FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEMBER SURVEY SHOWS LARGE GROWTH IN REALTORS®

SAN FRANCISCO (November 7, 2003) – Newcomers entering the real estate industry accounted for three-fourths of a large increase in membership of the National Association of Realtors® during last year, according to a survey released at a news briefing at NAR’s annual REALTOR® Conference & Expo. More than 23,000 Realtors® and guests are attending the Nov. 7-10 meetings in San Francisco.

NAR Chief Economist David Lereah said NAR membership growth parallels the historic rise in home sales. “NAR has added 102,000 members in the last year for a total of 962,000 – a record that reflects the historic level of home sales while other sectors of the economy experienced weakness,” he said. “The survey shows 8 percent of NAR members are newcomers to the industry, which accounts for 77,000 of our new members. An additional 25,000 practitioners were previously licensed but decided to join the Realtor® family.”

An additional 5 percent of NAR members, about 48,000, have been in the business for one to two years. The typical member has been in the business for 13 years, with a median of eight years for sales agents and 17 years for brokers.

The 2003 National Association of Realtors® Member Profile, based on a survey of more than 104,000 members in July, generated 6,734 usable responses representing a response rate of 6.6 percent. It covers diverse characteristics of NAR members including demographic data, current business attributes and technology use.

For the first time, a majority of real estate brokers are women – 52 percent—while women continue to dominate full-time sales agents at 54 percent.

While the Realtor® universe is growing in diversity, the survey shows the typical member is a 51-year-old married female with a gross personal income of $52,200, who works 40 hours a week and often communicates with clients by e-mail.

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Typical NAR members are agents who are affiliated with an independently owned, nonfranchised firm. They complete 13 transaction sides per year, equivalent to 6.5 full sales transactions. More than one out of four works as a member of a team, while 21 percent have personal assistants. For four out of five, the primary business activity is residential brokerage.

Half of all Realtors® practice both buyer agency and seller agency, with disclosed dual agency for in-company transactions; 73 percent of members are compensated by a percentage of commission split.

The gross personal income of sales agents rose 15 percent between 2000 and 2002 to a median of $39,300, while the gross income of brokers declined 11 percent to $65,300. “The decline in broker income results from a rise in the number of less experienced brokers, a decline in the number of hours worked and an increase in the number of brokers whose primary function is sales,” Lereah explained.

Realtors® are well educated, with 90 percent pursuing education beyond high school compared to 69 percent for the U.S. labor force as a whole. Only 6 percent chose real estate as their first career; 15 percent worked in sales before entering the field.

NAR members who are racial or ethnic minorities have grown by 2 percentage points since 2001. “Our survey shows 10 percent are racial or ethnic minorities; however, this number under-represents the actual total because a large portion of respondents aren’t comfortable in answering such questions and simply leave that section blank,” Lereah said.

The member profile shows 15 percent conduct some business in a language other than English, which also shows a higher level of ethnic diversity than the survey would indicate; 8 percent of all respondents were born outside of the United States.

Four-out-of-five Realtors® frequently use e-mail for business purposes, 50 percent use a digital camera and 70 percent have a home office. “There’s been continued growth in the use of technology–46 percent of our members have a personal Web site, up from 43 percent in 2001, in addition to 87 percent of member firms, up from 82 percent two years ago,” Lereah said. Also, 84 percent of members place their listings on REALTOR.com, up from 68 percent in 2001; and 69 percent place listings on a local Realtor® association Web site.

Many NAR members hold at least one professional designation, with the most popular being GRI (Graduate, Realtor® Institute), held by 19 percent of respondents, ABR® (Accredited Buyer Representative), 12 percent, and CRS® (Certified Residential Specialist), 10 percent.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 962,000 members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

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The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, Inc., (MLSLI) a subsidiary of the Long Island Board of REALTORS®, Inc.(LIBOR) is a computerized network of more than 2,600 participating real estate offices. For more information about the MLS, and Long Island real estate, visit our web site at www.mlsli.com.

The Long Island Board of REALTORS® is a non-profit trade association consisting of more than 24,000 professional Realtors. For more information about LIBOR, or to locate a Realtor in your area, visit our web site at: www.mlsli.com.

Information about NAR is available at http://realtor.org. This and other news releases are posted in the Web site’s “News Media” section under NAR News Releases. Statistical data and surveys may be found at http://realtor.org/research.