Ever wondered where’s the best place to hang out your shingle if you’re a real estate agent?
If so, WalletHub can help you out. The company has just compiled a list of the best and worst cities in the U.S. for selling real estate.
WalletHub produces a number of lists such as this one. It took on the real estate profession because, the company said, total home sales are expected to reach six million this year, the highest level since 2006.
So where can someone selling homes expect to be happy and productive? And where are the cities that would fall on the not-so-much side?
The results
WalletHub’s analysts compared the 150 biggest cities to determine which among them is most conducive to a healthy career as a real-estate agent. They examined a total of 13 key metrics, ranging from sales per agent to annual median wage for real-estate agents to housing-market health index.
The best city in which to be a real estate agent is Denver; the worst is Detroit.
But a close second on the “best” side of the list is Irvine, California. San Francisco comes in eighth.
The top 10 best cities in which to be a real estate agent were mostly in the west. After Denver and Irvine, Seattle took No. 3
And, in key points called out in the report, the authors point out that their findings state that the highest median home price is found in San Francisco, at $756,700. That’s 17 times the price in the worst city to sell homes. Detroit’s median price was just about $45,000.
Also in San Francisco, homes had the fewest days on the market, at 43.
The rankings took into account 13 key metrics, culled from a variety of sources. These include many hard-and-fast numbers related to being in the business of selling homes, such as number of sales per agent, real-estate job density, and home turnover rate. The research team also threw in local economic data, such as the metro’s unemployment rate.
Also on the list:
- Washington, D.C. – no. 19
- Houston – no. 39
- New York – no. 49
- Los Angeles – no. 54
- Chicago – no. 130
- Miami – no. 134
A total score was computed. Each metro was also ranked on two specific factors the research team created to speak directly to the business of real estate: the job opportunity and competition bucket, and the real estate market heat rank.
Irvine had a total score of 55.38, and San Francisco was at 51.68. Irvine’s job opportunity and heat ranks were 4 and 7 respectively; San Francisco was at 8 and 25 respectively.
Data used to create these rankings were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zillow, Indeed, and the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
