Housing Market News
Montana Realty Board: Number of Agents Is Falling Fast
By Robert Struckman, 1-06-09
File photo by Emily Haas.
It seems not many people want to be real estate agents anymore, and established agents are getting out of the business like never before.
About 40 percent fewer new real estate agents received a license from the Montana Board of Realty Regulation in 2008, and about 15 percent of old members didn’t renew last year, said Grace Berger, head of the state’s regulatory agency.
Here are the numbers: Last year about 500 new applicants passed the requirements to become a real estate agent in Montana, down from about 800 in 2007. That year capped about a decade of growth in the number of licensed agents in Montana.
Also, Berger said, 888 of Montana’s 5,823 licensed agents didn’t renew in 2008. Those agents still have about two years to reinstate. The state license is required for all real estate agents and property managers.
It’s not easy to compare the number of licenses granted by the state agency in recent years to, say, the 1980s, because the requirements have changed. These days, some people like to have the license as something to fall back on, but not something they use for full-time work.
“It didn’t use to be easy for them to do that,” Berger said. Like most state regulatory boards, the Board of Realty Regulation depends on licensing fees for its budget. Collections are down, Berger said, but revenues have been so strong in recent years that the board isn’t yet experiencing financial difficulties.
Still, one thing is clear. Montana has not seen a decline like this in licensed real estate agents since at least the early 1980s.
“I just don’t know if it’s a blip or what. It’s too early to tell if it’s a pattern,” Berger said.
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