Consolidation continues to be the name of the game, according to T3 Sixty’s latest annual Mega 1000 report released on Wednesday. Realogy Brokerage Group, HomeServices of America, Compass, eXp Realty, and Redfin led the pack with more than $596 billion in 2020 sales volume.
The top 10 brokerages, which also includes Douglas Elliman, Howard Hanna, Weichert Realtors, William Raveis and HomeSmart, increased their market share to 18.8 percent — a 34.8 percent increase from 2017. Meanwhile, the top 1,000 brokerages bolstered their market share 16.2 percent to 52.2 percent in 2020, which translates to more than $2 trillion in sales volume.
The impact of consolidation can be seen through transaction sides as well. Top 10 brokerage market share based on transaction sides increased from 9.2 percent in 2017 to 12.2 percent in 2020.
“The largest companies are most certainly getting bigger and the Almanac analysis pinpoints exactly the rate and extent of the change,” T3 Sixty CEO Stefan Swanpoel told Inman in an emailed statement. “The industry is consolidating before our very eyes.”
Realogy Brokerage Group‘s 53,100 agents — which includes associates at company-owned brokerage brands, including Sotheby’s International Realty, Coldwell Banker, and Corcoran Group — closed $184 billion in sales during 2020 with more than 330,000 transaction sides.
HomeServices of America, with its 43,258 agents and 343,220 transaction sides, had an impressive year as well with more than $152 billion in 2020 sales volume. However, T3 Sixty highlighted Compass’ rapid ascent to the top three with $151.7 billion in sales.
“Compass, founded in 2012, entered the brokerage stratosphere in 2020, becoming only the third brokerage to cross the $100 billion annual sales threshold with $151.7 billion, right behind the nation’s largest brokerage, Realogy Brokerage Group, and second-largest brokerage, HomeServices of America,” the report noted. “It achieved this with a 66.2 percent jump in sales from 2019.”
EXp Realty also experienced staggering growth from 2019 to 2020, with its sales volume growing 99.3 percent year over year to $72.2 billion.
In addition to accelerating consolidation, the report revealed non-traditional brokerage models are seizing the day. The percentage of the nation’s top 20 brokerages with alternative models increased from 9.4 percent in 2017 to 17.8 percent in 2020, with employee-agent, cloud-based and flat-fee models experiencing the most growth.
“The sustained growth of Redfin, which uses an employee-agent model, and the recent explosive growth of eXp Realty, which uses a virtual, cloud-based model, have contributed to the increase,” the report explained. “The growth of brokerages employing an agent flat-fee model have also pushed the percentage higher, including No. 10 HomeSmart, No. 16 Realty One Group and No. 18 United Real Estate.”
