Real Estate

The real estate industry is a critical driver of the U.S. economic growth. It encompasses organizations and individuals that engage in the trade of land, improvements, or permanent attachments to it such as houses, trees, minerals, and water, as well as all the related ownership rights including the right to possess, sell, lease, and enjoy the land.

Categories of real estate include: 

Residential real estate

These are real properties used as a residence or dwelling by one or more households as a house or an apartment.

The household may buy the property or rent it out. The apartment rental industry in the U.S. employs more than 850,000 workers and represents 589,000 businesses. Most of the lessors are small, independent lessors.

Small lessors, property owners or landlords who are not real estate professionals use a property management company service to handle upkeep, maintenance, and tenant relations. The property management industry employs more than 840,000 workers and accounts for more than 308,000 companies.

Commercial real estate

Companies in the commercial real estate business construct or develop commercial industrial and multifamily residential property or provide commercial real estate services including renting, leasing, managing, buying, and selling real estate, appraising real property. Examples of real properties that they develop and use exclusively for business purposes include apartment complexes, stores, offices, gas stations, restaurants, parking facilities.

The commercial real estate industry in the U.S. generates an estimated $889 billion of revenue per year through construction fees that general contractors charge, service fees and commissions that agents, brokers, and consultants receive; management fees, and rent that property owners, developers, and real estate investment trusts collect.

The commercial real estate industry employs more than 3 million workers and encompasses more than 2 million companies, none of whom has more than 5% of the industry market share. There are companies that build, manage, lease, buy and sell properties across the retail, institutional, multifamily residential, healthcare, and industrial markets. 

Industrial real estate

These are real properties used for manufacturing, goods production, distribution, warehousing, and to conduct research and development activity. 

Land

This refers to undeveloped property, vacant land, farms, ranches. 

Public real property

This refers to real property that the government manages such as public schools, cemeteries, government buildings, public libraries, parks, places of worship.