This month, the National Association of Realtors released the results of an annual study on its members, who are real estate agents and brokers.

The study generated a “typical” profile of a real estate agent based on a survey of 40,000 Realtors ®, which is about 4 percent of the organization’s membership.

According to the study, today’s real estate professionals have twice as many years of experience in real estate then they had in the 1980s. In addition, more Realtors are using technology, including the Internet, to better serve their clients. E-mail and listing property on a variety of websites are the most popular ways agents use technology.

The typical agent is a 52-year-old married woman, with a personal (not family) gross income of $47,000, with expenses of $6,600. She works approximately 43 hours per week, and has had her salesperson’s license for 13 years.

The average agent has been with her firm for five years and has worked for only one other firm. She doesn’t hold any ownership interest in her firm, which is an independently owned non-franchised firm with just one office.

The majority of NAR members are sales agents, the majority of which are female. Brokers are more likely to be male, according to the organization. Last year, sales agents had a median income of $34,100 while brokers had a median gross personal income of $73,400.

Ninety percent of the members of NAR own their own home, well above the national homeownership rate of nearly 68 percent. In addition, another third of Realtors own a home for investment purposes as well.

Today’s real estate professional tends to be more highly educated. Nearly 90 percent have completed at least some college courses. Nineteen percent of Realtors have conducted business in a language other than English. The most frequently used other language is Spanish.

One in five NAR members uses a personal assistant to help manage the daily business flow. On the technology front, 54 percent of Realtors report that at least 1 percent of their business is generated from on-line services. Eighty-seven percent say their listings are on at least one website, and 40 percent have their own web page.

Homeownership rate climbs in the Midwest and South

According to the U.S. Census, during the first quarter of 2001, the homeownership rate in the U.S. was 67.5 percent. But 73.2 percent of households in the Midwest own their own homes. In the South, 69.3 percent of households own their own home.

More than 80 percent of homeowners are aged 55 to 64 years, which also happen to be the biggest group of folks buying second homes.

Summer may be the best season to sell your home

So long spring and fall! According to calculations from the National Association of Realtors, the biggest home buying season is summer.

Summer has a slight edge on the spring in terms of volume, according to data collected. But the differences between the spring, summer, and fall home buying seasons aren’t that big.

Approximately 25.9 percent of homes sold in a given year will be sold during the spring season (March to May). Just under 25 percent will be sold in autumn (September to November). Nineteen percent of homes will be sold in winter (December to February), while just over 30 percent of homes will be sold during summer (June to August).

June 18, 2001.