Real Estate and Rental and Leasing ·NAICS 531

NAICS 531 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Real Estate - Industry Benchmarks

$69,396/yr average annual pay, with 7,998 SBA loans on record for NAICS 531.

24.7%
Net margin
1.8M
Workers employed
$69,396/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$5.5B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 531

Real Estate runs a 24.7% pre-tax net margin - well above the national average - across 415K establishments employing 1.8M workers.

24.7%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
1.8M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$69,396/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$5.5B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Real Estate

Real Estate sits inside Real Estate and Rental and Leasing at a 24.7% net margin (well above the national average), $405.5B in aggregate receipts across 2,034,229 returns, averaging $199.3M per establishment.

414,824 establishments employ 1,819,631 workers (4.4/location) at $69,396/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and Texas.

Profit Margin

24.7%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$405.5B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$100.0B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

1,819,631

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$69,396/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

414,824

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 18,176; establishment count increased by 1,880. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Real Estate revenue goes

Workforce scale

Real Estate margin vs national reference points

Real Estate net margin 82.2%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation
600,231 returns 30%

Margin: 21.7% · Receipts: $288.9B

Sole Proprietorship
1,433,998 returns 70%

Margin: 32.0% · Receipts: $116.6B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
2,034,229
Avg Receipts per Business
$199.3M
Annual Payroll (Total)
$126.3B
Avg Employees per Establishment
4.4

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Activities Related to Real Estate

NAICS 5313

 6.0%
Lessors of Real Estate

NAICS 5311

 32.2%
Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers

NAICS 5312

 14.0%

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 250,572
Florida 164,840
Texas 162,423
New York 157,975
Illinois 58,642
Georgia 57,966
Washington 51,678
North Carolina 50,858
Ohio 50,728
New Jersey 49,995

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

7,998

Total Loan Volume

$5.5B

Avg Loan Size

$687K

Jobs Supported

50,560

Program Breakdown

7(a) 6,600 (83%)
504 1,398 (17%)

Top SBA Lender

Live Oak Banking Company

495 loans in this industry

New Business Share

33.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
1,100
2021
1,651
2022
1,409
2023
1,257
2024
1,199
2025
1,197
2026
185

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Real Estate?
$405.5B in total annual receipts across all Real Estate businesses. Average per business: $199.3M.
How profitable is Real Estate?
24.7% net profit margin, well above the national average.
How many businesses are in Real Estate?
414,824 business establishments. Together they employ 1,819,631 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Real Estate?
$69,396/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 4.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Real Estate employment?
California leads with 250,572 workers. Florida (164,840) and Texas (162,423) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Real Estate receive?
Real Estate businesses received 7,998 SBA loans totaling $5.5 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $687K. These loans supported 50,560 jobs at origination. Most lending (83%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Benchmarking Real Estate

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023

NAICS 531 · Data year: 2023

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.