Figure 1: 1980-1990 Changes in Productivity of Real Estate Agents (Houses Sold in the City / Hours Worked) and Changes in Cost of Housing
Note: Data are from the 1980 and 1990 Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 4: Commission Rates and Price of Housing in the CEX
Notes: Each point in the Figure is the average commission rate within intervals in housing price $10,000 wide. The superimposed fit is from an household level regression of commission rates on housing prices. N = 406.
Figure 5: Percentage of Real Estate Agents in the Labor Force and Average Cost of Housing
Notes: The top panels refers to 1990. The bottom panels refers to 1980. Data are from the Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 6: 1980-1990 Changes in Percentage of Real Estate Agents in the Labor Force and Changes in Average Cost of Housing
Notes: Data are from the 1980 and 1990 Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 7: Productivity of Real Estate Agents (Houses Sold in the City / Hours Worked) and Cost of Housing
Notes: The top panels refers to 1990. The bottom refers to 1980. Data are from the Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 8: Relationship between Total Earnings of Brokers and 6 percent of the Total Value of Homes Sold in 282 Cities in 1990
Notes: The x-axis is the expected revenue of real-estate agents, calculated as 6 percent of the total value of homes sold in a city. The y-axis is the total value of brokers' earnings in the city (i.e. the sum of the earnings of all brokers in the city). If the commission rate for all transactions is 6 percent; and brokers' earnings comes exclusively from sales of residential home; then the sum of earnings reported by all brokers in a city should be exactly equal to 6 percent of the sum of the value of all home sales in the city. The solid line is the OLS fit, with an estimated slope equal 1.08 (0.01). Data are from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 9: Average Earnings of Real Estate Agents and Average Price of Housing in 282 Cities in 1990
Notes: The y-axis is the log difference between average earnings in a city and brokers' reservation wage. The reservation wage of real estate agents is a weighted average of the wages of workers in all other occupations in the same city. We assign weights to individuals in the sample who are not brokers based on how similar their observable characteristics are to the observable characteristics of brokers. See text for details.
Figure 10: Cost of Housing in 282 Metropolitan Areas and Vacancy time
Notes: Data are from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing.
Figure 11: The Effect of Housing Cost on the Number of Houses Looked at and Search Duration
Notes: Top Panel: Data are from the 1997 Chicago Title and Trust Company Annual Survey of Recent Home Buyers, a representative sample of approximately 1,800 home buyers in 20 cities. The cities included in the survey are Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas/Fort Worth; Denver; Detroit; Houston; Los Angeles; Memphis; Miami; Minneapolis/St. Paul; New York City; Orange County; Orlando; Philadelphia; Phoenix; San Francisco; Seattle/Tacoma and Washington, D.C.