May 2010 PDX Wage Data: Salaried Real Estate Agent Median Wages Were at 42% of 4 Person HUD Median Family Income.

Annually the Department of Labor releases occupational wage data by metro area.  The latest release occurred this week, and reports on data as of May 2010; the national metro data as a zipped Excel file is HERE.  

I dug into the reports and looked at the classification: 41-9022.00 - Real Estate Sales Agents. It is IMPORTANT to note that the data below is ONLY for salaried agents and does NOT include the self employed, who represent the largest share of real estate agents. (I am not aware of a public source of information on median wages of self employed real estate agents, if you know of one please let me know).

As you will see in the table pasted below for the Portland Metro area as of May 2010:

1. There were 670 jobs in this category.
2. The median wage for this classification was $29,610.
3. Dividing that real estate agent median wage by the 2010 HUD 4 Person Portland Median Family Income of $71,200 means that the Portland Metro median real estate sales agent wage was at 42% of the HUD median family income.
4. If the average real estate agent wage of $39,000 was used this would raise the average real estate agent wage to 55% of the HUD Portland Median Family Income.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.