120 licensed Washoe County real estate agents and brokers have left the business since January of this year, according to the latest numbers released by Nevada’s Real Estate Division. Today’s 2,984 Active licensees for Washoe County represent almost a 4% decrease from January’s 3,104 licensees; and a 7.4% decrease from June 2007’s 3,221 licensees.
However, the rate of attrition for real estate agents and brokers in Washoe County is less than that for the state as a whole. In June 2007, 28,763 Nevada real estate agents held active licenses. Today there are 25,986; a decrease of 9%.
See all the numbers here.
15 comments
Thanks for this interesting post.
I know there are about 50,000 approved but unbuilt units in Washoe County, but do you have information on the number of unoccupied units currently on the market?
I suspect the people that most people hanging it up where not the professionals.
I can only wonder the number of construction jobs which have been lost. I suspect that that loss would make the decrease in real estate agents look small.
Bob,
As of this morning, in Reno-Sparks, there are 4,605 residential properties listed on our MLS as active. Of those:
2,330 (50.6%) are listed as “owner occupied”;
1,894 (41.1%) are listed as “vacant”;
378 (8.2%) are listed as “tenant occupied”;
2 are listed as “under construction” [Note: I believe this “under construction” field is a brand new field to our MLS; hence the low number.]
Hope this helps.
Bob, that 40% vacant number has been holding for quite a time now. We had a big discussion about this about a year ago on the blog, after Guy went showing houses one weekend and observed that many of them were vacant. In some neighborhoods, I believe the number is closer to 50% of the listings are vacant. I would think that the increasing number of foreclsoures would add to the number of vacant listings, but that 40% or so seems to be holding steady.
If the remaining agents and brokers listen to Brian Kaiser of the Center for Regional Studies, they’ll hang on. He’s quoted today as saying “the worst days are behind us.” Oh, yeah, and the Wayne Capurro quote is “we’re bouncing along at the bottom.” Now we know.
I’d be interested in this crowd’s analysis of the 95.3% month-to-month increase in condo sales.
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080625/BIZ/806250418/1071
Surely there has not been almost 3,000 agents even coming close to making a living selling real estate in Reno over the past 3 years. I suspect that most of those 3,000 or so are “active” only in the sense that they pay their dues and no more. I’d be surprised if there were more than 800 agents who are “actively” engaged in the business in any meaningful way. And even then, when you think about 800 agents chasing after 350 deals a month and the median sales price now at about $250K, it gets rather ugly. Thinking about 3000 agents chasing 350 deals is ludicrous.
As for the contining 40% of listings being vacant, I continue to suggest that this is further evidence of the overbuilding that occured here during the bubble. Way too many houses got built that nobody ever intended to move into. Remember when the school district vastly overestimated the number of projected kids based on housing sales, and then had to lay off teachers and staff when those kids never showed up. When 40% of all houses for sale are vacant, something has gone wrong. This is just one more consequence of the bubble.
Every month, Mr. Capurro calls the bottom. I’m not exaggerating. You can go back through the last year of RGJ articles on the housing market, and every month Mr. Capurro has called the bottom. It would be interesting if a RGJ “reporter” would stop to think long enough and ask Mr.Capurro why he has been, obvioulsy, wrong for the past year. But that would be way too much to ask from the RGJ. At the RGJ, happy days for the housing market are always just around the corner.
To Marla,
You wouldn’t want the RGJ to lose (more) advertising revenue by telling the truth about the real estate industry, would you?
The bottom is looking more like a trough we’re being dragged through than a point we’re moving up from.
Hello Guy,
Can you please tell us of the 4,605 residential properties listed on the MLS how many are bank owned or short sales?
Ditto on what Marla said, and I’d go even further to add Brian Kaiser to the long list of idiots who have been consistently wrong for the last several years when it comes to home prices and the overall state and health of the market.
If anyone would go back and look at Brian Kaiser’s “forecasts” and annoying utterances, they would find he’s an empty suit. I got into it with that shill on the RGJ site a few years back, and he’s eating his words. How must it feel to fail so miserably over and over again?
GrayGeekNV,
Amazingly (or not), since this morning, the number of listings has increased to 4,628. Anyway, in answer to your question, of these:
- bank-owned listings is 544 (or 11.7%);
- short-sale listings is 888 (or 19.2%).
Gray, I believe that either Guy or GreenNV has told us that short sales and REOs make up about 30% of MLS listings. But they comprise about 75% of all sales. And since most short sales and REO properties are, at least as of now, in the lower price ranges, that’s why 70% of all sales are now under $300K.
RE: Brian Kaiser of the Center for Regional Studies
Can someone please explain how, in this market,
more new construction and inventory is a good thing?!
Guy, you didn’t say how much it costs to renew your license and if any there are any other qualifying items to keep it active.
I know in California during the late 80’s crash, many realtors kept their license active, but went to work for other companies, just to keep the food on the table.
In reality, more have probably left the field than the numbers disclose. Keeping their license active, until the next boom. Which is good thinking, as that next boom might be 20 years from now!
I think Brian Kaiser is confusing seasonal patterns with positive trends. Construction activity always picks up in May as the weather warms and days lengthen.
What would be more instructive (and more insightful) would be to compare May 2008 to May 2007. But that would point to just how weak the construction industry has become this year, and no one wants that publicized.