By DAVID GREENBERG
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
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“Our students are generally optimistic about real estate right now,” said Sonia Savoulian, director of alumni and student services for the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. “They see a lot of opportunity. This is a business they are glad to get into.”
At USC, where two graduate schools and one undergraduate school offer degrees with a real estate concentration, 130 students received degrees this spring, up from about 50 five years ago.
At UCLA, the number of graduate students belonging to the Anderson Real Estate Association, which promotes the sector for its career opportunities, jumped to 105 this year from 25 five years ago. The school will offer its first undergraduate real estate course next spring and plans to offer a degree in the field down the road.
“Getting a job out of the program is really not a challenge,” said Brian Garrigan, a retail broker for Irvine-based Reza Investment Group, who earned his master’s in real estate development at USC last month. “Most of us were recruited by large development companies.”
The number of licensed real estate brokers grew by one-third in the past five years, to 443,378 in May, according to the California Department of Real Estate. With more agents on the scene, a shortage of deals-per-agent could hit the profession.
Of course, veteran brokers pick up the lion’s share of the business. Young brokers “probably have spent a lot of money on refrigerator magnets,” said Jack Kyser, senior economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “A lot of them will probably get out of the business after awhile.”
Students point to an estimated shortage of 280,000 housing units in the Los Angeles area as evidence that there will be enough demand and development activity in future years to keep everyone busy.
“Right now the timing seems to be good,” said Omer Ben-Zur, who is on track to earn a master’s degree in business administration from UCLA next spring.