Number of Realtors in the USA by State | 2023

How Many Realtors Are in the USA?

There are 1,548,058 Realtors in the United States as of January, 2023.

The number of Realtors hit an all-time record as recently as December, 2022, before falling 2% in the new year. NAR expects the number of Realtors to decline in 2023 as the housing market cools.

There are an estimated 2,000,000 or more licensed real estate agents.

Florida has more Realtors than any other US State, with 218,906 Realtors compared to California’s 202,970.

NAR publishes its membership report monthly where this information is visible publicly.

Number of Realtors by State

Realtor vs Real Estate Agent

“Realtor” and “real estate agent” are not the same thing.

“Realtor” is a trademarked term for a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Not all licensed real estate agents are members of NAR.

For example, Texas shows 279,831 licenses when searching TREC’s database versus just 148,424 NAR members.

Most real estate agents are Realtors because the local association owns the MLS, and joining the association is a prerequisite for MLS membership.

Often, commercial real estate agents are not NAR members because they don’t rely on the MLS for commercial deals.

Realtors in Canada

Canada also has “Realtors”, and not just real estate agents, defined as members of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA).

Their website suggests there are over 160,000 Canadian Realtors.

Are There Too Many Realtors?

Can you guess the most common number of deals an agent does in a year? I.e. the “mode” number of transactions in America?

If you guess ZERO, congratualtions!

In this interesting video on real estate agents, Alex Rampell points out that more agents do 0 deals than any other number of deals.

This might be explained by the number of agents who have licenses but aren’t actively prospecting, or refer their business out.

That might also explain why new agents make so little money.

But if you ask top performers in the industry, a common complaint is how easy it is to get a license. They bemoan how “Realtor” is given a bad name by poorly trained newbies leaving contract fields blank and unprofessional service.

Because of the low barrier to entry, the number of Realtors grows when the market is hot and shrinks when the market is falling. It’s not a surprise that the number hit record highs in 2022 on the tail of one of the hottest markets in recent memory. “Even a turkey can fly in a hurricane”.

What some of the stuffy top producers miss is the Pareto principle: 80% of the outcomes are explained by 20% of the causes.

In this case, it means that 80% of real estate deals are done by 20% of real estate professionals.

In real estate, it’s probably closer to 90:10.

That means the total number of Realtors doesn’t mean very much except inasmuch as it pads NAR’s pockets with dues. The top-performing agents and teams are still doing all the deals.

Conclusion

Interested in joining the ranks of Realtors? Look at my guide to becoming a successful, top-producing Realtor in Texas.

Updated 2/12/2023; Originally published November 27, 2021