1996 General Overview
Bill Clinton becomes the first Democratic politician since FDR to serve a second term as US President, while in Great Britain the Royal family is forever changed when Prince Charles divorces Princess Diana. On July 17th TWA flight 800, bound for Paris from New York, crashes, driving 1996 to a record year with 1,187 passengers killed on commercial flights, 200% more than the previous year. A bomb also explodes during the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
The box-office success of Independence Day validates the theory that the larger the budget, the larger the box office take. Quake and Doom spawn a new era of generation of computer games, allowing users to add more levels of difficulty, thereby creating games that are now almost impossible to master, and World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov defeats Deep Blue, the most advanced chess computer in the world.
Real Estate Overview
As national franchisees enjoy a-merry-go-round ride, the largely ignored acquisition of C21 by HFS the previous year is followed by the acquisition of ERA, Coldwell Banker and PHH. An unsettling fear begins to set in. A name change to Cendant (NYSE:CD) and a move of corporate offices to unknown Parsippany, New Jersey soon follows.
Meanwhile, another real estate baby, unknown to most, was founded in Ontario, Canada by Steve Morris. Previously a large RE/MAX franchise, Morris decides to create a new residual program to provide retirement benefits to agents, and christens the company EXIT Realty. In the short span of 4 years, the company enters the US market, and by 2005 hits the top 10 list of the largest real estate franchises in Northern America. Like RE/MAX, it appears that EXIT is ordained to re-engineer the real estate broker/agent relationship for many years to come.
