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Women real estate professionals earn an average of 89.2 percent of men’s salaries in the industry, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data conducted by commercial real estate portal MyEListing.
Over the last five years, the median salaries of men and women in real estate have increased by an average of 20 percent, but women still earn about $6,662 less annually than men, according to the study. In 2021 alone, women real estate professionals earned a median salary of $54,880, while men earned a median salary of $61,542.
But income and gender pay gap disparities are not equal in all markets, MyEListing’s analysis found. Women in real estate who want a little assistance in leveling the playing field may want to give living in Toledo, Ohio, a try.
The city was ranked the No. 1 metro area for women working in real estate, based on metrics of the gender pay gap, the percentage of women who make up the real estate workforce, the five-year growth rate for women in real estate and the median income of women real estate professionals.
Women in real estate in Toledo make 136 percent of the earnings of men in real estate in the city — the fourth highest in the country. Women also hold a majority of real estate jobs in the city at 59 percent of all real estate jobs. From 2017 to 2021, women saw a 98 percent increase in employment in the real estate industry in Toledo, and the city also maintains the fifth-highest average salary for female real estate professionals at $78,782.
Following Toledo — Stockton, California, is the second best place for women in the industry, with women making 155 percent of the wages of men and an average salary of $86,818. Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, New York, was the third-best market for women in real estate, with a 368 percent increase in women employed in the industry over the last five years and women making 103 percent the wages of their male counterparts.
Credit: MyEListing
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Spokane-Spokane Valley, Washington, was ranked the worst metro area for women working in real estate. Women real estate professionals in the city only make 55 percent of what men make, and their average salary is $41,426, the sixth lowest salary by metro area for women real estate professionals in the country. Similarly, just 37 percent of real estate professionals in the city are women, and the percentage of women in real estate declined 33.9 percent in the last five years.
Greenville-Anderson, South Carolina, and Portland-South Portland, Maine, came in at second- and third-worst places for women in real estate. In Greenville-Anderson, just 31 percent of real estate professionals are women (that figure has dropped about 33 percent in the last five years) and in Portland-South Portland, just 36 percent of real estate professionals are women, a 47 percent decline since 2017.
Credit: MyEListing
Just because a particular market is performing well doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be a place where women real estate professionals will thrive, MyEListing’s study noted.
“For example, the real estate market in Boise, Idaho, has been booming since the pandemic but ranks number 75 on our list for women working in the industry, mainly due to its lower median salary for women and female employment growth,” the analysis states. “Similarly, although the Spokane real estate market has been on an uptick lately, the city ranks as dead last: Number 100 in our rankings.”
