Despite headwinds, Realtors’ gross median income increased 4 percent year over year to $58,100 in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest member profile. The report, published on Wednesday, also revealed steady transaction side trends, with the typical Realtor closing 10 deals worth $2.5 million.
NAR Deputy Chief Economist Jessica Lautz said the Association’s member profile reflects the industry’s resilience, with new agents seizing opportunities to learn in a topsy-turvy market and more experienced agents consistently finding new ways to thrive.
“The real estate market will always have a consistent flow of new entrepreneurs,” she said. “At the same time, existing practitioners are expanding their business specialties or remaining focused on helping their clients overcome their biggest stressors in the market: housing affordability and elevated mortgage rates.”
The typical Realtor is more seasoned, the report said, with the median years of experience bumping up from 10 in 2023 to 12 in 2024. The share of Realtors with more than 25 years of experience increased too, rising 10 percent year over year to 21 percent. Those years of experience are paying off, with Realtors logging 16 or more years of experience reporting the highest median gross (i.e. before taxes and expenses) and net (i.e. after taxes and expenses) incomes of any group.
“As Realtors gained a larger network of referrals and previous clients and experience, their income generally rose,” the report read. “For example, Realtors with 16 years or more experience had a median gross income of $78,900. By contrast, Realtors who’d worked in the business for two years or less had a median gross income of $8,100.”
Those income gains are hard-earned, NAR said, with members saying that affordability, low inventory and waning consumer confidence have made the buying and selling process more tenuous.
Housing affordability (25 percent), expectation of declining mortgage rates (19 percent), lack of inventory (17 percent), difficulty in finding the right property (10 percent) and expectations of future price declines (6 percent) were the biggest challenges for Realtors and their clients in 2024, the report said. However, seven percent of members said “no factors” were limiting their clients in the market.
With persistent challenges on the horizon, NAR said its members are expanding their repertoire and digging into their databases to drum up more opportunities.
Although the majority of Realtors focus on residential sales (70 percent), a growing number are expanding into residential property management (15 percent), relocation (14 percent) and commercial brokerage services (14 percent). Land and development sales (8 percent), counseling (5 percent) and commercial property management (5 percent) were also part of the top five secondary business specialties.
As for lead generation, 20 percent of the typical Realtor’s sales came from repeat clients, and 21 percent came from referrals. That share increased as Realtors broke the 16-year mark, with Realtors in that bracket saying 40 percent of their sales come from repeat clients. Meanwhile, 28 percent of their sales came from referrals.
Realtors are also leaning on technology to streamline their businesses, with more than a third of NAR members using e-contracts, forms and signatures, and contact and social media management tools on a daily basis. They’re also leveraging technology to slim their expenses, with total median annual business expenses declining from $8,450 in 2023 to $8,010 in 2024.
Lautz said the report’s findings offer a bright silver lining for the industry’s future.
“Despite the headwinds in the current market, the majority of agents who are Realtors plan on staying in real estate as an active professional,” she said.
