Believe it or not, America’s workforce is made up of more ladies than gents (almost 60% more, to be specific). Yes sir-eee Bob – it’s very much a woman’s world as far as numbers go, but does this hold true when you take a look at the nitty-gritty details, as in the actual job? Well, out of shear curiosity, we decided to look into the guy-to-girl ratio among real estate pros and see how male and female agents differ – besides on the obvious stuff, that is.
Why are we doing this, you ask? Well, why the heck not?! This is seriously interesting, not to mention fun, factoids to know. And you thought rent vs. buy was a great debate. Well, my friend – you ain’t seen nothing yet.
First things first, here’s our methodology: We started with a simple name analysis using the genderizer to separate the men from the women agents among all the real estate pros on Trulia.com. Then we took a good hard look at which gender outnumbered the other in this industry, who listed more homes for sale and who had more expensive homes.
The Pink Ladies of Real Estate
Not to reinforce stereotypes, but let’s face it…some careers are dominated by women (think nurses and nannies) and some are made up of almost all men (can we say construction workers and software engineers). But as far as the real estate industry goes, the gender divide is fairly balanced…or is it? In one of the early draft of our female vs. male real estate agent map, we colored each state pink where there were more women and blue where there were more men.
To our surprise, we ended up with a really, really pink map – see for yourself.
So what’s going on here? Well, as it turns out, there’s actually more women than men who are in the business of buying and selling homes for a living…and the state by state breakdown wasn’t crazy different. Looking at the lower end of the spectrum, there are about 48% more female than male agents in South Dakota and Nebraska. Meanwhile, on the higher end of the spectrum, there are 64% more women working as real estate agents than men in Mississippi and Oklahoma. What can we say, however you try to slice this, the ladies are kicking butt and taking names. Needless to say, the first point goes to the ladies.
Anything you can do, I can do better. I can list more homes than you.
After examining the gender divide, we then took a look at the average number of homes that men and women put up for sale by state. To be clear: this has nothing to do with the actual number of homes sold, just the volume that each agent is listing.
Judging by the number of blue states (where male agents had more listings) to pink states (where female agents had more listings) and grey states (where it was pretty much equal, give or take), the guys definitely list more homes for sale. This was especially true in North Dakota where the men had 129% more homes for sale on the market. To break this down, what this percentage means is that male agents in the roughrider state (not to be confused with Ruff Ryders) have about 25 listings versus the 11 listings by female agents. Sorry ladies, but the guys got game on this. Round two: point goes to the men.
| Where Male Agents List More Homes for Sale Than Female Agents | ||
| # | U.S. State | Percentage |
| 1. | North Dakota | 129% |
| 2. | South Dakota | 87% |
| 3. | Rhode Island | 72% |
| 4. | Nevada | 31% |
| 5. | Arkansas | 29% |
*What does the percentage mean? Male agents in North Dakota has 129% more listings than female agents
What’s Your Price?
Before we jump into how male and female real estate pros differ on price, we want to throw in a quick side note to explain that pricing a home to sell factors in a lot of things about the property (think square footage, age, # of bedrooms and bathrooms) and the neighborhood (can we say crime and school district?). In other words, the average list price isn’t necessarily a reflection on how aggressive the agent is on pricing. In some cases, it could mean that women take on inherently more expensive homes/neighborhoods than men and vice-versa.
Now that we’ve cleared the air, let’s move on. In the next map that we made, we calculated what the average list price is for female and male agents by state based on all the homes that they have up for sale. As you can tell by all the pink states, the ladies tend to put their homes on the market for a higher price than the gents.
This is especially true in West Virginia where homes for sale by a female agent are 63% more expensive. What does this mean? Well, when you look at the raw number, there’s about a $40K difference in the average list price which isn’t chump change if you know what we mean. So boo-ya – another point to the ladies. Game point!
| Where Homes Listed By Female Agents Are More Expensive | ||
| # | U.S. State | Percentage |
| 1. | West Virginia | 63% |
| 2. | Louisiana | 53% |
| 3. | Connecticut | 52% |
| 4. | Illinois | 41% |
| 5. | Nevada | 40% |
*What does the percentage mean? In West Virginia, homes for sale by female agents are 63% more expensive
Where Men and Women are Rocking Real Estate
In looking at how male and female agents differ on price and the sheer volume of homes that they tend to sell at a given time, we made an interesting observation. Even though there are 53% more ladies in the business in Alaska, the guys have an edge on both price (where homes listed by male agents are 72% more expensive) and number of homes that they’ve put up for sale (while not a huge difference, male agents have about 10% more homes for sale on the market).
As for the #1 woman dominated state, it’s Mississippi. Not only are there 64% more female real estate pros, the ladies also have 41% more homes for sale on the market than men and those homes are 27% more expensive on average. What can we say, these southern belles mean business.
After reading through these findings, are you surprised? We’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you’re a real estate pro – let us know what you think and if live in a pink or blue state.
