Housing Inventory & Number of Real Estate Agents Break Records

By R. Michael Brown

Breaking news about housing inventory and the number of new real estate agents now in the United States. In December 2021 there were only 923,352 units for sale in the U.S. according to a Zillow report. At the same time, there are an additional 100,876 NEW real estate agents and brokers that are now members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) bringing the total to a record 1,559,537 members.

Connecting the dots between these news stories, Dawn Pfaff, president and founder of My State MLS has an analysis and advice for the industry and agents.

"Housing inventory is scary scary low right now," said Pfaff. "Lowest I've ever seen it. 923 thousand units for sale in a country of 330 million? The typically normal market at any given time over the last 10 to 12 years, I've always seen around 2.2 million houses for sale, and there's nowhere to go to rent either."

"There is less than half the inventory to sell and an additional 100 thousand plus new agents to sell them," said Pfaff. "If you want to survive as a new agent, your best bet is to hook up with a new home builder or sell mobile homes (many states require additional license for mobile home sales) because they are more affordable during this price escalation. People still need places to live." 

In 2021, NAR estimated that the U.S. is more than 5 million homes short of enough housing for the demand. And affordability is nonexistent.

Pfaff has a plea for new home builders, "The builders better snap to it and get some inventory for people to buy or rent because the homelessness in this country is at a crisis level." 

 Here at Go Home TV, we advocate that local and regional governments clear the way for builders to be able to build quality homes quicker.