YouRealty.com developed infographic here: http://yourealty.com/infographic-real-estate-statistics-2013.html Amongst other things, in this slideshare you’ll see how homeownership rate has increased dramatically, and how this has helped American real estate to support around 9 million jobs. New trends in the market are to be found mainly in advertising, that is taking full advantage of the Internet - in fact, last year, real estate companies spent half of its $13 billion budget on online media, making it the highest category in online advertising. AMERICA HAS CHANGED FROM A RENTAL SOCIETY TO AN OWNERSHIP SOCIETY In 1900, 75% of urban Americans lived in rented apartments or flats. 100 years later, U.S. home ownership has reached 68% POSITIVE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF THE REAL ESTATE MARKET Including tax benefits, someone who buys a home today and lives in it for four to seven years will save from 20% to 40% over renting America's real estate creates or supports approximately 9 million jobs Housing accounts for about 15% of gross domestic product (GDP) in a typical year Accelerated new household formation may drive a residential housing recovery that adds between 1.7% and 3.2% to GDP growth over the next five years During the last year, the most expensive confirmed purchase in California was an 8,930-square-foot home in Woodside, which sold for $117,500,000 9%: expected overall increase in home sales for 2013 CURRENT REAL ESTATE MARKET CONCERNS 11 % of all US homes are vacant right now $380 billion: market of distressed homes The number of distressed homeowners dropped to 4.7 million in April, the first time in five years that that figure has come down below 5 million REAL ESTATE ADVERTISING During the last year, more than half of all real estate advertising, or $13 billion, was spent on online media At $13 billion, real estate is the highest category in online advertising (automotive is No. 2, at $12 billion) The average internet buyer spends only 2.2 weeks working with the Realtor to find their home. The traditional buyer spends almost 6 weeks REAL ESTATE ORGANIZATIONS 165,000: number of companies operating in the residential brokerage and management field during the last year. They generated $170 billion in revenue The fifty largest companies make up less than 30% of the industry’s total revenue Brokerage services compose 45% of the industry’s total revenue, leasing residential units makes up 35% and property management makes up 15% 25,000: number of companies operating in the commercial brokerage and management field. They generated $30 billion in revenue Blackstone Group’s Steven Schwarzman says that the firm is spending $100 million a week buying homes U.S. COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE IS WORTH APPROXIMATLEY $5,000,000,000,000 13 billion sq. ft. of industrial property 4 billion sq. ft. of office space Almost 9.5 billion sq. ft. of shopping center space 33 million