The Orange County Realty Board was organized in 1939. The first president of the newly formed organization was Augustus C. Wallace. The membership of the organization consisted of brokers whose offices were located primarily in the central, southern and western part of Orange County. Although there is no record as to the date of its organization, the Newburgh Real Estate Board, whose membership consisted of brokers with offices in the eastern part of Orange County operated at about the same time as the Orange County Realty Board. In 1946, the Orange County Realty Board became a member of NAREB, which later became the National Association of Realtors®. In 1953, the Newburgh Real Estate Board also became a NAREB member.
In 1966, both organizations changed their names, becoming the Orange County Board of Realtors® and the Newburgh Board of Realtors®. In 1967, the Newburgh Board of Realtors® voted to merge with the Orange County Board of Realtors®; this merger had been previously approved by the Orange County Board.
Several multiple listing services continued to operate in the county after the Orange County and Newburgh boards merged. There existed a Newburgh Multiple Listing Service, a Middletown MLS, and an Orange County Multi-List that was affiliated with the Orange County Board. In 1975, the Orange County Board formed a stock corporation called the Orange County Multiple Listing Service, Inc. All three existing MLSs were absorbed into this corporation. In 1997, the name of the corporation was changed to the Greater Hudson Valley MLS, Inc., and remains a fully owned subsidiary corporation of the Orange County Association of Realtors®.
In the early 1990's, the Orange County association formally changed its name from the Orange County Board of Realtors® to the Orange County Association of Realtors®.
In 2004, the Association began including member education in the dues; this proved to be a very successful program.
In 2005, the Association began seeking a business-planning partner and in the late part of that year, OCAR selected RECON for the mission critical endeavor.
In 2006, OCAR began a business planning process resulting preliminarily in our current strategic business plan, with implementation work to follow.
OCAR: A Present Day Profile
The organization is currently comprised of a non-profit entity (the Association) and a for-profit entity (the MLS). As of December 2005, the Association served 2800 members working in 404 firms. Of these approximately 2350 were licensed agents, and approximately 400 were licensed broker owners/managers. In 2005, OCAR members produced sales in the residential and commercial sector totaling nearly $1.660 billion.
Contact Information
Our address, mailing, phone and fax information
Staff Directory
Complete staff directory
Leadership Directory
OCAR Board of Directors
OCAR Offices and Members
Search for OCAR members and Offices
Map Directions
Map Location link and driving directions
Volunteering
If you would like to have a more active role as a member of OCAR, here is a detailed list of committees with their functions and their descriptions as well as a committee appointment request.