Membership in the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) increased to a record number of +1.6M, as of February 2022.
More Real Estate Professionals Than Ever Before
In the past five years, membership ranks in the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), one of the country’s largest trade associations, grew from 1,359,208 in 2018 to 1,559,537 at the end of 2021. No exact figures were available as of February 2022, but estimates are over 1.6M.
Much of NAR’s membership growth has come over the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 in which, according to NAR, more than 156,000 people joined the association’s ranks in 2021 and 2020 combined, a jump of nearly +60% compared to the two years prior.
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At a time in which nearly every other industry has struggled with hiring, more and more people are pursuing real estate as a way to cash in on a booming housing market. Lawrence Yun, chief economist with NAR, said, “…when there’s a worker shortage everywhere it seems, there’s almost a surplus of people coming to real estate. What’s amazing is we keep hitting new high after new high.”
Where Are People Getting Real Estate Licenses?
The top job-related Google search between January 2021 and January 2022 was “how to become a real estate agent.” On top of the numbers listed below, many more people will likely join the ranks of real estate agents going forward into 2022.
According to NAR, a record number of real estate licenses were issued between January 2021 and January 2022.
States with Greatest Change in Number of Agents
State Agents in 1/22 Agents in 1/221 Change
- Georgia 45,916 41,894 +9.8%
- Texas 145,228 133,132 +9.0%
- Florida 210,106 194,843 +7.8%
- Arkansas 10,251 9,520 +7.7%
- Wyoming 2,472 2,296 +7.7%
- Alabama 17,618 16,365 +7.7%
- Montana 8,596 5,199 +7.6%
- Missouri 25,377 23,586 +7.6%
- Oklahoma 13,052 12,133 +7.6%
- Nevada 20,231 18,912 +7.0%
States with Smallest Change in Number of Agents
- Washington 23,013 22,379 +2.8%
- Nebraska 5,313 5,176 +2.7%
- Iowa 7,974 7,771 +2.6%
- Kansas 10,177 9,943 +2.4%
- New York 62,403 60,993 +2.3%
- Maryland 27,145 26,591 +2.1%
- Arizona 53,525 52,647 +1.7%
- Minnesota 21,777 21,430 +1.6%
- Massachusetts 25,949 25,738 +.8%
- Washington DC 2,862 3,042 -5.9%
Record-High Home Prices Are Attraction to Real Estate Industry
In a commission-based industry in which agents get paid a 2-3% commission on the price of a home, record home prices are the lure of real estate to burned-out pandemic workers and teachers, laid off-sales executives and hospitality-leisure workers. Currently, the median home now sells for $408,000, a record-high according to NAR.
Two things these newly enthusiastic real estate agents may not know:
- there are now more real estate agents than there are for-sale homes (approximately 850,000 homes currently on the market)
- as much as half of an agent’s 2 – 3% commission on a closed sale can go to their brokerage firm and to pay for marketing expenses incurred by that agent to get that home sold.
Are All Real Estate Agents Earning a Living as Real Estate Agents?
Ken H. Johnson, a professor specializing in real estate economics at Florida Atlantic University, was a real estate agent himself for 12 years before he transitioned to academia, estimates that one in 10 agents are able to survive long enough to make a full-time living selling houses. Johnson said, “It’s a really empowering feeling to be your own boss. but it’s usually around a year where you look around and realize, ‘I can’t do this.'”
Despite real estate offering a low barrier to entry with training typically taking two or three months and just a couple of hundred dollars, the cost of doing business via brokerage and multiple listing service fees run several thousand dollars more.
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Thanks to the National Association of REALTORS® and The New York Times.
