It’s one thing for the average citizen to have a bleak outlook when it comes to real estate. It’s another thing entirely for realtors to start packing their bags.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 70,000 real estate agents and brokers left the industry to work another job last year. This means that only 440,000 full-time real estate agents and brokers remain, which is over 100,000 less than the number of full-time real estate agents in 2019.
With the National Association of Realtors reporting previously occupied homes sinking to their lowest level in 28 years, things aren’t going to get better anytime soon. Worse still is the slothlike movement of the market.
The Consumer Federation of America analyzed in February that nearly half of real estate agents barely made a sale last year although it did not that this is partly because most real estate agents have other full-time jobs.
Some real estate agents might also be rethinking their careers because of the $418 million antitrust settlement in March that the National Association of Realtors settled more than a dozen lawsuits for inflating real estate commissions.
TLDR; The combination of high mortgage rates, low home supply, record-high prices and other factors make being a real estate agent in this economy a tough job.