Real Estate News

There's a really fascinating article from USA Today two days ago which focused on the trials and tribulations of a particular group of troubled homeowners: real estate agents. According to the article, 25,000 agents left the business in 2007. The National Association of Realtors has 140,000 fewer members than it did in 2006. There are 40,000 less brokers on payroll than there were in Spring 2006. Median income for realtors has dropped 10.7% in just one year's time.

One California realtor gave up the business and started selling jewelry via private house parties. A NJ realtor can't even get work as a bartender and has only been able to find busboy jobs. Now he's looking to rent out rooms in order to try to keep his house which was valued last year at $411,000 when he refinanced it. This year houses in his neighbor are selling for less than $300,000. He had taken time off from work to care for his mother up to her death this past January. "Part of the reason for the mortgage mess I'm in was my mother's illness," the USA Today article quotes him as saying. "Now I'm losing everything because I tried to be a good son."

Some realtors have flocked to training programs to try to add to their list of professional designations, while others are simply moving to different areas of the country where they believe housing markets will be better.

Despite all the reality hitting the industry, a majority of homeowners still don't believe they've been adversely affected by the market. Emailwire.com reports 62% of American house owners believed that the value of their home increased or stayed flat during the past twelve months, but market data shows that only 24% have reason to believe that. So long as the gap between the agents' reality and the homeowners' self-delusions persists, we can't expect any improvements in market conditions.