Average Salary

• Mortgage agents in 2009 earned an annual mean wage of $53,100, according to the survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median salary was at $40,100. The lowest-paid 10th percentile earned $20,800 or less per year. The top money-making 10 percent made $96,410 a year or more.
  
  

Employers

• Offices of real estate brokers and agents were the largest employers of mortgage agents in 2009, according to the survey, and paid their specialists an average of $54,740 per year. Lessors of real estate were the second-biggest employers and paid an annual salary of $46,070. Firms specializing in activities related to real estate sales were the third-largest employers and had an average wage at $48,800. The residential building construction industry paid the agents an average of $61,440, while land subdivision paid $58,960.
  
  

States

• Florida, New York and Virginia in 2009 had some of the highest numbers of working mortgage agents -- 18,420, 12,180 and 10,500, respectively, according to the bureau. The average salaries in these states were at $43,020, $80,090 and $51,100, respectively. The highest-paying state, with only 150 agents, was Vermont, at $85,550 a year, followed by the District of Columbia, with 880 agents and $80,090 a year average salary. North Carolina and Massachusetts had their mortgage agents earning $74,450 and $72,000 per year, respectively.
  
  

Cities

• The bureau reports that Burlington, Vt., paid mortgage agents the top average salary in 2009 -- $95,390 per year. Three out of the five highest salaries among cities were paid in the North Carolina metro areas of Wilmington, Raleigh and Charlotte -- $93,290, $90,520 and $89,100 per year, respectively. Florida had three cities with top-five concentrations of mortgage agents per 1,000 workers -- Sebastian, Orlando and Gainesville. The average salaries there were much lower, at $29,280, $42,730 and $28,840, respectively.