Earlier today I was chatting with a random stranger. Oddly enough the topic of real estate came up. Random stranger said he’d often pondered getting his real estate license.
I tried to wave the guy off, but he wouldn’t listen.
He asked me a question that I couldn’t answer”¦
How many Realtors are there per capita, and how does Arizona compare to other states?
I felt relatively confident in saying that Arizona was near the top (or bottom depending on your perspective) of the list of states with a high Realtor count. Lots of my real estatey friends across the country often seem surprised when we chat about how many agents are in our area. There are a LOT of real estate agents in Phoenix. You can’t swing a dead cat in this town without smacking an agent across the head. Seems everyone has a mother, brother, cousin or in-law that is licensed to sell real estate.
But I had no clue where Arizona actually stood when compared to other states. You know, empirically with data, not anecdotal evidence gleaned through some random conversation.
In a bizarre stroke of coincidence, today the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Monthly Membership Report for July 2010.
Put that data together with a little estimated population data from the Census Bureau, apply some higher math (division) and one can calculate the population per Realtor.
Why would anyone care?
Why. Would. Anyone. Care.
Well, you probably don’t. But I don’t care for being asked a question that I can’t answer. I took the NAR data from the top ten states by total Realtor count, and looked up those states total population. Turns out, Arizona ranks seventh overall in agent count. But take a gander where Arizona ranks in “Population per Agent”:
So there is one real estate agent for every 153 people living in Arizona. Sure, California has almost four times as many agents as Arizona, but they also have six times the population.
There you have it, another #1 ranking for Arizona real estate (at least among the top ten agent count states).
Incidentally for another bit of minutiae, the agent count dropped from July 2009 to July 2010 in 48 of 50 states. Only Massachusetts and North Dakota showed an increase in agent count over the past 12 months.
Bet ya didn’t know that!
Wheeee!
Photo credit: albany_tim on Flickr. CC License.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
How Many Realtors are Out There?: Earlier today I was chatting with a random stranger. Oddly enough the topic of r… http://bit.ly/bl0EFL
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How many Realtors are out there? New on TPREG: http://tpreg.com/bmTkcB
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This guy cares, I just googled "how many realtors are there in Los Angeles" for almost a half hour before landing back on your page. My local guy, right here. Righteous stuff. I can take my estimate out of how many there are in California all together from this post. This is what I was lookin for. Awesome brother!
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Jay,
Congrats on learning something new everyday :)~ you probably didn't get the answer that you truly wanted. But from what I can tell you enjoy competition and you've already cemented your Real Estate Company as a true force in the Phoenix Real Estate Market.
1 agent for 153 people is pretty disgusting. Makes being a top producer all that more impressive of a feat!
Interesting numbers from @PhxREguy http://t.co/zpv9sJC Thanks for doing the research and the math.
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Yeah but they only get the free dog if they qualify for a mortgage & plan to use a Realtor to buy a house. Soon.
Pretty interesting post Jay. I didn't realize AZ had so many real estate agents. California is definitely up there at the top. I thought it would have been at the top but looks like you have plenty of agents to go around in AZ. Perhaps we should all be working in Pennsylvania! 🙂
Alex Aguilar
Hi Jay,
I’m not going to complain anymore that we have too many realtors in Sweden. We have 6.380 realtors on a population of 9.360.000 people, it is 1.467 per agent. Nice figures.
So the REAL problem is a lack of population. That’s it! FREE Sonoran Hotdogs for all new-comers!!
Hey Jay,
Great stats, I used them in my Tallahassee Real Estate Blog this morning. I even created a real estate graph using your data, thanks!
You’ve confirmed what I have always suspected. There are more Realtors in Arizona than saguaros!
I'm down in Florida at the moment. They say if you get pulled over by a cop down here, they ask you for your Realtor license instead of your driver's license because there are so many agents down here. Sounds like CA has even more.
Impressive stats Jay. As a stats person I care even when I don't. (If you see what I mean).
Ha! This is great information. 🙂
Reading this on PhxREGuy.com: http://t.co/Nnz7cPf via @PhxREguy
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AZ is #1 on yet another list… RT @PhxREguy How many Realtors are out there? New on TPREG: http://tpreg.com/bmTkcB
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Do you know how many agents there are compared to people living in AZ? Article also gives current NAR statistics… http://fb.me/FxXmlMsl
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Looks like 58% of NAR is in the top ten states. Oklahoma has 1 agent per 253 people. But congrats to Arizona. As they said in that awful movie Highlander, There can be only one!
This is totally off topic, but just imagine how much NAR makes yearly off of dues! With that being said, i had no idea there is this many realtors in Texas. Granted, it is a pretty big state! 1 per 300+…. i should have more clients! Thanks for these stats.
Firstly, why does tabbing in this comment field take me to the contact widget in the sidebar? (Firefox)
Secondly, is NAR counting only members of NAR or are they counting all licensed agents?
Jon – I thought I had that tabbing problem fixed. Apparently not.
The numbers from NAR are for Realtors only — NAR members.
I feel that we are the same way in TX with everyone in the state knowing a real estate agent or even just someone involved in the business.
I would have expected to see more in Texas. And – how can so many REALTORS survive in the Florida and California markets given the markets in those states.
I work within the Spanish real estate industry, focusing on luxury property within the Marbella area. Over the last 4 years there were literally hundreds of estate agencies that closed their doors. So for us the answer is far less than there used to be!
Jay,
Interesting… I wrote about this almost exactly 2 years ago in a blog post called "Everyone and their Cousin is a REALTOR? Is That Really True? It Might be in Some States." Though the numbers have changed a little bit, the rankings have not really changed much at all.
Back then, Arizona had 1 REALTOR per 131 residents (note: I hesitate to say citizens…) and was the Most Competitive state for real estate agents using this ranking.
Virginia had 1 REALTOR per 213 residents at that time, slightly more competitive than the current 247.
At the time I did the analysis, West Virginia was the least competitive state for agents with 1 REALTOR per 547 residents.
It is the same way here in Tampa. It seems like every other person you run into has something to do with real estate in some way or another, most being Realtors.
Wow, surprising that Hawaii doesn't rank higher (specially as all boards require membership to NAR). In Maui it's 1 Realtor per 100 residents (give or take a couple). Thanks for the info, Jay.
This is based on total population. What is always more interesting (and telling) is agents per adult (over 18). Last time I saw the figure for CA, it was one in 53. Yikes!
I may be mistaken I believe at one time there 1 agent in 65 people in California. There of course has been a big drop in recent years.
Hi Jay
Interesting. I knew we had come down a lot but its good to know a dead cat can still nail a few Realtors in the head if you swing it around a bit. I guess the real question is, how many of those Realtors actually make a living at their "chosen" profession. I have met a few Arizona Realtors who have told me they only winter here. Which is interesting. I wonder how many of those Realtors live out of state.
Marc
How many Realtors are out there? http://bit.ly/9M9YEC (Via @PhxREGuy )
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The real question is how the all the realtors earn a living, considering that they almost seem to outnumber the buyers. Thanks for posting, I always laugh while reading your blog. Keep up the good work!
How many of those agents are actively selling real estate?
Just How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? (Phoenix Real Estate Guy) http://dld.bz/ue6H
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Wow, Arizona has a lot of realtors! I wonder how many of them are selling right now…yeesh…
Before reading all the data I thought for sure California and Florida would be number one in per capita. I'm also careful about swinging dead cats because I did that once and hit a lawyer. 🙂
Yikes, 301 per in Texas. I guess we like to say it should be harder to get a license. Really it should. More proof of competence, especially with numbers.
Maybe we should all move to Sweden and mess up their stats a bit. Which begs the question – why so few in Sweden? Less $$$ to be made, or harder to get licensed?
How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? — The Phoenix Real Estate Guy http://bit.ly/9dvJt2
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Holy cow Batman! I thought we had too many agents in Texas but 150 people per agent is crazy. They must hand out real estate licenses with high school diplomas on graduation day. Makes me feel better about the 9,000 Realtors (not counting agents who aren't realtors) we have in the Austin area alone. Now when I'm thinking about how competitive my market is I can say to myself "Hey, at least I don't work in Phoenix!".
I don't have a huge personal network of Realtors, but come to think of it quite a few of the ones I DO have are in Arizona. That's interesting. I'd be curious to see how those numbers change over the next few years!
These are very interesting statistics. It was 90,000 just a few years ago, it is amazing to see that we have lost about half of the Realtors since that time.
I like how you mentioned multiple states that shows how many people there are per agent. I'm in California, so there's 224. That doesn't seem that bad. I would like to interject that I believe the Department of Real Estate should make getting a license just a tad harder because many people become agents and don't use the license until they trip over a deal–like maybe their mom or sister wants to sell their house and they suddenly have a listing. I have even heard of people getting their license just so they can list their own house, or to collect the commission when they buy. If you think about it, it starts to make a lot of sense why they would do that. I know it might sound just a bit fussy and I apologize if it seems that way. However, I think real estate should be left to the serious agents who are going to work full time in the profession. Real estate should not be a part time hobby.
I've seen mortgage rates dropping.
That is really good news in this economy.
Great post Jay. I actually did a graph of US Residents/Realtor for a blog post at the end of last year, showing just how bloated our ranks had become during the boom. The ranks are thinning, but nowhere near as quickly as the market has corrected. Gotta update my chart for 2010, but check it out here:
http://blog.findwell.com/real-estate-industry/the…
Those stats are pretty funny.
Interesting! It begs the question "do more real estate transactions per capita happen in AZ than other states?" Considering the transitory nature of a vacation/retirement state like beautiful AZ, I would assume people are moving more often and Realtors have more work to do!
i also agree with you that it’s arizona was near the top of the list of states with a high Realtor countwas near the top of the list of states with a high Realtor count