Well, spring is here and things are heating up. February and March have proved to be two of the most active months our office has seen in real estate over the last few years. I hope these are signs of good things to come.
It has also been exciting to see our parent company and franchise ownership in the news recently for good things. First, our franchise, NRT LLC was again ranked as No. 1 Residential Real Estate Brokerage Company by REAL Trends for the 12th Consecutive Year. NRT has earned the top spot nationwide for both closed sales volume and closed transaction sides. In 2008, NRT recorded $132 billion in closed sales volume and 275,640 transaction sides.
In spite of leading the real estate world in transactions our organization is subject to a great deal of speculation and rumor by our competitors. NRT's parent company Realogy, took the opportunity this past Friday to share a state of the company directly with our employees and agents through a Town Hall Webcast.
There was some very reassuring information shared during the Town Hall Meeting. First, to state the obvious, controlling costs in a declining market is vital to the success of a real estate organization. Realogy accomplished this by reducing fixed costs in 2008 by 12%. Also, while reworking some debt positions did not come to fruition in 2008, the decline in interest rates has resulted in reduced costs of about $150 million from '08 to '09. It was also refreshing to here directly from senior management that the organization has over $500 million of available credit to draw from and that current debt obligations do not come due until 2013.
While cost cutting and debt structures are defensive moves, it is good to hear that the company continues to play offense as well. Marc Becker, Sr. Partner with Apollo Management joined the webcast to reiterate the continued support of Apollo's investment in Realogy. It was also noted that Realogy brands were involved in one out of every four homes sold in the U.S. last year.
Finally, it was discussed that Fannie Mae is projecting a strong recovery for the real estate market between 2010 and 2013. I hope all this means we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. -Brian
