A Redfin-commissioned survey of agents across the industry reveals key insights about the challenges and opportunities facing today's real estate professionals
(NASDAQ:RDFN) — Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage, today released the results of its 2025 Industry Survey, offering key insights into how real estate agents view their careers, the housing market, and hot-button industry issues. The report highlights the opportunities and challenges agents see in this evolving market and the increasing pressures brought on by economic uncertainty and industry reforms.
The report is based on a Redfin-commissioned Ipsos survey of 500 agents from various brokerages, conducted between December 2024 and January 2025. It identifies several key themes shaping the industry:
- Declining Agent Satisfaction: Fewer agents recommend real estate as a career. Only 21.2% of agents would encourage others to join the profession, with 49.8% unlikely to recommend it. This marks a significant drop in enthusiasm from prior years. Agents highlighted the unpredictability of income and difficulty of finding customers as major dislikes about their profession, while entrepreneurial independence was the top reason agents say they like their job.
- Significant Economic Headwinds: The affordability crisis is the biggest challenge agents anticipate in the next five years, with 64.2% rating it as a major concern. The ongoing lack of inventory (42.8%) and declining commissions (42%) are also significant challenges. Despite these concerns, a majority of agents are optimistic about increasing sales in 2025.
- Climate Change and Insurance Issues: Nearly 40% of agents believe climate change is impacting where people choose to live, and almost half of all agents encountered more issues with home insurance during transactions in 2024. Despite the growing concern about climate risks, fewer than 10% of agents report having received training on how to address climate-related issues with clients.
- Discrimination in the Industry: The share of agents experiencing discrimination rose in 2024. More than one-third of women (34.5%) reported experiencing sexism in the industry, and 38% of non-white agents reported experiencing racial discrimination.
- Negative Attitudes Towards the National Association of Realtors: Following a year of industry upheaval, a majority of agents (51%) now hold an unfavorable view of NAR, a significant increase from 19% in 2023. A substantial percentage (38%) believe the NAR settlement changes have negatively impacted their business, compared to 5.2% who noted a positive impact.
- Agents Expect Commissions to Decline: Roughly half (47.8%) of agents say the average buyer's agent commission has remained about the same since the NAR settlement changes took effect in August. However, more than half (51.2%) expect commissions will decline over the next 12 months, compared to just 4.6% who think they will increase.
Jason Aleem, Redfin's chief of real estate services, emphasized the importance of listening to agents to understand—and meet—their evolving needs.
"Our agents are ready to tackle this year's challenges head on, knowing we have provided them with industry-leading tools, training and support," Aleem said. "And our customers know they can trust us to put them first, finding competitive advantages to save them money, while helping them navigate the challenges of buying or selling their home. That's why as the industry changes, our core mission stays the same."
To read the full report, including charts and full methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/2025-industry-survey/
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, and title insurance services. We run the country's #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1.8 billion in commissions. We serve approximately 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.
Redfin's subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.
For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email [email protected]. To view Redfin's press center, click here.
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