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

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!

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...

I've seen mortgage rates dropping.

That is really good news in this economy.

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 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!

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!".

How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? — The Phoenix Real Estate Guy http://bit.ly/9dvJt2
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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?

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. :)

Just How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? (Phoenix Real Estate Guy) http://dld.bz/ue6H
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How many Realtors are out there? http://bit.ly/9M9YEC (Via @PhxREGuy )
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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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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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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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Reading this on PhxREGuy.com: http://t.co/Nnz7cPf via @PhxREguy
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Impressive stats Jay. As a stats person I care even when I don't. (If you see what I mean).

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.

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!

So the REAL problem is a lack of population. That's it! FREE Sonoran Hotdogs for all new-comers!!

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.

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

Yeah but they only get the free dog if they qualify for a mortgage & plan to use a Realtor to buy a house. Soon.

Interesting numbers from @PhxREguy http://t.co/zpv9sJC Thanks for doing the research and the math.
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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!

How many Realtors are out there? New on TPREG: http://tpreg.com/bmTkcB
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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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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

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!

Those stats are pretty funny.

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...

I've seen mortgage rates dropping.

That is really good news in this economy.

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.

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 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!

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!".

How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? u00e2u0080u0094 The Phoenix Real Estate Guy http://bit.ly/9dvJt2
This comment was originally posted on Twitter

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?

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. :)

Wow, Arizona has a lot of realtors! I wonder how many of them are selling right now...yeesh...

Just How Many Realtors are Out There? Per Person? (Phoenix Real Estate Guy) http://dld.bz/ue6H
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How many of those agents are actively selling real estate?

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!