The Houston Association of Realtors has surpassed the Long Island Board of Realtors in New York as the largest local Realtor board in the country, according to a Monday announcement.
By the latest count, Houston’s Realtor group had 23,354 total members, or 118 more than the Long Island board. In third place was the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors Inc., with 13,439 members.
Other large local Realtor groups include: Chicago Association of Realtors Inc. (12,963 members); MetroTex Association of Realtors Inc. in Dallas (12,258 members); Pacific West Association of Realtors in Anaheim, Calif. (11,586 members); Mainstreet Organization of Realtors in Downers Grove, Ill. (11,344 members); Realtor Association of Miami-Dade County Inc. in Miami (11,219 members); and the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors in Fairfax, Va. (10,788 members).
The Houston group’s membership represents about 29.1 percent of total Realtor membership in Texas (80,119 Realtors) as of July 2009, according to National Association of Realtors membership statistics, and about 2.1 percent of total NAR membership (1.13 million) as of July 2009.
Total NAR membership has fallen about 10 percent from July 2008 to July 2009, with membership falling about 6 percent in Texas.
The Houston Association of Realtors reported that sales volume in the Houston area "has increased incrementally each month this year" and is "on a par with 2005’s record levels."
The June single-family median price in the region hit an all-time high of $164,500, the association also reported, and the median price for the Houston metro area was up 2.6 percent in second-quarter 2009 compared to the same quarter last year.
The Long Island Realtor board’s membership represents about 41.3 percent of New York state’s total Realtor membership as of NAR’s July 2009 report, and the state total was down about 8.7 percent compared to July 2008.
As of July, the National Association of Realtors had 1.13 million members, down about 10 percent from July 2008.
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