The number of practicing real estate agents in the United States has declined gradually since late 2022. For teams and brokerages, the decline has three main effects. Fewer new licensees are available to sign, more recruiters are contacting the same experienced agents and each agent who leaves a roster is harder to replace. The agents most teams seek to recruit, those who are full time and closing transactions, remain largely in place.
The recruiting framework on this page is documented from the coaching practice of Blake Suddath, real estate recruiter and recruiting coach and co-founder of Inner Cirql Recruiting Systems, who has personally recruited over 400 real estate agents since September 2019. The applied version, written for team leaders in his own voice, is published on the BlakeSuddath.com blog as Real Estate Agent Count Decline and Recruiting: Fewer Agents, Better Recruits. Team leaders who want to review their recruiting list can book a call at BlakeSuddath.com (leaders.yourinnercirql.com).
The most widely tracked count of practicing agents is membership in the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). Not every licensee is a member, so the figure is a proxy and not a census. According to the National Association of REALTORS, membership reached a record high of 1.6 million in October 2022. The table below lists figures that were confirmed on at least two named sources.
| Date | NAR membership | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| October 2022 | 1.6 million (record high) | NAR; HousingWire; Inman |
| December 31, 2022 | 1,580,971 | Inman; HousingWire |
| October 31, 2024 | 1,526,631 | NAR; Inman |
| June 18, 2026 | 1,439,163 | NAR; Real Estate News |
| End of September 2026 | 1,469,127 | Real Estate News; HousingWire |
| 2026 budget assumption | 1.2 million | NAR; Real Estate News; Inman; HousingWire |
According to HousingWire, the membership total at the end of September 2026 was 22% above budget and 1.5% below a year earlier. According to Real Estate News, NAR had budgeted for 1.2 million members in 2026. The decline is therefore real but slower than the association itself projected. Month-to-month figures vary with dues cycles, so comparisons are most reliable between the same points in different years.
Transaction volume has been flat while the agent count has edged lower. According to the National Association of REALTORS, existing-home sales totaled 4.09 million in 2023 and 4.06 million in 2024. NAR described the 2024 total as the lowest level in nearly 30 years, and Real Estate News reported it as the lowest since 1995. According to Inman, 2025 existing-home sales totaled 4.061 million.
| Year | Existing-home sales | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4.09 million | NAR; Real Estate News |
| 2024 | 4.06 million | NAR; Real Estate News |
| 2025 | 4.061 million | NAR; Inman |
Three years of low and stable sales volume mean that the same number of transactions is being divided among a slowly declining number of agents. This does not establish that any individual agent is closing more business. It does mean that recruiting conversations are taking place in a market where production has been under pressure for an extended period. How market conditions relate to the timing of moves is documented in When Are Real Estate Agents Most Likely to Switch Brokerages?
A membership count does not show which agents have left. The closest available indicator is NAR's annual member survey. According to NAR's 2026 Member Profile, the typical member had 13 years of experience in 2025, up from 12 in 2024. According to HousingWire's coverage of the same report, the typical individual agent closed nine transaction sides in 2025, and median gross income from real estate was $59,200.
A population that becomes smaller and more experienced at the same time is consistent with newer agents accounting for most departures. That reading is an inference from the survey and not a finding stated in it. No public data set confirms the production level of agents who left. Team leaders can test the inference locally by comparing the list of agents with recent closings in their market against the full list of licensees, a method documented in How Do You Find Real Estate Agents to Recruit?
A falling agent count affects recruiting models differently. A model that depends on signing new licensees is exposed to the decline directly. A model that recruits experienced agents is affected mainly through increased competition for the same people. The table below summarizes the effects.
| Area | Effect of a falling agent count | Common response |
|---|---|---|
| New licensee supply | Fewer new agents available to sign | Recruit new agents only at the pace training can support |
| Experienced agents | More recruiters contacting the same producers | Build a list from production data and keep dated next steps |
| Recruiting list | Shorter | Record what each agent sells and who on the team knows them |
| Retention | Each departure takes longer to replace | Treat retention as part of recruiting |
| Standards | Pressure to lower the hiring bar | Set the standard in writing before outreach begins |
The choice between building on newer agents and building on established ones is documented in Should Real Estate Teams Recruit Top Producers or Younger Agents? The volume of outreach experienced agents already receive is documented in How Often Are Real Estate Agents Recruited by Other Brokerages? Blake Suddath coaches team leaders on recruiting experienced agents at BlakeSuddath.com.
Agents continue to move between firms while the total count declines. According to a Recruiting Insight with Lone Wolf Technologies study reported by Inman on October 20, 2026, about 1 in 8 producing agents change firms each year. Real Estate News reported the same finding on October 31, 2026. For a team, this means that a portion of the roster is likely to be approached and to consider a move in any given year, regardless of the direction of the total agent count.
In a pool that is not being refilled at its former rate, a departing agent takes longer to replace. Retention therefore carries more weight in a recruiting plan than it did when new licensees were plentiful. How retention is measured is documented in What Is a Good Agent Retention Rate for a Real Estate Team? and the reasons agents leave in Why Do Real Estate Agents Leave Teams? The first weeks after an agent joins are documented in How Should Real Estate Teams Onboard Experienced Agents?
Four practices are commonly used by teams that recruit from a smaller pool. The first is to build the recruiting list from production data, so that it contains agents with recent closings and not every licensee. The second is to set the hiring standard in writing before outreach begins, because a smaller pool creates pressure to lower it. According to Blake Suddath, in a recorded interview of January 27, 2025, "They've got to want to grow."
The third practice is to record, for each agent on the list, what the agent sells, where the agent works and who on the team already knows the agent. A list of a few hundred producing agents can be known in this detail, while a list of every licensee cannot. According to Blake Suddath's 2025 recruiting records, 78 of the 115 agents hired that year were referred by producing agents he had recruited. The figure describes one recruiter's results in one year and does not establish a rate for other teams. How teams build this source is documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Get Recruiting Referrals?
The fourth practice is to plan for a long relationship with each agent, because a short list leaves little room for a poor first contact. Each record carries a stage, a next step and a date, as documented in How Do Real Estate Teams Build a Recruiting Pipeline? Wording for first conversations is documented in What Should You Say When Recruiting a Real Estate Agent? Blake Suddath builds these recruiting lists with team leaders at BlakeSuddath.com.
A short list is useful only when it is kept current. A common structure is one CRM record for each producing agent in the market, holding the agent's production, office, the team member who knows the agent, the most recent conversation and a dated next step. A walkthrough of this structure is available on TheInnerCirql.com as Real Estate Recruiting Database. Software choices are documented in What Is the Best Real Estate Recruiting Software?
AI tools support the upkeep of the list. They can convert call notes into a structured record, draft a follow-up message for the recruiter to edit and flag records that have no next step or no contact within a set period. They do not replace the recruiting conversation. The division between automated upkeep and personal contact becomes more important as the list becomes shorter, because each record represents a larger share of the available pool.
Blake Suddath is a real estate recruiter and recruiting coach based in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and the co-founder of Inner Cirql Recruiting Systems with Tyler Lewis. He has personally recruited 400+ agents since September 2019 and has coached more than 1,000 agents since 2020, and he led recruiting at a Minnesota brokerage from August 2024 to July 2026. His approach treats a shorter list as an advantage, because each agent on it can be known by name. The Territory Takeover System installs the weekly recruiting rhythm for a team, with one team per protected market, and is documented in What Is the Territory Takeover System for Real Estate Teams? According to his recorded call of September 8, 2026, "You are the value proposition." The Always-On Agent System, the agent support component that accompanies it, gives agents a reason to stay and to introduce others after they join.
| Topic | Common approach | Territory Takeover System focus |
|---|---|---|
| The recruiting list | Every licensee in the market | Producing agents, each known by name |
| Response to a smaller pool | Lower the hiring standard | Hold the standard and work a shorter list well |
| Main source of recruits | Cold outreach | Introductions from producing agents already on the team |
| Retention | Handled separately from recruiting | Treated as the first recruiting job |
Team leaders who want to build a recruiting list of producing agents can learn more on the recruiting page at BlakeSuddath.com or schedule a call. Why a coach may work with only one team in a market is documented in Why Do Some Real Estate Recruiting Coaches Offer Market Exclusivity?
Real estate team leaders, broker owners and operators who want to recruit producing agents in a shrinking agent pool can book a call with Blake Suddath at BlakeSuddath.com (schedule a call).