Dr. Lawrence Yun opened by acknowledging the difficult environment real estate professionals continue to face. Transaction volume remains well below what the industry would consider a normal market, and income generation remains challenging for many practitioners.

However, he emphasized that unit sales alone do not tell the entire story.

While existing-home sales have remained near the 4 million range, the dollar volume of real estate transactions has performed considerably better because of higher home prices.

This year, dollar volume is approximately 4% higher, putting the market on track for what Yun described as potentially the third-best year in terms of dollar revenue. The market is unquestionably difficult, but it is fundamentally different from the foreclosure-era.

The Upper-End Market Is Driving Activity

A significant portion of today’s dollar-volume strength is coming from higher-priced properties.

Yun highlighted a striking change in the composition of American housing wealth. Over approximately the past 20 years, the number of homeowners has increased about 17%, while the number of million-dollar homes has increased approximately 368%.

That tremendous expansion of the upper-end market helps explain why dollar transaction volume can remain relatively strong even when the number of transactions is subdued.

It also reflects the extraordinary amount of housing wealth accumulated by existing homeowners.