Romney is a favorite among local real estate agents and brokers. A big favorite.

The former governor, our best known prodigal son, gets nearly 70 percent of the real estate vote here in Massachusetts, HomeGain reports.

Not bad for a guy who has spent the last several years trashing our great state as some sort of liberal madhouse.

Here's an excerpt from my weekly Banker & Tradesman column, where I covered the poll results in detail.

It's a rather rich reward for Massachusetts' most prominent prodigal son. Romney turned a blind eye to the housing bubble during his time as governor and has spent the years since building his political career by tearing down the state that launched him onto the national stage.

Amazingly, our Realtors are even more staunchly pro-Romney than their counterparts across the country, red states and all - and that's saying a lot given how conservative a bunch the men and women who sell homes for a living are.

Romney wins only 57 percent of the vote in HomeGain's national poll, with Ron Paul taking 12 percent and Obama 31 percent. In a sign that our local Realtors haven't lost all sense, in the Massachusetts poll, Paul got a big fat zero.

By contrast, President Obama appears universally disliked in real estate sales offices across the Bay State.

In a mirror image of the Romney numbers, 70 percent of local real estate folks tallied say they "strongly disapprove" of his performance. The president's fan club is miniscule, with only 10 percent saying they "strongly approve" of his performance.

So is this fair?

While Obama has certainly done his share to mess up the real estate market, Romney did little to grapple with skyrocketing prices and looming foreclosures during his one term as governor.