Stalled Market Drives Real Estate Agents Out

Real estate's pandemic party is long over, and the hangover is hitting the people who sell homes, the Wall Street Journal reports. With home sales stuck at their slowest pace in decades and mortgage rates still elevated, many agents are walking away or picking up side jobs as deals drag and paychecks shrink. Fort Worth broker Kim Taylor closed her firm this spring after most of her agents took other work and her husband left for a school district job. "We just became a bleeding artery," she said.

National Association of Realtors membership has slipped from its 2022 peak, and organization data show a record-low share of agents now rely on real estate as their only job. The pain stretches beyond agents. Mortgage-industry employment is down nearly 40% from its 2021 high, per the Journal, and the number of busy loan originators has been cut roughly in half. A 2024 legal settlement that changed how agents are paid, plus DIY tools powered by AI, are pushing some buyers to skip hiring an agent altogether. The result, one consultant says, is a "hollowed out" middle class of real estate professionals, with big firms better positioned to ride out the slump than small brokerages and newcomers.