How Did the Housing Market Perform in 2024?

By Marcus Vanzant

Marcus Vanzant is a second-generation real estate broker and founder of Marcus & Company Realty in Bradenton, FL.

Many agents said that 2024 was a tough year for real estate agents, but why? Many articles claimed that 2024 sales were the worst since 1995. While you might see those numbers globally, it’s important to understand that many of these figures look at the number of agents and how many sales each agent made in our area. Let’s dive into how it reacted and how real estate sales were impacted this year.

Sales trends and stats. I recently ran some numbers through our local MLS, focusing on our association here in Sarasota-Manatee. We had just shy of 43,850 units sold. That’s down about 4.4% from the previous year, which isn’t horrible considering what’s coming in 2025.

While our average sales price increased from $4.99 million to $5.09 million, showing that our market remained steady, the real challenge lies in the number of agents competing in our housing market. This year, the company experienced a growth of 21%, which is quite unusual for our area, especially since most companies saw a decline in sales.

What does this mean? To give you some perspective, let’s look at 2019. Before COVID-19 and the market boom, there were just 6,784 agents. Now, we have about 2,500 more agents. Back then, we sold 44,447 units. Today, although we lost some sales, we’ve added many more agents, and that increase is having a big impact on the market.

When we look at the numbers, about 79% of agents in 2024 sold less than $3 million in properties, and around 34.7% sold basically nothing. While the market remains strong, we have an overwhelming number of agents. As of November, we had 9,081 agents in our local market. Many articles predict agent renewals dropping from 5% to 15%.

How do you overcome this challenge? It’s pretty simple: you need to increase your business by taking clients from lower-performing agents.

Only 4.8% of agents made over $10 million in sales, and top-performing agents won’t easily give up their market share. This means you need to focus on the lower end of the market.

The Pareto principle is alive in real estate: 20% of the agents do 80% of the work. To hit that $10 million mark, less productive agents must find ways to attract clients away from their less productive peers. This approach will help you stand out and shape your path to success rather than being seen as struggling in a bad market.

Years ago, I learned from an economist that a recession can often be a choice; it’s about whether you decide to participate in the market. Many agents in our islands have achieved high sales volumes because their average sale price is very high.

What can you do in 2025? If you struggled in the 2024 market, now is the time to assess your systems, brokerage, and support. Many agents had fantastic years, and you can too.

The reality is that the market is what it is, and while 2025 looks promising, there are still too many agents competing for business. Right now, if we compare the total sales units to the number of agents, there are fewer than five units available per agent. As I mentioned, agents making over $10 million in sales are unlikely to give up their market share to you.

The market remains strong in our area, especially in Manatee and Sarasota on the west coast of Florida. You’ll need to outwork and outproduce all the other agents to succeed. For more real estate insights and strategies, reach out to me at (941)404-8676 or success@marcusandcompanyrealty.com. We’d love to connect with you.