A recent WalletHub study of 179 U.S. cities determined that Seattle is the top market for real estate agents to currently work in, and Corpus Christi, Texas, was deemed the worst.
In studying the cities, two factors were considered — job opportunity and competition, and real estate market health. Within those categories, each city was scored on a scale of 1 (the top score) to 179 (the lowest score) based on sales per agent, annual median wage for real-estate agents, housing-market health index, and more.
Seattle scored a 1 and 43, respectively, and Corpus Christi scored 178 and 146, respectively.
The other cities ranked in the top 10 metros for real estate agents are Pearl City, Hawaii (7 and 14), Sacramento, California (9 and 10), Salt Lake City (20 and 5), Denver (6 and 51), Nashville (17 and 12), Washington D.C. (2 and 116), Huntsville, Alabama (35 and 6), Austin (48 and 7), San Jose, California (3 and 134), and Vancouver, Washington (24 and 24).
Other cities ranked in the bottom 10 metros for real estate agents are Las Cruces, New Mexico (174 and 139), Newark (130 and 179), Dover, Delaware (172 and 156), Brownsville, Texas (179 and 30), Shreveport, Louisiana (177 and 139), Buffalo, New York (175 and 151), Detroit (124 and 176), Columbus, Georgia (166 and 158), and Baton Rouge, Louisiana (170 and 148).
WalletHub found that real estate agents in Denver and Aurora, Colorado, receive the highest annual median wages at $90,180, while agents in Salem, Oregon make the lowest annual wage at $26,850.
“The current real estate market is difficult for buyers, because even though interest rates are low, inventory is down by more than half compared to last year,” read a WalletHub statement. “Certain cities are bigger hotspots than others, though. In the coming year, real estate agents may want to relocate to places with the highest demand for housing, and that pay the best for their expert guidance.”
Of note, the 37th-ranked city for real estate agents to work in — Missoula, Montana — was the top-ranked market for real estate market health. The second-ranked city for real estate market health is Reno, Nevada, and the third-ranked city is Lubbock, Texas.
San Jose had the third-highest score in WalletHub’s job opportunity and competition category, but finished 134th in real estate market health. Similarly, Washington D.C. scored the second-highest in job opportunity and competition but scored a 116 in real estate market health. Boston scored the fourth-highest in job opportunity and competition but 145th in real estate market health.
Despite topping WalletHub’s overall rankings, Seattle (and Tacoma, Washington) agents were found to make the 107th-lowest amount of sales per year. Agents in Stockton and Santa Rosa, California, Knoxville, Tennessee, Providence, Rhode Island, and New Haven, Connecticut, all tied for the top spot in metros with the highest average number of sales per agents.
Cape Coral, Florida, was ranked the worst city in the country for prospective real estate agents to move to if looking for a job in the field. Lewiston, Maine, was ranked the top city for prospective real estate agents to move to.
Homes in San Jose spend the fewest days on the market, WalletHub found, followed by Seattle, Gilbert, Arizona, Oakland, and Mesa, Arizona. Homes in New York spend the most amount of time on the market.
Stockton, California, has the most homes sold in the past year per real-estate agent with 103.66 — 25.5 times more than in Nashua, New Hampshire, the city with the fewest at 4.06. San Jose listings have the fewest days on the market, 37, which is 4.8 times fewer than listings in New York, the city with the most at 178.
WalletHub also found that Memphis, Tennessee, has the highest share of home flips at 11.95% per sale. That’s 6.1 times higher than in Portland, Maine, where the flip rate is only 1.95%
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