Short answer: the Texas Real Estate Commission issued 13,839 new sales agent licenses between October 2025 and September 2026, according to its public license file. That is 1.8% fewer than the 14,090 it issued in the 12 months before. The drop was concentrated in the biggest metro counties: Harris issued 9.7% fewer, Tarrant 12.3% fewer and Montgomery 15.6% fewer. A handful of counties went the other way, led by El Paso (up 21.9%) and Ellis (up 38.2%).
The counties with the most agents
New sales agent licenses by the county TREC's file lists for the license, for the ten counties with the most active licensees. A sales agent license is the entry-level license in Texas, so these are people entering the business, not brokers upgrading.
| County | Oct 2024 to Sep 2025 | Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 | Change | Active agents and brokers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harris | 2,320 | 2,094 | -9.7% | 29,883 |
| Dallas | 1,230 | 1,224 | -0.5% | 15,568 |
| Bexar | 1,032 | 967 | -6.3% | 11,903 |
| Travis | 822 | 802 | -2.4% | 11,463 |
| Tarrant | 1,036 | 909 | -12.3% | 11,391 |
| Collin | 932 | 857 | -8.0% | 10,491 |
| Fort Bend | 661 | 652 | -1.4% | 8,252 |
| Denton | 667 | 625 | -6.3% | 7,340 |
| Montgomery | 525 | 443 | -15.6% | 5,939 |
| Williamson | 370 | 402 | +8.6% | 4,860 |
| Texas | 14,090 | 13,839 | -1.8% | 171,938 |
Nine of the ten largest counties issued fewer new licenses than the year before. Williamson, north of Austin, was the exception.
Where the count went up
Among counties that issued at least 100 new sales agent licenses in the earlier year, these rose the most:
| County | Oct 2024 to Sep 2025 | Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ellis | 102 | 141 | +38.2% |
| Parker | 100 | 130 | +30.0% |
| El Paso | 278 | 339 | +21.9% |
| Galveston | 132 | 155 | +17.4% |
| Bell | 153 | 178 | +16.3% |
| Williamson | 370 | 402 | +8.6% |
And these fell the most:
| County | Oct 2024 to Sep 2025 | Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaufman | 114 | 93 | -18.4% |
| Johnson | 102 | 85 | -16.7% |
| Montgomery | 525 | 443 | -15.6% |
| Comal | 128 | 111 | -13.3% |
| Tarrant | 1,036 | 909 | -12.3% |
| Cameron | 118 | 104 | -11.9% |
Counts this size move by a few dozen people. A 30% rise in Parker County is 30 more licenses. Treat the smaller counties as a signal worth asking about, not a trend on their own.
Where new agents are the biggest share
Another way to read the file is to ask how much of each county's active workforce is new. In Hidalgo County, 10.7% of active agents and brokers were licensed in the last 12 months, the highest share of any Texas county with at least 1,000 active licensees. Statewide the figure is 6.3%.
| County (1,000+ active licensees) | Active agents and brokers | Share licensed Oct 2025 to Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Hidalgo | 2,098 | 10.7% |
| Ellis | 1,374 | 9.0% |
| El Paso | 3,158 | 8.9% |
| Bell | 1,768 | 8.7% |
| Cameron | 1,124 | 7.9% |
| McLennan | 1,052 | 7.6% |
| Texas | 171,938 | 6.3% |
A two-month pause last winter
Month by month, TREC's file shows something odd. In every other month from October 2024 to September 2026 it dates between 848 and 1,816 new sales agent licenses. For December 2025 it dates 198, and for January 2026 just 47. Then the count jumped: 1,816 in April 2026, the most of any month in the two years we looked at.
| Month | New sales agent licenses | Same month a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| November 2025 | 1,105 | 1,005 |
| December 2025 | 198 | 985 |
| January 2026 | 47 | 848 |
| February 2026 | 1,355 | 1,253 |
| March 2026 | 1,151 | 1,122 |
| April 2026 | 1,816 | 1,345 |
The file doesn't say why, and we haven't confirmed a cause with TREC. It is the reason we compare October-to-September years rather than calendar years: a January-to-September comparison would count the spring catch-up but not the winter gap, and show Texas rising when over 12 months it fell.
How we counted
- Source. The Texas Real Estate Commission's license holder file, published on the Texas Open Data Portal (data.texas.gov, dataset s7ft-44qi). Swift Agent Sites copies it each month for its Texas agent directory. These figures come from the copy finished on 1 November 2026.
- What counts as new. A license of type "Sales Agent" whose original license date falls in the window. Every status in the file is counted, including inactive and recently expired licenses, so an agent who was licensed and has since stopped still counts as a license issued. Broker licenses are left out: they are upgrades, not new entrants.
- Windows. October 2024 to September 2025 against October 2025 to September 2026.
- County. The county TREC's file gives for the license. A few dozen licenses a year have no county or a pending one; they are in the Texas total but not in any county.
- Active. "Active agents and brokers" is every individual sales agent or broker license with an active status in the file, filed in a Texas county, on the copy date. Broker companies are left out.
- What it can't tell you. A license is not a job. The file doesn't show who is selling homes, where they actually work, or why the counts moved.
Download the counts (CSV, counts only, no names or license numbers): by county, by month, by state. You may reuse them with a credit to the Texas Real Estate Commission as the source and a link to this page.
Questions people ask
How many new real estate agents did Texas license in 2026?
Between October 2025 and September 2026, TREC's file shows 13,839 new sales agent licenses, down 1.8% from 14,090 a year earlier.
Which Texas county has the most real estate agents?
Harris County, with 29,883 active sales agents and individual brokers on 1 November 2026, almost twice Dallas County's 15,568.
Can I check a Texas agent's license?
Yes. Search by name or license number on our free Texas agent check, which reads the same TREC file, or on TREC's own license search.
Related:
- Are fewer people becoming real estate agents? 2026 license counts in six states
- Texas real estate agents by county