Thursday, April 27, 2006

Useless Marin Factoid of the Day

So I was wondering how many realtors there are per person in Marin County.

I asked these people if they would tell me for free how many realtors there are in Marin and they kindly did so; there are 1,677 realtors in Marin as of today.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, in 2005 Marin's total population was about 246,960 people. The U.S. Census Bureau says that in the year 2000 20.3% of the county's total population was 18 years of age or younger. So assuming that percentage was the same in 2005 as it was in 2000, that puts Marin's total adult population in 2005 at roughly 196,827 bodies (and one arm in change).

That means in 2005 there was about one realtor per 117 adults in Marin.

If we assume that all of those adults are "coupled" to a Marin adult resident (e.g., married, living with, whatever -- basically, buying a house as a couple), then there is one realtor for every 59 adult couples in Marin.

What does it mean? Nothing. It is a useless factoid.

Update: The Marin Assessor's office says that a total of 4,304 SFR sales occurred in Marin in 2005. So that would be one realtor per 2.6 SFR sales. Again, meaningless.

5 comments:

marine_explorer said...

there are 1,677 realtors in Marin as of today.

Meaningless or not, that's quite a few realtors in Marin. I wonder how many serve the greater Marin area, because our local real estate scene cannot possibly support all 1,667 of them (IMO).

I also wonder how this figure compares to realtors/capita for San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and SF? I'm sure it's up there.

Chuck Ponzi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Athena said...

I think it is a very interesting fact. What I would love to know is how many households are actually supported by a realtor- as the sole source of income?

How many are merely a second source of disposable income or a part time non-essential career?

Anonymous said...

I owned a hillside shack on stilts in San Anselmo in the early 90's. I figured I could improve it with a structural remodel. City Hall would not let my contractor do anything and would not issue permits. I listed the property and had it tied up in escrow 4 times for nearly 6 months while I finally sold it at a 20% loss. My pregnant wife was in the shack during the Loma Preata quake, we just didn’t care any more after that, so I went out of my way to sell to a lawyer. Good Ridance, I wouldnt buy it back at any price, but I have a good memory for financial cycles!

Athena said...

My dad had a similar place out in San Geronimo. That was his thing... fixing up houses that desperately needed it. He would usually live in it while he created his vision and he could do the impossible. It was his way of giving birth to his own children. when he died in the middle of the remodel in San Geronimo we couldn't find anyone capable of developing the property and the county wasn't budging on their allowances... we also decided it was best to sell it at a loss. Big loss... and that was in 1991. I remember it well.