Real estate employment - and more especially membership in Realtor associations - fluctuates with the housing industry's ebbs and flows, said Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast at the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. When times get tough, Conway said, some keep their state real estate licenses, hoping to return to the field later without retaking a licensing test, but relinquish their Realtor memberships.
