To Vanessa Johnson, being selected as the new 2025 board president for the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors is important, especially since she is the first Hispanic person to hold the position.
Becoming president of the association, while being someone of her ethnicity, is “profound,” she said.
“It really struck me when I spoke with a colleague’s daughter that said, ‘You just made it possible for me to do something like this for somebody who is like me, who is raised by a Hispanic father.’ She’s like, ‘It just means so much for me that you are holding that role.’
“And that’s the first time, I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s profound.’”
Johnson, a real estate agent and team lead at eXp Realty and a nearly 20-year industry veteran, will be the first Hispanic person to hold the volunteer position of the metro area group, a membership association with over 5,000 Realtors and affiliate members and over 7,500 MLSOK members.
Her career started at Keller Williams Green Meadows selling houses throughout Oklahoma City and its suburbs. She holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in political science and social work from Austin College, where she graduated from in 1992. She moved with her family to Moore in 2004.
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The Oklahoman recently spoke to Johnson about her new role and the real estate climate in Oklahoma City:
Q: Congratulations on your new role with the association! How do you feel about being the first Hispanic person to hold the position?
I couldn’t believe that I was the first Hispanic in this role. I thought we had come further in society, especially considering the work that we do, there is a lot of advocating for homeownership and equality and all the things, so it was really shocking for me to hear that. I wish my father was alive, so he could see it, because I was the first something for Latinas. …
Being a Uriegas my whole life, becoming a Johnson certainly opened opportunities up for me, of that I’m aware. But seeing it, this way, as a Johnson, but my heritage ― I’m a Uriegas.
Q: Why do you think it took so long for the board to elect a Hispanic president?
Being involved in the board, I don’t think it’s an exclusionary thing. When you get involved at that level, for free, like you know, we’re volunteering up here on the board, you don’t realize the impact you’ve made or the impact you’re making.
I just knew going into it, it was just a matter of being so involved that no one could deny it. And my colleagues always encouraged me to step in. We run for the board first, and then our colleagues vote us in. I was on the board for six years before I became president-elect. And then, I was voted by board members.
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I just love our profession so much that I just kept going where they needed me to go, and it was the right direction for me to go into the presidency role. But I do feel like me taking a stand for myself that I deserved to be there, and I was there for the right reasons. Then, my colleagues pushed me up there, and it was a progression. And I think that now that more Hispanic people are involved in the board, I welcome inclusion and diversity. And I feel like neighborhoods and societies are only better when everyone’s involved. I really pressed people that I worked with to get involved and do things that we need to be doing. My father impressed that in me a long time ago that we’re not in rooms because we don’t put ourselves in rooms.
So, put yourself in the room.
Q: What does the board do?
In a nutshell, what we do is provide educational service for our members, advocacy service and better the community. As real estate agents, we want Oklahoma to be as vibrant as possible for people moving here. So that’s where our advocacy work comes in.That starts at the policy level. We deal a lot with city planning and pushing initiatives forward. And advocacy is a huge part of what we do to push for homeowner rights.
Q: You’ve worked as a real estate agent in Oklahoma since 2005. Could you tell me about your background and career?
I graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and started working as a social worker with juveniles. Then I met my husband and moved to North Carolina and continued to do that there. When he went into the NFL, I continued to work. But, then I got pregnant. They won’t let you work with juveniles when you’re pregnant, so I left that field.
It’s still a big piece of my heart — advocacy. Advocacy was the forefront of why I worked with juveniles. So I still solve problems, but they’re just different problems now with people in housing. It’s a similar career path. I joke that I can solve everyone’s problems but my own. So now, I solve people’s housing problems.
Q: What do you expect to see in OKC’s real estate market in 2025?
We are a vibrant and growing city, and I credit a lot of that to the the vision of our mayor. I think he has a great vision. Going to his State of the City and seeing his vision come to life, especially when you see the economic development of the city, and not just one part of the city but every portion of the city, he’s really trying to make the whole of Oklahoma City great.
You can look at the development in the north side of the city, you can see the difference. I feel like there’s a really big effort and moves. We have the economy, and we just have to get people here. We are one of the cheapest places to live, and I think people are picking up on it.
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It’s up and coming. I think we are moving at a nice level. We need to make sure we have affordable housing, and I think they are addressing that right now. I think that’s something they’re doing this year. When we start taking care of people, that’s when we start growing. I really do see a vibrancy here.
Q: What are some trends you’re seeing in the real estate industry you expect to continue into next year?
When you see our prices and compare them to the rest of the country, you really see the difference. When you have people coming from California and they see what they can buy here, it’s something they can’t even touch there. The affordability is still here.
Commerce is also doing well here. We’re not just relying on oil and gas industries. We have technology and other fields growing here. We have a way to bring them in.
We’re on a growth trajectory, so I think we can really grow and provide services here.
Q: Where are the hottest real estate markets in Oklahoma? What regions are selling most? What regions are developing most?
I know there’s a lot of development in Yukon. There’s a lot of open movement towards Yukon. Moore has always been very vibrant because it’s close to all the FAA and Tinker Air Force Base. We’re the largest land mass-wise, so we’re all still connected. I feel like people are moving toward Piedmont and developing that land, because people want space.
Yukon has been highly sought after. And it’s a big rental market, which is crazy to me, because I never really thought about it. But when you think about really good schools and Mustang. There’s also Choctaw, which again, is another land mass, but it has a great school system, so it is drawing people. And they are all centrally located in major corridors, so they are always going to be vibrant. I think those are some really hot spots.
Q: How do you expect the real estate market to look next year?
I think we’re going to hold steady until we see some interest from the rates. But, I think that anything under $300,000 in Oklahoma is considered affordable, and those properties are still moving really quickly. So, I think people are settling that those rates are what they are, and moving forward.
We’re getting more inventory, so when there’s more competition, it might increase the property value.
Then, we have a lot of baby boomers aging out. There’s going to be a huge need to move that housing. And I think that’s going to happen in the next five years, and it might happen in the next two. But you have them phasing out, and that’s a huge population. And where are we going to put them? And what are we going to do? And do we have enough nursing homes and enough places to take care of our elderly? And I think that’s another issue Oklahoma hasn’t really thought about.
That’s another housing scenario. And it happens every seven years.
