Real estate looking up

Jackson's real estate sector ranks No. 90 out of 843 markets in the nation for number of employees, according to a new On Numbers report.

The report is based on 2009 Census data, the latest information available. Metro Jackson has 591 rental, real estate or leasing firms employing a total of 3,228 workers, with an average pay of $36,400. Of those firms, 589 are small businesses with 99 or fewer employees.

Johnny Brown, president of the Jackson Association of Realtors and Realtor at ERA Real Estate Professionals, said employment is tied to market health, which appears to be improving.

"I can tell you over the past two to three months our pending sales have improved. I think we're 10 to 13 percent higher than we were this time a year ago, and that's very good news," Brown said.

"I'm sure the employment situation and salary situation has an effect on that, but to what degree I couldn't really say."

Among other Southern cities, Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Nashville, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., ranked higher than Jackson, at No. 8, No. 33, No. 38 and No. 42, respectively.

In Mississippi, Gulfport-Biloxi came in at No. 286, Pascagoula at No. 406, Hattiesburg at No. 663 and Tupelo at No. 614.

The report shows there are 333,600 real estate firms in the nation, employing 1.97 million workers with an average salary of $40,300. The top pay levels are $56,600 in Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn., $55,000 in Boston and $54,000 in San Francisco-Oakland.

Real estate is a billion-dollar sector in 17 U.S. markets, with obvious candidates like New York City ($9.26 billion), Los Angeles ($5.87 billion) Chicago ($3.52 billion) and Washington, D.C. (2.81 billion) topping the list.

The Jackson Association of Realtors last year partnered with Minnesota-based 10K Research and Marketing to provide monthly market indicator reports to the public. JAR chief executive officer Jo Usry has said the report serves to counter national media coverage of the housing market.

A 2011 year-end report showed median sales remained steady at $136,000 in JAR's seven-county region, which includes Copiah, Hinds, Madison, Rankin, Scott, Simpson and Yazoo counties.

Days on the market increased 10.8 percent to 121 days last year. Residential properties spent an average of 101 days on the market in 2010.

Pending sales were down nearly 3 percent to 4,482 last year, compared to 4,614 in 2010.

Brown said area Realtors don't expect the market to be what it was six years ago at the peak of the housing boom. However, "we are expecting things to trend upward."

Source: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20120315/BIZ/203150320/Real-estate-looking-up?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CHome%7Cp