United Real Estate posted strong net agent count growth throughout all four quarters of 2023, outperforming the national real estate market by 14.7% at year-end 2023 and exceeding the 20,000-agent mark.
The news comes on the heels of the National Association of Realtors’ December report. NAR reported a 1.7% annual decrease in the number of real estate agents nationwide in 2023. However, Axios reported 1.537 million agents in April 2023, down from an all-time high of 1.6 million in October 2022, suggesting an actual decline of 7%-8% at year-end 2023.
United stated that the data demonstrates the capability of its network of offices to expand its market share irrespective of the long and short cycle movements of the housing market. United’s upward trend in agent count does not follow the conventional trend of contraction observed during real estate market downturns.
United Real Estate’s total number of affiliated real estate professionals increased 13% during 2023, according to a release, growing from 18,102 agents at year-end 2022 to 20,467 agents at year-end 2023. Unlike in prior years, where the company was developing its network of market share-leading hub locations in key markets through direct investments in brokerages, the growth in 2023 was largely organic, demonstrating the “network effect” of its growth strategies.
Across all business units of United Real Estate’s parent company, United Real Estate Group, stated that the overall agent count was up 11% at year-end, surging at an annualized rate of 27% in the fourth quarter, moving from 21,753 agents to 23,198. United is forecasting net agent growth of 10% to 15% in 2024, with the vast majority of growth coming again from organic growth versus mergers and acquisitions.
“2023 was by any measure one of if not the most challenged markets for real estate, especially if you consider population growth over the last three decades. A historically unprecedented rise in mortgage interest rates, low inventory, COVID pulling forward transactions into 2020 – 2022 and consumer sentiment all contributed to off long-term regression line performance for real estate transactions,” said Scott Johnson, Chief Financial Officer United Real Estate Holdings. “With interest rates cooling and life events continuing to happen which result in real estate transactions, we are expecting 2024 to be notably better than 2023. Our businesses were built to perform in all market conditions, so while we cannot control the market in which we operate, we do control our performance and we expect another solid year in 2024,” added Johnson.
For more information, visit https://www.unitedrealestate.com/.
