Those wins included over a dozen ballot measures, multiple property tax relief measures, as well as several key mayoral races across the country.
“We’re not letting our guard down and we’re preparing for 2026,” said Newton, looking ahead to the upcoming federal election cycle.
Closing out the taping, McGahn and Newton delved into recent NAR research showing that the average age of a first-time home buyer has reached a new high of 40 years old, and what NAR is doing to bring that number down.
Following the podcast taping, Collin Allen of the American Property Owners Alliance took the stage to discuss how NAR supports APOA’s work in advocating for property owners.
“We are based in Washington, D.C., and launched over five years ago in 2020,” said Allen. “We’re a non-profit, nonpartisan organization … and our focus is on protecting property rights and expanding opportunities for homeownership. Very simply, we are involved in the issues that matter most.”
While on stage, Allen launched APOA’s new “Your Alliance” campaign. The campaign aims to build consumer awareness of APOA’s work on behalf of property owners and the housing economy. Part of the campaign will be the “Unlocking Opportunity Tour,” a multicity tour where, as Allen puts it, APOA will “lead discussions about housing issues, homeownership and building wealth to pass on to future generations.”
The Advocacy Scoop podcast is a monthly podcast released by NAR’s Advocacy Group that shines a light on the ongoing advocacy work of NAR to support the real estate economy and homeownership across the country.
Previously recorded episodes of the Advocacy Scoop can be found here.
