Friday, April 13, 2007

The Rancid Truth: 1 in 54 Californians Is A Licensed Realtor


How appropriate for Friday the 13th. See the recent article from The Desert Sun newspaper out of Palm Springs, CA:

"...despite a generally sluggish housing market in recent months, California continues to add 200 to 300 new real estate licensees every week, with some 560,000 licensees expected statewide by year’s end.

“At least it’s not 1,000 a week like it was a year ago,” said California Real Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi, who oversees a $43 million budget and 342 employees in five offices who currently regulate about 535,000 licensees across the state...

...Along with the boom in licensees has come a surge in enforcement action for those who break the rules, Davi said. The department is on pace for 9,000-plus enforcement cases this year.... Based on cases filed during the first half of its fiscal year, about 36 percent will involve criminal convictions, 21 percent will involve trust-fund handling or recordkeeping violations, and 10 percent will involve supervision and negligence violations."

1 comment:

HB Bear said...

1 in 54. That's amazing.

With sales volumes as low as they are and license levels RISING there just aren't going to be enough deals to go around. There's going to be a lot of unemployment here in loans, construction.

Last time, OC took big hits in aerospace, this time it's going to be RE, banking and construction.