55 Percent of all US Home Sales Are Processed by 20 Huge Firms

20 Largest Brokerage Firms Handle 55 Percent of all US Home Sales

There is an accelerating concentration of market dominance by Top 20 firms in the U.S.

According to a new real estate industry report by Southern California-based T3 Sixty, market share growth — as accounted against NAR’s annual existing home sales statistics — shows that the 20 largest real estate brokerage enterprises (which account for companies’ full stats – franchise brand and company-owned brokerage) did a total of $2.1 trillion in sales volume in 2020. This represents an accelerated concentration from the top 20 sales volume market share growth from 2018-2019 of 2.7 percent.

The top 20 real estate enterprises accounted for 54.9 percent of existing home sales volume in 2020, revealing just how much production is concentrating among the nation’s biggest and most powerful real estate organizations.

T3 Sixty’s 2021 Enterprise 20 Report analyzed companies by the sales volume and transaction sides of both their company-owned brokerages and the franchise brands they may own as an “enterprise.”

Just the five largest real estate enterprises by annual sales volume in 2020 – Realogy Holdings Corp., Keller Williams Realty, RE/MAX, HomeServices of America and Compass – accounted for 42.4 percent of total existing home sales volume in 2020.

Enterprises have differing structures. Realogy and HomeServices of America, for example, manage both company-owned brokerage operations as well as franchise brands; others such as Keller Williams Realty and RE/MAX operate just as a franchisor, and others such as Compass just have company-owned brokerage operations.

“Real estate is the largest industry in the United States, measured by GDP, and its dominant players are becoming larger and larger,” said Stefan Swanepoel, T3 Sixty chairman and CEO.

Among the nation’s top 20 franchise brands by sales volume, Keller Williams Realty retains its No. 1 rank with $387.6 billion in annual sales by companies that operate under its brand, followed by RE/MAX with $294.2 billion, Coldwell Banker Real Estate with $265.4 billion, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices with $139.26 billion and Sotheby’s International Realty with $135.1 billion. These top five brands also saw strong year-over-year sales volume increases, ranging from 8.8 to 32.1 percent, another example of how real estate thrived in a year that throttled many other industries.