At a time when most brokerages are losing volume, @properties has increased its volume and market share.

The five biggest residential brokerages in the Chicagoland area all retained their top-five stature in 2011, but only one increased its sales volume from 2010.

@properties was the lone brokerage to grow last year, increasing its sales volume by 9 percent from $2.07 billion in 2010 to $2.27 billion in 2011. The other four brokerages – Coldwell Banker, Baird & Warner, Koenig & Strey and Prudential Rubloff – all saw their sales volumes decrease.

According to data from REAL Trends and cited by Chicago Real Estate Daily, @properties was also one of only two brokerages to increase its number of transactions as well. Here’s how the numbers broke down in 2011:

• Coldwell Banker – 16,896, down 4 percent from 2010.
• Baird & Warner – 14,489, up 8.6 percent from 2010.
• @properties – 5,801, up 13.3 percent from 2010.
• Koenig & Strey – 4,115, down 2 percent from 2010.
• Prudential Rubloff – 3,632, down 34 percent from 2010.

Since 2009, the firm’s sales have increased by nearly 28 percent, whereas Coldwell Banker’s have fallen by 4 percent and Baird & Warner’s by 2 percent.

@properties has added several North Shore offices, with the most recent one opening in Lake Forest in February, and co-founder Michael Golden told the Daily they are now looking west.

“Once we’re done north, then we’ll go west and that’s really Baird & Warner’s stronghold,” he said.

Overall, @properties ranked third in sales, behind Baird & Warner with $3.04 billion and Coldwell Banker NRT, which held the number one spot by a wide margin at $5.31 billion. Koenig & Strey Real Living came in at number four with $1.76 billion (an 11 percent drop from 2010) and Prudential Rubloff was fifth with $1.72 billion.

Murray said aggressive recruiting and superior broker services have produced the most success for firms during the downturn.

“That’s it, period,” he said. “Anybody doing those two things will have grown relative to other companies.”