Never seen anything like this market

From the Worchester Business Journal:

Housing downturn isn’t just hard on sellers

Part of the allure of the real estate market is the ability to make a quick buck. For real estate agents in particular, there has historically been the promise of good money and flexible hours.

But according to recently released statistics from the National Association of Realtors, the money for Massachusetts agents isn’t that good, and with the housing downturn, it’s not likely to get better any time soon.
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Residential real estate has become a game of survival of the fittest, according to Leif Rosseland, a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage manager based in Worcester. Agents who got into the business in the last five years, “when we were basically order-takers,” are getting out, he said.

“Agents who have gotten into the business (recently) have never seen anything like this market now,” Rosseland said, noting there’s been a 30 to 40 percent decrease in the number of agents versus two years ago in some places. Particularly hard hit, according to Rosseland, are newer agents.
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“If they think they’re going to do the same things they were doing three years ago, they’re not selling,” Certo said.

Those agents “are in a wait-and-see pattern. They think it’s going to go back to the way it was, and it is, but it’s an eight- or nine-year cycle. They’re saying, ‘It’s bad now, but if I just hang in there.'”