The largest residential real estate broker in New York — RealtyUSA — announced Wednesday it has merged with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services — the largest broker in Pennsylvania and Ohio — to create the third-largest real estate company in the U.S.

“It's a big move,” said Howard “Hoddy” Hanna III, chairman and CEO of the O'Hara-based Howard Hanna Real Estate. “We are taking over the state of New York. We are very excited about that. Even more, we are the third largest real estate company in the U.S. and the No. 1 privately owned real estate company.”

RealtyUSA is the No. 1 broker in the state of New York with 65 office locations covering western and central New York, northern New York, the capital region and the southern tier. The company has more than 2,200 sales associates and employees and is ranked the 9th largest real estate company in the country with 23,023 closed transactions last year.

Howard Hanna is the No. 1 broker in Pennsylvania and Ohio with 205 office locations in eight states — Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Michigan, West Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland. The company has more than 7,100 agents and employees and closed more than 66,714 transactions last year.

The combined performance of the joint company accounts for $16.2 billion in closed sales volume last year and 89,737 closed transactions.

There will be no change to the company name or to local leadership. The RealtyUSA logo, however, will feature the the tagline “A Howard Hanna Company.”

Tim Grant: tgrant@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1591.

First Published: July 13, 2016, 4:30 p.m.
Updated: July 14, 2016, 2:40 a.m.