By Dave Gatton
March 28, 2005

The National Association of Realtors and The United States Conference of Mayors announced February 17 that they have designated the city of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Board of Realtors a 2005 Ambassador City under the organizations- Ambassadors for Cities Program.

The National Association of Realtors and the Conference of Mayors, through its Council on the New American City, launched the Ambassadors for Cities Program in 2004 to encourage cities and local Realtor associations to form partnerships to promote home ownership and affordable housing in their communities.

Cincinnati received the designation because of its own innovative Ambassadors program, which the city and the Cincinnati Board of Realtors began in 1998. Through this program, approximately 50 Realtors are selected to promote housing opportunities throughout the city's neighborhoods. In addition, the city and the local board hold an innovative road rally in the fall of each year to promote home ownership opportunities in the city's neighborhoods and to raise funds for a local down payment assistance program that helps first-time home buyers purchase a home.

Jeoff Barnes, President of the Cincinnati board, announced that the Ambassadors program would double its fundraising goal to $100,000 for the 2005 down payment assistance program. Steve Yandell, a new professor at Xavier University and fresh out of graduate school, used the down payment assistance program to purchase a house in the city. "The program was a real incentive for me to look at buying my first home in the city of Cincinnati," he said.

Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, speaking in city council chambers to packed audience of realtors and housing groups said, "This is how we come together to promote the city. Realtors truly are ambassadors to potential new home buyers. Our partnership is making a real difference in the lives of real people who need just a little help town their first home."

"The Ambassadors for Cities program helps expand the relationship between mayors and the people who frequently introduce people to communities — Realtors," said NAR President Al Mansell, CEO of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Salt Lake City.