As part of the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report that is published every year during the first week of February, the research team wraps their four month study of the real estate industry by announcing the top 10 Newsmakers, Events and Trendsetters for the year.

The first list to be released is the Newsmakers. Newsmakers are defined as those people that during the year made headlines as individuals, as a result of their actions and leadership of the companies or associations they are involved with in the real estate industry.

The Top 10 Newsmakers in Real Estate for 2008 are:

1. William Foley ll
   
   As the founder and CEO of Fidelity National Financial (FNF), the country’s 2nd largest title company (probably by now the largest), Bill has made many bold moves during 2008 including the acquisition of four more title brands: Land America, Commonwealth, Lawyers and United. The FNF stable already operates the Fidelity Title, Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Title and Alamo title brands. FNF has also successfully created Cyberhomes as one of the most significant consumer facing portals in real estate.

2. Sheila Bair

   She was appointed as Chairman to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to serve a five-year term until June 2011. Bair spearheaded the administrations efforts to resolve many of the problems caused by the housing market, spoke out for homeowners, pushed for mass loan modifications and pressed lenders to modify the terms of troubled loans to prevent foreclosure.

3. Henry Paulsen & Ben Bernanke

   As Secretary of Treasury and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board these two men stepped into the leadership role of presiding over the government’s intervention into the nation’s financial crisis by creating the program that is the beginning of what will hopefully drive the U.S. economy through the recession. As 2008 was a political transition year their successors will continue the task and benefit from or be burdened with decisions already made.

4. Gary Keller

   As the driving force behind Keller Williams Realty and the author of five real estate books, Keller has been the visionary in growing KW into one of the largest and most recognizable real estate franchises in the country with over 75,000 associates and partners. Even during the last few tough years Keller Williams has bucked the trend and continued to grow. His new book “Shift” published in 2008 was also very timely.

5. Laurie Janik

   As General Counsel for the National Association of Realtors® Janik led the tireless battle against the Department of Justice resolving the litigation between them over the display of listings from the MLS on brokers' virtual office Web (VOW) sites, validating NAR's long-standing Internet data exchange (IDX) policy and strengthening the membership rules governing multiple listing services.

6. Kenneth Lewis

   As CEO of the Bank of America Lewis has built BofA into the number one bank in the U.S. as was highlighted in 2008 by the acquisitions of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide. Now the leader on almost every front in the financial world, Bank of America will be the single largest lender of mortgages and therefore a key contributor to the future growth of the housing market.

7. Saul Klein

   As president and co-founder of Internet Crusade Klein has been around a long time. However, his appointment as CEO of Point2 Technologies and the subsequent nationwide syndication of MLS information has launched him into the spotlight. Klein has also tirelessly promoted the e-Pro certification program and helped build the second largest real estate community – RealTown.

8. Charles McMillan

   The 2009 President of the National Association of REALTORS® is from Irving, Texas and is the Director of Realty Relations and Broker of Record for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Dallas-Fort Worth. McMillan is the first African American to serve as President in NAR’s 100 year history and is a strong proponent of “not standing still” but embracing change. Combined with the strong leadership from NAR CEO Dale Stinton, NAR could in 2009 lay the foundation for an exciting future.

9. Pete Flint & Sami Inkinen

   As founders of Trulia these two leaders, in spite of the current financial difficulties and the market downturn, continue to go against that flow and have raised funding in the amount of $33 million, which solidifies Trulia as a dotcom company that could survive the economic and/or Web 2.0 downturn to become one of the new paradigm companies to shape the future.

10. David Michonski

    As Chairman and CEO of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy in Manhattan, Michonski has during the last year become a national name with his timely television interviews in which he represents and discusses the real estate industry especially in the troubled economic time in which the industry finds itself. He was also founding president for the Manhattan Association of Realtors and the Manhattan Multiple Listing Service.

For more information on the 2009 edition of the Swanepoel TRENDS Report visit www.retrends.com.

How many of the names do you recognize? Any others you would have considered as a possible Newsmaker for 2008?