Executive Summary
Residential real estate brokers in Los Angeles County reported close to $36 billion in residential sales volume for the 12-month period ended June 30 a 27 percent increase over the like year-earlier period.
Re/Max on the Boulevard, based in Sherman Oaks, showed the greatest gains, moving to No. 4 from No. 9 by doubling sales volume to $1.8 billion. The impact of lower interest rates and rising home values was seen in the 12.5 percent increase in the number of units it sold.
No. 2 California Prudential Realty posted a 63.7 percent increase in sales revenues for the period, to $4.2 billion. The repeat No. 1 firm, Coldwell Banker, showed a smaller increase of 24 percent in sales volume, yet sold close to four times the volume of California Prudential.
Century 21 Sparow-Shoreline jumped five spots to No. 17 with a 56.3 percent increase in sales volume, in part due to the recent acquisition of Century 21 ADK, as well as higher average sales prices.
As a group, the 25 firms showed year-over-year growth of 19.3 percent in sales volume, with only three showing declines.
Nicole Taylor
The Pacesetter
Coldwell Banker Greater Los Angeles Co.
The brokerage reported a 24.2 percent increase in L.A. County residential sales volume, to $16.4 billion from $13.2 billion, in the 12-month period ended June 2002 over the like year-earlier period.
Its individual sales volume is roughly the same as the combined volume of the remaining top 12 brokers on the list.
Coldwell’s volume came on the sale of 29,300 residential units in L.A. County for the period, a 21.3 percent increase over the prior period’s unit sales of 24,150. Coldwell has a sales force of 3,300 agents in 49 L.A. offices.
Although the brokerage did not acquire any other firms in the past year, it was split as part of a restructuring into three Southern California operating unit Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.
Scott Gibson, president of Coldwell Banker of Greater Los Angeles, said the move allowed his unit to concentrate more on the local market, while maintaining the financial wherewithal that being a part of a larger corporation allows.
“We have refocused to the local (market), reworking our agent training program and marketing,” he said.
Gibson said the high-end market has been decelerating while low interest rates have kept the low-end market strong. “I think we’ll do better next year as the market settles and the playing field between buyers and sellers evens out,” he said.
Nicole Taylor
