Real Estate Demographics: How Many Real Estate Investors are there?

Question

Hey guys.  I'm working on something and was hoping that I could turn to the community for some help.
          
          I'm looking to find updated data on a number of data points concerning real estate.  If you've got any interest in helping, I'm going to need to find numbers for the queries below, and they will need to be supported by some kind of reference.
          
          So, If I asked about the number of single family homes in the USA, I'd want to get that number (with the most recent data possible), and I'd want to know where you got the number from.
          
          This information will prove to be VITAL in the growth of BiggerPockets, so I do hope you'll jump in and help.
          
          Thanks!
          
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          The Queries:
          
          1 - How many homeowners are there in the USA?
          
          2 - How many renters are there in the USA?
          
          3 - How many real estate investors are there in the USA?
          
          4 - How many residential landlords are there in the USA?
          
          5 - How many commercial landlords are there in the USA?
          
          6 - How many Real Estate Agents are there in the USA?
          
          7 - What is the total amount of residential mortgages?
          
          8 - What is the total amount of commercial mortgages?
          
          9 - What is the total number of owner-occupied homes?
          
          10 - How many total real estate sales took place in 2009?

10a - How many new home sales were there last year?  A: 374,000 as per US Census

11 - How many hard money loans are used per year by investors?
          
          12 - How many hard money lenders are there?
          
          13 - How many single family homes are there?

I'll come back with more questions soon.  Lets see what we can figure out on these. 
          
          Thanks!
          Josh

Kenneth Garnett · Answer

Hi Joshua,
          
          Answers to many of your questions here can be found at the U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Statistical Abstract of the United States: 
          
          Housing Units & Characteristics - Census
          
          There you will find lots of tables of info with data as recent as 2010.  For example, in 2008 the estimate is 75,566,000 owner-occupied housing units and 35,843,000 renter-occupied housing units.
          
          Also, for housing costs data, see:
          
          Homeownership & Housing Costs - US Census
          
          Hope this helps!
          
          - Ken G.

James Hobbs · Answer

Hey Joshua,

I found figures for new home sales for 2009, still looking for total RE sales. New homes is at 374K, compared to 485K for 2008.

Do you want total commercial and residential sales, only residential, or what?

http://www.census.gov/const/newressales.pdf

John Delia · Answer

This forum was very helpful! Thanks. This data and info is pretty difficult to uncover.

Jerry Powers · Answer

Upon researching this topic for my college paper, I had to find the NAICS Industry Classification Code for Real Estate Investors. I couldn't find an NAICS code specifically labeled "Real Estate Investor". However, I found a SIC Industry Classification code of 67999905 - Real Estate Investor. Cross-referencing this to the NAICS code system it supposedly matches up to NAICS 523910 - Miscellaneous Intermediation. It is interesting that this code is withing the "Finance and Insurance" sector of the IRS instead of the "Real Estate" sector. 
Therefore, to determine the size of the Real Estate Investor industry, you have to look at both the Real Estate sector for the landlords and the Finance and Insurance sector for the flippers and rehabbers.

Let me know if you agree and if you have any further suggestions for getting to this answer.

Jerry Powers · Answer

Have you, or anybody else, contacted the National Real Estate Investor Association to ask them if they have this information? I would like to find out the same information but I'm not certain who might have it.

I am working on a team project for a college class that is due in about 3 weeks and I need to get this information with good source information.

Thank you!

Chris Martin · Answer

I'll give it a try, using latest available numbers.

The IRS keeps a wide variety of statistics, but not necessarily to the granularity you are looking for. The Statistics by Form page includes statistics on the 140,040,871 returns in 2009. 6,210,424 claimed Rent and royalty net income and 5,762,870 claimed Rent and royalty net loss.  So one high level "answer" is roughly 11.8M people "in the business" of rent and royalty "stuff". Now some number of these rents and royalties are not related to real estate (e.g. natural gas/software/invention royalties, tool rentals, etc.) so 11.8M represents the 'top end'.

From the Integrated Statistics on Income, the IRS provides 2008 Number of Returns, Business Receipts, Net Income, and Deficit by Form of Business, Sector tax year 2008 for Real Estate and Rental and Leasing. e.g. 3,416,908 total returns in 2008. Note this is multiple categories and is for all forms of rental and leasing (cars, furniture, tools, etc.) LLCs are 948,862 and sole proprietorships are 1,278,868... and I'd guess that many of these LLCs are real estate investing/investment centric.

From the Individual Income Tax Return (Form 1040) Statistics, IRS provides Table 2.  Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships: Income Statements, by Industrial Sectors, Tax Year 2009. Column CC through CF give a hint that since 1,181,640 is the total in the Real estate sector, and 882,367 are for Offices of real estate agents, brokers, property managers and appraisers, that the upper number is abut 300,000 maximum who are engaged full time in the real estate invesment sector.

If I were to speculate a little and put the tables and numbers together: 250,000 full time REI, roughly 2M "investors", and 8M-10M "in the business" of real estate.

Steven Barnes · Answer

Hi Joshua

Interesting numbers to be sure.

New here, but how exactly do you propose to define "RE Investor"?   That will have a huge effect on the numbers.

Is number 3 = 4 + 5 (minus duplicates) ?

I am in my second month of intensive RE Investing research.  No properties yet.  Am I a RE Investor?  You could argue that all homeowners are RE investors, as well as landlords.

Jason Fant · Answer

That's what I figured. Really the same thing I'm bouncing up against.

Thanks for responding so quickly. If I manage to dig up some more specific numbers, I'll be sure to share. Wish me luck!

Joshua Dorkin · Answer

Jason Fant - Nothing but a really large range.

Jason Fant · Answer

Josh,

Did you ever find a source for the number of real estate investors? I'm working on a product geared toward wholesalers and haven't been able to quantify the market to see if this will make financial sense.

Even if you don't want to share the number, it would at least be nice to know if it is quantified somewhere that could be considered reputable :)

Thanks in advance for your help!

Real Estate Demographics: How Many Real Estate Investors are there?

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