In the organized real estate section of the 2023 Real Estate Almanac, data reveals that MLS subscribers and local association members are served by fewer and more disparate organizations than ever before
LADERA RANCH, Calif., Feb. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — T3 Sixty, the leading management consulting and analytics firm for the residential real estate brokerage industry, has published its annual rankings of U.S. MLS, local and state Realtor associations by membership size, as of December 31, 2022. The comprehensive data set offers the total number of MLS and associations across the country, their current membership and other key metrics about organized real estate in the U.S.
The 2023 rankings compiled by T3 Sixty’s research team reveal a four-year steady decline in the total number of MLS organizations and local associations and a steady increase in the average MLS subscriber count and local association membership during that same time period. Since 2020, the total number of MLSs and local Realtor associations have dropped 7.6% and 3.8%, respectively, while the average member count of each has steadily grown.
The rankings also provide more information about the relationships between MLSs and local associations across the US.
“This year’s release features specific data about which MLS a local association uses, and whether it’s a locally operated MLS or a regional MLS,” said Jack Miller, T3 Sixty’s president and CEO. “This data is of great importance to leaders seeking to understand the growth of regional MLSs in different markets.”
2023 MLS Data and Rankings
The MLS data reveals that the trend of the large getting larger continued in 2022, as the total number of US MLSs dropped by 2.6% last year. The total number of MLSs has dropped by 7.6% since 2020.
Meanwhile, the MLSs that remain are growing in subscriber count, averaging an increase of 5.5% in membership in 2022. Since 2020, the average subscriber count for MLSs has grown by nearly 30%.
As T3 Sixty has reported in past years, the largest MLSs are growing rapidly and now serve a disproportionate number of subscribers. In the US, there are now 45 “Mega MLSs” who serve more than 10,000 members. Today, just 20 of these Mega MLSs (or 3.8% of the total organizations in the US) serve more than half of all MLS subscribers nationwide.
These trends echo themes covered in the 2023 Swanepoel Trends Report chapter, “The Future of MLS,” which analyzes how a growing number of MLSs are collaborating to develop new products and scale services for their subscribers. These include new data products and shared support and technology.
“It’s clear from the data that MLSs are getting larger to meet the needs of expanding real estate markets and productivity-minded agents and brokers,” said Skutchan. “What this data is not able to show is another trend we are following closely: collaboration. Many progressive and expansion-minded MLSs are partnering to offer better data and technology to subscribers, and to deliver enhanced and new market intelligence for users and real estate data consumers. Overall, it’s clear that the MLS evolution continues, but MLS organizations’ dedication to their subscribers and data standards remain central to their mission.”
Visit realestatealmanac.com to view MLS ranking data segmented at a national and regional level.
2023 Local Realtor Association Data and Rankings
For the second consecutive year, the total number of local residential associations recorded dropped by ~1%. Meanwhile, local associations are continuing to increase their membership count, with an average growth rate of 5.5%. Since 2020, local associations have grown on average by 18%.
“This trend of fewer and larger exemplifies the increased scale and resources that many MLSs and local Realtor associations find they require to meet the evolving needs of all they serve,” said T3 Sixty’s senior vice president of organized real estate Clint Skutchan.
Visit realestatealmanac.com to view local Realtor association ranking data segmented at a national and regional level, and for information on which MLSs are used by local associations across the US.
2023 State Realtor Association Data and Rankings
For the second year, the Florida Association of Realtors is the largest state Realtor association in 2023, with 223,082 members as of December 31, 2022. Together with California and Texas, these three state associations have 591,637 broker and agent members, making up 37% of the nation’s total state Realtor membership.
The most recent data also shows that not all state Realtor associations are growing. While five states – Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maine and Wyoming – saw their membership increase by nearly 6% in 2022, seven states saw a decline in total membership. The states recording a decline in membership were Virginia, Nevada, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington state; the decline could represent the onset of a trend where association membership diminishes as a result of the slowing real estate market.
About the Rankings and Real Estate Almanac The MLS and ORE rankings comprise the second section of the Real Estate Almanac, a comprehensive and data-intensive report on the residential real estate industry. Released every February, this section ranks the nation’s MLS, local Realtor associations and state Realtor associations.
The five sections of the Real Estate Almanac are:
Executives (SP 200): January
Organized real estate: February
Technology providers: March
Enterprise companies: April
Brokerage companies (Mega 1000): May
All research, analysis and rankings are compiled every year by the team at T3 Sixty. For more information, visit realestatealmanac.com.
About T3 Sixty T3 Sixty is the leading management consultancy in the residential real estate industry with business units in brokerage, technology, mergers and acquisitions, and organized real estate. The group also provides software and data, extensive research and reports, executive search and event management services. For more information, visit t360.com.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
