How Much Does a Real Estate Agent Make? Salary by State (May 2025)

How much does a real estate agent make a year?

BLS publishes pay for "Real Estate Sales Agents" (SOC 41-9022) in its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. For May 2025 it reports 193,370 agents in the survey, a median annual wage of $52,830 and a median hourly wage of $25.40 ^[1]. Half of these workers earned less than the median and half earned more.

The spread is wide. The 10th percentile was $32,970 and the 90th percentile was $123,590, a gap of more than $90,000. That gap tells you more than the median does: real estate pay depends heavily on how many deals an agent closes and at what prices.

Percentile	Annual wage, May 2025
10th	$32,970
25th	$40,040
Median	$52,830
75th	$82,020
90th	$123,590

For comparison, the median across all U.S. occupations in the same survey was $50,980. Real estate sales agents on payroll sit only slightly above the all-occupation median, but their top end is far higher.

How should you read the percentile range?

A percentile tells you the share of workers earning less than a given amount. At the 25th percentile, $40,040, a quarter of agents on payroll earned less and three quarters earned more. At the 75th percentile, $82,020, the reverse is true. The 90th percentile of $123,590 marks the level that only about one in ten agents on payroll reached.

Two cautions apply. First, the figures are annual wages for people who were employed in the survey period, so they do not show how pay changes from one year to the next for the same person. Second, the figures say nothing about hours worked, benefits or business costs, so two agents with the same wage can have very different working lives. We do not guess at those details.

Why do these figures leave out many real estate agents?

BLS OEWS surveys employers and counts wage and salary workers. It does not count self-employed people. That matters here because most real estate agents are independent contractors who are paid commission, not a wage.

NAR, the industry trade association, reports in its 2024 Member Profile, which covers 2023, that 88 percent of REALTORS were independent contractors and 5 percent were employees ^[2]. This is industry data from NAR's own member survey, not a government count. NAR's consumer page on agent income likewise says the majority of agents work on a broker-agent commission split ^[4].

The practical meaning is that the OEWS median describes a minority slice of the field: agents on a payroll, for example at certain brokerages, developers or property companies. If you plan to work as a commission-based agent, treat the OEWS numbers as a rough reference point and not as a prediction.

How does commission pay work for agents?

An agent usually does not keep the full commission on a sale. The brokerage the agent works under takes a share, and the two agree on a commission split. NAR's 2024 Member Profile reports that in 2023, 35 percent of REALTORS were compensated under a fixed commission split (under 100 percent), 20 percent under a graduated split that increases with productivity, and 20 percent under a capped split that rises to 100 percent after a predetermined threshold ^[2]. Those are industry percentages for NAR members, not a rule.

The earlier 2023 Member Profile, covering 2022, adds that agents with less experience more often had a graduated split, and that brokers were more likely than sales agents to keep 100 percent of commission ^[3]. NAR's agent income page says the brokerage an agent works for can affect income because of differences in commission splits and in the support the brokerage provides ^[4].

Independent contractors also pay their own business costs and are responsible for their own taxes. NAR reports total median business expenses of $8,450 in 2023, up from $8,210 the year before. Treat any gross figure from a member survey as income before those expenses, not as take-home pay.

What does NAR's own income data show about new and experienced agents?

Because OEWS cannot see self-employed agents, the best available window into them is NAR's member survey, which we label here as industry data from a trade association and not as a government statistic. In the 2024 Member Profile, the median gross income of REALTORS, meaning income from real estate activities, was $55,800 in 2023, down from $56,400 in 2022 ^[2].

The more telling numbers are by experience. Members with 16 years or more of experience reported a median gross income of $92,500, while members with two years or less reported $8,100. The same NAR survey shows a median gross income of only $8,100 for agents with two years or less of experience, before business expenses. That is a reminder that commission-only income can start very low, and that the first years often depend on savings or other income.

The 2023 Member Profile, covering 2022, reports that people who function as sales agents typically had a median gross income of $46,300, with brokers, owners, managers and appraisers higher ^[3]. These are survey medians for NAR members and differ in method from BLS, so do not add them to the OEWS figures or treat them as a forecast.

Which states pay real estate agents the most and the least?

BLS reports median annual wages by state for the same occupation. These are medians for agents on payroll, so small states can be affected by who happens to be in the sample.

Highest median	Annual wage	Lowest median	Annual wage
District of Columbia	$123,770	Arkansas	$38,180
New York	$102,990	Mississippi	$39,550
New Jersey	$99,990	Kansas	$39,770
Alaska	$89,170	Idaho	$39,820
Nevada	$79,990	Missouri	$43,960

BLS did not publish a real estate sales agent median for Iowa, Massachusetts or Vermont, so those states are listed as not published. We do not estimate them. You can look up every other state, and compare other careers, on our salary by state tool.

Comparing each state with the all-occupation median for the same state gives a different view. In 30 of the 48 states with published figures, the agent median was above the state's all-occupation median. In the other 18 it was below. New York had the largest gap in agents' favor, with $102,990 against $59,670 for all jobs. Connecticut had the largest gap the other way, with $46,770 against $59,690.

Higher pay in places like New York and D.C. does not automatically mean a better living. Housing costs, taxes and the price of everyday goods are higher there too, and a high median reflects higher home prices as much as higher effort. Compare pay against local costs before drawing conclusions.

What affects how much a real estate agent earns?

Sources point to a few factors, and we describe them only in general terms.

• Commission split and brokerage. As NAR notes, the brokerage and the split it offers can change what an agent keeps from the same sale.
• Experience. NAR's survey shows a very large difference between members with two years or less and those with 16 years or more.
• Local market. The BLS state medians above show how much pay differs by location.
• Employment type. A payroll agent receives a wage that BLS can measure. A commission-only independent contractor does not, which is why the two groups should not be compared directly.

We cannot tell you how much a new agent will earn in the first year. Income for independent agents is variable by nature, and nothing in the sources above guarantees a level of pay.

Hourly pay or yearly pay: which number should you use?

BLS reports the median as $25.40 an hour, which equals the $52,830 annual figure for a full-time schedule. Many agents do not work set hours, so an hourly rate is a weak way to think about the job. A commission agent might spend many hours on showings, paperwork and prospecting for a sale that takes weeks to close. For planning, look at the annual range in the table above and keep the self-employment caveat in mind.

How do you get started as an agent?

O*NET OnLine lists the work as renting, buying or selling property for clients: interviewing clients about what they want, presenting offers, negotiating between buyers and sellers and coordinating closings ^[5]. Getting started means a state real estate license, and the rules differ by state. As one example, as of November 2026 the California Department of Real Estate says you must be 18 or older to be issued a salesperson license, must complete three college-level courses to qualify for the exam, and must pass a written examination ^[6]. Check your own state's real estate commission for its rules. We cover the full steps on our how-to page for real estate agents, and you can browse state license information separately. For other pay comparisons, see our truck driver salary and firefighter salary guides, or the wider careers hub.