Top real estate executives continue to be bullish about improvement in the U.S. housing market, but less than they have been the past two years, according to a new study from Bellevue-based Imprev.

“What’s most interesting is that leaders of larger brokerage firms are typically far more bullish on the outlook for housing and the U.S. economy than leaders of smaller brokerage firms,” said Renwick Congdon, chief executive officer of Imprev, a real estate technology company specializing in agent marketing and branding.

“However, the larger firms are comparatively less confident in their firm’s ability to be more profitable in the next 12 months.”

Respondents to the 2014 Imprev Thought Leader Survey included more than 270 broker-owners and top executives at leading franchises and independent brokerage firms that were responsible for nearly half of all U.S. residential real estate transactions last year.

Key findings:

U.S. housing market demand: Approximately half (52 percent) of the real estate leaders surveyed say that housing market demand will improve or significantly improve over the next 12 months, down from 58 percent last year.
2015 housing market confidence: Confidence in next year’s housing market is a little less bullish compared to last year’s survey: 18 percent are “very confident” in the 2015 housing market, down from 23 percent last year. However, 79 percent are “somewhat confident,” up from 73 percent from last year’s survey.

World economy confidence: More than half the real estate leaders surveyed say they have grown less confident (55 percent) in the world economy since January; that compares to 24 percent last year.

Profitability concerns – size matters: The larger the brokerage, the lower the confidence in greater profits ahead.

The 2014 Fall Imprev Thought Leader survey was conducted October 20-31, 2014. Of the respondents, 68 percent were male, 32 percent female. Approximately one-third (32.5 percent) of the 270 respondents were 61 years old or older; 32.5 percent were ages 51 to 60; 25 percent were ages 41 to 50; and 12 percent were ages 31 to 40. None of the respondents are under the age of 30.