Jason Haber

Where other brokers push dollar amounts, Haber pushes talking points.

Haber, who had quietly worked as a Compass agent in the city for years, rose to prominence pushing for change at the National Association of Realtors, sparked by a petition calling for then-NAR president Kenny Parcell to step down in the summer of 2023. 

Days later, Parcell was out and Haber’s second act as a cage-rattling change agent had commenced. Less than a year later, Haber partnered with celebrity broker Mauricio Umansky to launch the American Real Estate Association, a trade group with aspirations to rival the fading authority of NAR.

Haber, who launched an unsuccessful bid for New York City Council when he was 23, has become known more for his activism than dealmaking. 

He’s taken his voice to the local stage. While fighting vociferously against Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, he made appearances everywhere from Pix11 to the New Yorker.   

Haber has also been a frequent critic of the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act and other city policies he deemed harmful to the real estate community. As those battles have slowly resolved — often not in Haber’s favor — there’s a question of where he goes next. 

On a recent real estate panel, fellow broker Ryan Serhant had one suggestion: “One day he will be mayor, and we will all vote for him.”