- An influx of new professionals into the real estate industry is bringing down the age and experience level of the typical Realtor.
Senior discounts are still on the near horizon for many Realtors, but their median age has finally begun to fall.
After trending upward for close to a decade, the median age of Realtors has recently dropped amid an influx of young professionals.
Realtors’ median age fell to 53 in 2015 from 57 in 2014, its lowest level since 2008, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors. NAR’s 2016 Member Profile also found that Realtors’ median years of experience fell to 10 years from 12 from 2014 to 2015.
The report was based on over 10,000 survey responses.
The median age of Realtors dropped “because more people entered the real estate profession this year than in past years, with 20 percent of members reporting one year or less of experience,” said NAR President Tom Salomone.
In the 2014, only 11 percent of members had one year or less of experience.
Source: National Association of Realtors 2016 Membership Profile
The share of Realtors under 30 more than doubled from 2014 to 2015, climbing to 5 percent from 2 percent, while the share of Realtors over 60 fell to 30 percent from 41 percent.
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The demographic shift coincided with rapid growth in NAR’s membership. It increased by about 69,000 from 2014 to 2015, bringing the total number of Realtors to 1,168,000 at the end of 2015. (As of April 2016, that number had grown to 1,174,000.)
Real estate’s greenhorns tend to be more diverse than their more experienced peers. Eighty-nine percent of Realtors with 16 or more years of experience are white, compared with only 78 percent who have only been the business for two years or less.
The surge in new agents predictably drove down Realtors’ typical earnings, with their median gross income sliding to $39,200 in 2015 from $45,800 in 2014.
The median gross income of members with two years or less experience illustrates rookies’ drag on the overall median gross income of Realtors. It was only $8,500 in 2015, down from $9,100 in 2014.
The most seasoned Realtors fared better in 2015 than the previous year, with the median gross income of Realtors with 16 years of experience or more rising to $73,400 from $68,800 in 2014.
