Data Report · 2026
What 52,256 transactions reveal about agent pay, brokerage economics, and commission structures across the US and Canada.
Data period: January – December 2025 · Source: Loft47 back-office platform · Actual payout data, not survey responses
Executive summary
This report synthesizes findings from 52,256 real estate transactions across 204 brokerages and 6,729 agents, representing approximately $30 billion in transaction volume during 2025. The data comes from Loft47's back-office platform — capturing actual commission payouts, deduction structures, and brokerage economics at a granularity no industry survey has ever achieved. This is not what agents say they earn. It's what they actually received.
Part 1 — Commission rates
The US median has been exactly 3.00% for 11 consecutive quarters. In Canada, the median actually rose to 3.36% in Q4 2025 — the highest in the series. Every prediction about post-NAR compression has been wrong in this dataset.
| Metric | Canada (CAD) | United States (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Median commission rate | 3.36% | 3.00% |
| Rate trend (Q2 2023–Q4 2025) | Oscillating 2.91%–3.32% | Flat at 3.00% |
| Volume-weighted rate | 2.94% | 3.02% |
| Post-NAR settlement change | None detected | None detected |
The 3% floor reflects deep structural factors — brokerage economics, MLS norms, and agent expectations — rather than a fragile equilibrium that regulatory change can easily disrupt. Commission rate structures are driven by industry norms, not housing market cycles.
Part 2 — Dollar flow
For every $1.00 in gross commission, approximately $0.82 flows to the agent. Brokerages keep just 11–15 cents — roughly $1,750 per transaction. Volume is the only path to profitability.
Brokerage margins are razor-thin. Volume is the only path to profitability — explaining why recruiting intensity, agent count, and transaction throughput dominate brokerage strategy. The broker-owner who doesn't know their retained revenue per agent is making strategic decisions blind.
Part 3 — Agent income
The industry's widely cited "average agent income" of $71K+ is inflated 2–3× by top producers. The median tells the real story — and it's a power law, not a bell curve.
| Percentile | Canada (CAD) | United States (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom 25% | $11,809 | $10,507 |
| Median (50th) | $38,544 | $31,152 |
| Top 25% | $113,133 | $84,451 |
| Top 10% | $242,825 | $179,536 |
| Average (misleading) | $119,165 | $70,909 |
The average is 2.3–3.1× the median — a telltale sign of a power-law distribution. The standard deviation exceeds the mean in both markets, confirming that agent income is dramatically skewed by top producers. Any recruiting strategy built on the "average" agent income is built on a fiction.
Part 4 — The rate curve
Commission rates decline as property values increase — but dollar payoffs scale dramatically in the opposite direction. The US market has crystallized around just two numbers: 3.0% under $500K and 2.5% above.
| Price band | CAD median rate | USD median rate | Avg commission $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $250K | 5.16% | 3.00% | ~$4,500 |
| $250K–$500K | 3.00% | 3.00% | ~$9,500 |
| $500K–$750K | 2.36% | 2.50% | ~$17,500 |
| $750K–$1M | 2.59% | 2.50% | ~$27,500 |
| $1M+ | 2.83% | 2.50% | ~$75,000 |
| Property sub-type premiums | CAD rate | USD rate | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land | 4.00–4.56% | 4.00–4.56% | Highest rate in dataset — transaction complexity |
| Single-family / condo / multi-family | 2.83–3.40% | 2.83–3.00% | CAD condo carries +57bps premium over SFH |
| Commercial retail | — | Up to 6.00% | USD highest rate segment |
| Industrial | — | Modest rate | Highest dollar payout at ~$32K per deal |
Despite lower rates at higher price points, a $2M+ deal generates ~$75,000 in median commission — 16× what a sub-$250K deal produces. The "chase the luxury listing" incentive is real and quantifiable. Without accurate commission tracking, brokerages can't see this distribution in their own data.
Part 5 — Team economics
Teams are a volume play, not a margin play. The typical team is a partnership of two agents closing 35 deals per year. The per-payout trade-off is real.
| Metric | Solo agent | Team leader | Team member |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD median net/payout | $5,585 | $4,494 | $3,916 |
| CAD median net/payout | $5,481 | $4,855 (blended) | |
| Deals/person/year | 5–6 | ~17 | |
| % of USD deals | 76.4% | 23.6% | |
| % of CAD deals | 85.1% | 14.9% | |
Teams average ~35 deals per year with ~$24.4M in volume — a figure remarkably consistent across borders. The volume gain is real; the per-payout trade-off is too. Commission structures for team environments are among the most complex to manage and the most error-prone when done manually.
Part 6 — Commission plan complexity
Real commission plans are multi-layered systems mixing percentage splits, flat fees, third-party pass-throughs, and production incentives. The median brokerage maintains 7–9 distinct deduction templates.
| Metric | Canada (CAD) | United States (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Median templates/brokerage | 7 | 9 |
| Max templates (single brokerage) | 35 | 55 |
| % percentage-based splits | 48% | 53% |
| % flat-fee-based | 52% | 47% |
| Effectively capped | 15.2% | 12.9% |
| Multi-tier graduated plans | 7.5% | 7.8% |
| Anniversary reset (vs calendar year) | 17% | 30.5% |
67% of templates tier against year-to-date agent commissions. Three cap philosophies: commission-based, deduction-based ($18K median), and deal-count-based (3–24 deals). The complexity is in the setup, not the per-deal execution — which is exactly where errors hide when plans are managed manually.
Part 7 — Geography
An Arkansas agent and a California agent both charge ~3% — but the California agent earns 4× more per deal. Commission dollars vary by market; commission rates don't.
Canada has 32% higher median prices and 36 basis points higher commission rates — resulting in significantly higher per-agent brokerage revenue. Despite this, both markets converge on the same fundamental commission structure and brokerage model.
Part 8 — List side vs sell side
Despite structurally different commission formulas, buyer's agents and seller's agents take home virtually the same check. The sticker rate overstates actual effective cost by ~2.5 percentage points.
| Metric | List side | Sell side | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAD median agent net | $5,227 | $5,418 | +$191 (3.7%) |
| USD median agent net | $5,075 | $5,187 | +$112 (2.2%) |
| Double-end deal frequency | 7–8% of all deals | ||
| Double-end premium per transaction | 13–16% above single-side deals | ||
Listing agreements have ~2× higher first-tier commission rates than sell-side agreements (CAD first-tier: 11.76% vs 6.10%). But the tiered formula structure means the sticker rate overstates actual effective cost by approximately 2.5 percentage points. After applying the formula, dollar amounts converge. The list-side advantage is largely structural math, not actual take-home difference.
Part 9 — Operational reality
Canadian deals take nearly twice as long as US deals to reach agent payout — and collapse at nearly 3× the rate. Despite this, 37–46% of deals are still entered manually into back-office systems.
| Stage | Canada | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted offer → Closed | 42 days | 21 days |
| — Conditional period | 11 days | N/A |
| — Firm to closing | 32 days | — |
| Closed → Agent payout | 4.5 days | 2.6 days |
| Total: handshake → payday | ~47 days | ~24 days |
Agents source 86–95% of their own business. Company-sourced leads represent just 5.5–14.3% of deals — but are 23–30% more valuable per transaction. The automation opportunity is significant: manual entry still dominates nearly half of all deals. Every manual entry is a potential error in an agent's payout.
Part 10 — Cross-border comparison
Canada and the US moved in opposite directions on volume and price in 2025 — yet commission rates in both stayed anchored near 3%. The similarities are more striking than the differences.
Appendix — Home price trends
Canada and the US are moving in opposite directions on price — yet commission rates in both remain remarkably stable. This decoupling reinforces the report's central finding: the 3% floor is structural, not a function of market conditions.
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAD deal volume (Loft47) | 12,889 | 9,791 | −24% |
| CAD average price | $543K | $519K | −4.4% |
| USD deal volume (Loft47) | 38,780 | 41,272 | +6.4% |
| USD average price | $406K | $416K | +2.5% |
Despite Canada cooling sharply while the US grew, commission rates in both markets remained stable throughout 2025. This strongly suggests that commission rate structures are driven by industry norms and brokerage economics — not by housing market cycles.
Data quality & methodology
All transaction data in this report comes from Loft47's back-office platform, which captures actual commission payouts, deduction calculations, and brokerage economics at the individual deal level. This is operational data — not survey responses or self-reported figures.
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