NAR membership swelled to 1.6 million members in 2021, the highest for any year in the association’s over-100-year history. The ranks swelled by over 156,000 in just 2021 alone. With a blazing housing market, great price appreciation and the pandemic shifting the job market, many professionals turned their eyes to a real estate career and saw the appeal. While the industry is riding high right now, the ranks will shrink again when the market cools. Indeed, they make shrink further than in years past as a maturing industry demands more from agents than ever before.