Survey finds huge pay gap between white and Black realtors

White agents made more than counterparts of color

(iStock/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)
(iStock/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)

There’s a huge income gap between white realtors and their Black, Hispanic/Latino and Asian counterparts.

White realtors made nearly three times as much in 2020 as Black agents, according to an annual survey from the National Association of Realtors, first reported by Inman. The median gross personal income for the former hit $49,400 last year. For the latter, it was just $16,700.

Among Hispanic/Latino members, the median gross personal income was $26,600; for Asian/Pacific Islander members, it was $27,400.

“Understanding income and transaction differences among races, genders, and sexual orientation is step one, but the next step is learning why there are differences,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR’s vice president of demographics and behavioral insights, in a statement.

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White realtors had a median tenure of 10 years, which is twice that of Asian members. Black and Latino respondents both had a median tenure of four years. White realtors also closed more residential transactions in 2020, with seven deals on average. For Hispanic/Latino members, that number was three; for Black and Asian agents, it was two.

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The report also touched on gender and sexuality. For LGBTQ+ members, the median gross personal income was $38,800, and $34,100 for heterosexual members. For men it was $35,700, and for women it was slightly lower, at $33,500.

The survey was sent in February to 208,000 of NAR’s 1.4 million members. More than 18,000 responded. NAR cautioned that the report oversampled members of color.

[Inman] — Sasha Jones