Realty, building professionals hanging tough during downturn

The last couple of years may not have been the best for the real estate and construction industries to put it mildly but that's not translating into a big exodus from the sector.

Membership in the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors is down only 1 percent from the figures of a year ago. The number of licensed contractors statewide is down less than 2 percent. The numbers of registered engineers and surveyors rose during 2009 despite a severe downturn, while the numbers of architects and interior designers declined.

"I don't think it's surprising at all," says Ken Amundson, president of the association of Realtors.

Membership of the association stood at 1,936 after this year's dues were collected, down by 23 Realtors from the 1,959 who were members of the association a year earlier.

Amundson notes that real estate agents live and die by the number of transactions, and the number of sales in recent months has been running at least 15 percent above year-earlier levels.

Sales prices, the other element in determining agents' commission income, have stayed steady or risen a bit month by month through the winter.

At the same time, Amundson says the number of listings that involve a bank-approved short sale have been rising while the number of bank-owned properties has declined. Realtors are more likely to get a listing in a short-sale transaction than from a sale by a lender, he says.

Some new faces, in fact, are beginning to see opportunity in residential real estate.

"We're seeing some brand-new agents coming into the business," says Amundson. "People who have an aptitude for this will succeed."

Optimism is common among the ranks of construction contractors as well.

At its most recent count, the Nevada State Contractors Board says 17,386 contractors' licenses were active in the state. That's down about 1.7 percent from a earlier.

"There's a pretty strong feeling out there that this isn't a permanent downturn," says Warren Harding, a spokesman for Associated Builders and Contractors Sierra Nevada, an group of non-union contractors. "There is a high degree of optimism."

In fact, a steady trickle of companies appears before the state board each month, applying to license newly created contracting firms.

Harding notes, however, that some of the licensed contractors that remain active are actually in hibernation, having cut staff and operations dramatically while they wait for better days.

And the State Contractors Board notes that the number of inactive contractors licenses in the state rose to 1,382 during 2009 from 1,103 a year earlier. Licenses can be left on inactive status in the state for as long as five years.

Architects are less confident about the future.

Nevada State Board of Architecture, Interior Design & Residential Design says the number of registered architects in Nevada fell to 809 at the start of this year from 829 a year earlier. The number of out-of-state architects registered to work in Nevada fell by 10 percent this year compared with last. In 2010, 2,624 out-of-state architects are registered in Nevada.

Max Hershenow, president of the northern Nevada chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said he believes much of the decline is occurring in the Las Vegas area.

"They're really getting hammered," he says. "We're in a little better shape up here."

Architects have downsized their offices, and some have moved into home offices to weather the storm, Hershenow said, but they're not giving up their registration.

The number of registered residential designers in the state, currently 157, is little changed since 2008, the state board says. The 175 registered residential designers statewide has slipped a bit from the 189 reported in 2008.

The State Board of Engineers and Surveyors, meanwhile, says the number of licensed engineers statewide increased by 1.4 percent last year, rising to 9,722 at the end of 2009 compared with 9,588 a year earlier.

The number of registered professional land surveyors in the state, meanwhile, rose to 897 from 871 a year earlier.