There is about to be a historic shift in our markets, a passing of the generational torch of market dominance like never seen before. When the Baby Boomers came onto the scene, they were so large in numbers that the world was truly their oyster. No previous generation so completely dominated the market place for decades for they were 78 million strong. However every year there are less Boomers, and that is a trend that unfortunately for those of us in it, will continue. The torch is soon to be passed to the Millennial Generation who at 84 million will be a massive force on the market for many years to come.
The millennial generation is already driving the housing recovery, and the future is bright with 88% of them saying they want to be home owners. To house them all it is going to require 40 million homes to be built that do not exist today. Someone is going to sell all those homes, why not you?
The challenge facing the market place is that while the driving force in the market is the 18-33 year old Millennials, they do not have many Realtors who come from their generation. We have a Boomer dominated Realtor population. The median age of agents has increased from 51 in 2007 to 56 in 2012 indicating that it is the same people making up the Realtor community. Only 3% of all agents are under 30 years old and another 4% are 30 to 34 years old, another 22% are over 65.
When nearly 50% of the home purchases today are by Millennials and only 7% of Realtors are of their generation, there is an unprecedented career opportunity available today, and way into the future.
Only 6% of all Realtors come in to the industry as their first career; most bring expertise and experience from other fields prior to real estate, the most common being in management, business, and financial professions, followed by sales and retail. The majority of members are women with college educations.
Fourteen percent of Realtors work fewer than 20 hours a week, 30 percent 20-39 hours per week, 41 percent work 40-59 hours and 15 percent work 60 or more per week. Those working 60 hours a week or more earned 80,900.00, and 17% of all agents earned a six-figure income.
Ninety-one percent of Realtors are homeowners. In addition they often invest in real estate and own other homes in addition to their primary residence. 43% own at least one investment property and 16% at least one vacation home, and 10% own at least one commercial property.
Realtors use technology daily, it is a key to their success, they are adapting quickly to the technology that is a part of the everyday culture of the Millennial generation. What a great opportunity for those Millennials who can come into a business where they can set their own hours, determine how much money they want to make and are willing to work for, using technology that is second nature to them, and a huge potential market of their generation pool who they understand the best.
As we find ourselves in an economy that has only produced jobs for 50% of all the college graduates from 2006 through 2012, and a huge need in the market place for them to serve the needs of their own generation as they make their home buying dreams come true.
