Even we were surprised by some of the following facts.

The U.S. housing market is a massive industry, one that incorporates not only elements of real estate, but of banking (both commercial and investment), appraising, marketing, advertising and the law, to name a few!

Such a gargantuan field is bound to surprise, and thanks to a new report from Placester, we’ve collected some truly mind-blowing facts about real estate in the U.S.

133,026,000

The number of housing units in the U.S.

$25.7 trillion

The combined value of those housing units

$18.1 trillion

The combined GDP of the European Union – in other words, U.S. housing alone is larger than the GDP of the EU!

2 million

The number of people employed by the real estate industry

166,140

The number of agents and brokers working today, according to the Census Bureau

1.4%

The share of the civilian population working in real estate

84%

The share of real estate firms that are independent, non-franchised companies; 13 percent are franchises, 3 percent corporate subsidies

4 out of 5

The ratio of real estate firms who have a single office and specialize in residential brokerage

10.8%

The rate that total employment is expected to increase from 2012 to 2022 (that’s 15.6 million people!)