Realtors adapt to changing markets and technologies

WASHINGTON – May 18, 2007 – Although recent housing data indicates a soft landing in the national real estate market, some areas are showing strong growth or the first stages of recovery. Realtors® learned about national and local market conditions and how shifting markets and industry trends may affect their own clients, customers and businesses during an Economic Issues & Residential Real Estate Business Trends forum yesterday, part of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo, attended by approximately 10,000 Realtors.

Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, emphasized that all real estate is local. “People in the market should be paying less attention to national numbers and headlines and more attention to their local market conditions,” Yun said. “Homeownership remains the best vehicle to accumulate wealth over a long period, and it continues to offer attractive long-term return prospects in many local markets.”

Yun explained that the current national housing correction is being driven largely by investors and speculators leaving the market. According to recent NAR research, the number of homes purchased for investment fell nearly 29 percent in 2006.

“It’s a good time to buy, with interest rates near historic lows and more homes for buyers to choose from in many areas, said Yun. “In addition, rents are forecast to increase in many markets nationally, NAR forecasts that residential rents will rise 2.8 percent in 2007, following a 4.1 percent increase last year which may encourage some current renters to become home buyers.”

Anne Randolph, publisher at LORE Magazine, also spoke to Realtors during the session and said that to attract and serve today’s real estate consumers, Realtors must be able to adapt to shifting market conditions as well as to trends in real estate technology.

“Technology is transforming the Realtor-consumer relationship, and Realtors who are willing to grow, learn and adapt to this changing market will succeed,” Randolph said.

NAR research supports Randolph’s assertions. The 2006 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that a full 80 percent of recent home buyers used the Internet last year to search for a home. That’s a dramatic increase from only 2 percent in 1995. And rather than displacing real estate agents, the Internet is actually helping connect them with homebuyers. In fact, buyers who use the Internet to search for a home are more likely to use a real estate professional than those who do not.

Randolph also recommended that more Realtors use Web-based transaction management systems, which could help cut down on duplicating information and errors in data management, while streamlining the transaction for their home buyer and seller clients.

“The industry is developing tools for making the real estate transaction smoother, more efficient, and more accurate, and that facilitate timely client communications,” Randolph said. “This is the future of real estate.”

© 2007 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

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