Introduction

The post-recession era reshaped the landscape of a real estate industry grappling with a glut of distressed properties and anemic economic growth. These results, from the latest Inman News survey of real estate compensation, reveals a dramatically different picture from the inaugural report in 2006 — the pinnacle of record-breaking U.S. home prices and appreciation rates.

The latest findings reflect industry commission income trends since those halcyon days. Indeed, in the past five years the national median sales price for existing homes has fallen 27 percent, to $177,000, and National Association of Realtors membership has declined 21.4 percent since 2006, to 1.06 million.

Today, the terms "REO" (for real estate-owned, aka bank-owned property) and "short sale" are an everyday part of the industry vernacular.
Some survey respondents shared their frustration about deals falling through in the tough economic environment, with some expecting this decade to usher in a new era for real estate compensation.

The 2011 latest survey sought more detailed responses related to compensation rates for short sales and REOs, as those properties represent a large share of total sales — in some markets, in fact, sales of distressed properties far outnumber sales of nondistressed properties.

Also, this latest survey sought more detailed responses than its predecessor compensation surveys, and the language and response choices in some cases varies from survey to survey, so comparisons with results from the 2009 and 2006 surveys are interpreted more broadly when possible.