Newcomers to the real estate business are joining the REALTOR® family in droves. The number of REALTORS® rose from 1.22 million in March 2017 to 1.3 million in April 2018, according to the 2018 National Association of REALTORS® Member Profile, released Thursday. There are more rookies hopping on the bandwagon too: 29 percent of members now have less than two years of experience. (Members of NAR account for about half of all active real estate licensees in the U.S.)
“While inventory shortages continue and home prices remain high, NAR has seen a whopping 6 percent increase in membership over the last year,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Younger Americans are seeking business opportunities that working in real estate provides, but the overall trend is a slightly older age profile.”
The median age of a REALTOR® is 54, up slightly from the last two years when the age was 53. Sixty-three percent of REALTORS® are female. Many REALTORS® came to the industry from different careers. Only 5 percent of REALTORS® report that real estate was their first career. The most common first careers reported are in management, business and finance, or sales and retail.
As housing shortages abound and more REALTORS® enter the industry, the typical number of transactions among agents decreased slightly from 12 transactions in 2016 to 11 transactions in 2017. The median brokerage sales volume fell to $1.8 million in 2017 (from $1.9 million in 2016).
“A familiar story lingers from last year, as limited inventory continues to plague many housing markets across the country,” Yun notes. “For the fifth year in a row, the difficulty finding the right property has surpassed the difficulty in obtaining a mortgage as the most cited reason limiting potential home buyers.”
