Howard Hanna Year End Report: Best Year Ever

Online, March 19, 2010 (Newswire.com) - As Howard W. "Hoddy" Hanna, III, Chairman and CEO, opened his company's Annual Awards show he recalled the event the year before - February of 2009 - when pessimists, economists and media were saying that a depression was imminent due to the low consumer confidence, rising unemployment and drops in the stock market.

While a lot of those things did occur on a national level, they did not happen as severely in the real estate markets Howard Hanna serves.

Housing prices have stabilized, interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages are the lowest since the 1940's and the federal tax credits of $8,000 for first time home buyers and $6,500 for existing home owners make now the time to buy and sell real estate.

Incredible efforts during 2009 led to great results for Howard Hanna:

72% of Howard Hanna real estate agents, with one year of sales experience or more, were up in sales in 2009 over 2008.

Twelve (12) insurance agents joined Howard Hanna Insurance Services.

Nineteen (19) finance managers joined Howard Hanna Mortgage Services.

One hundred ninety-seven (197) REALTORS® from other companies joined Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

Three hundred (300) brand new sales associates joined Howard Hanna for their new career in real estate.

Almost tying their record of 2008 in selling 35,742 homes, Howard Hanna once again sold more than 35,000 homes with a volume of $5.6 billion and listed 33,553 homes for sale with a volume of $6.8 billion.

Howard Hanna Mortgage Services closed 7,377 mortgages with a volume of $1.1 billion - 49% ahead of the year before and breaking the billion dollar mark for the first time.

Howard Hanna Insurance Services wrote 6,523 new policies insuring more than $881 million in real estate - 20% more than the year before.

Barristers, the company's title company, closed 7,277 transactions with a volume of $1.2 billion - a 42% increase over the previous year.

Home warranties were also up 16% over 2008 and the company's one year old survey company, Great Lakes Survey, did 5,432 surveys in 2009.

Howard Hanna's consolidation of the October 31, 2008 Realty One Acquisition has led the company to greater sales forces and market share in the Northeast Ohio real estate market.

As corporate and industrial America start to re-tool during 2009, Howard Hanna prepared to be a uniquely targeted 34-person Relocation Division to drive business to their sales associates. The company's Relocation Horizons assists corporate relocation customers and the Hanna Gold Advantage program provides a menu of employee benefits for companies enrolled in the program. Both of these entities added new customers in 2009, along with Hanna Asset Management which offers property management of homes owned by corporations, estates and banks.

Howard Hanna continues to invest in the communities they do business in and has re-introduced and expanded their "Senior Platinum Plus Advantage Program" which offers advantages and benefits to Seniors thinking of moving to retirement communities.

The company's total volume in 2009 was $9.1 billion.

For more information on Howard Hanna, please visit the company's website: www.howardhanna.com