Average Salary

• For its May 2010 national employment survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics categorized property appraisers alongside their close colleagues --- property assessors. The survey reported that the average annual salary across the profession was $54,230. Calculated from wage data supplied by more than 60,000 individual practitioners, this equates to an hourly pay rate of $26.07 and a monthly income totaling $4,519. Those within the top 10 percent of earners received an average salary of more than $90,650, while those among the lowest-earning 10 percent achieved salaries averaging less than $25,920.
  
  

Salary by Industry

• According to the bureau's analysis, the vast majority of property appraisers work within activities that are either related to real estate or local government. The analysis gave the average salaries for the profession within these sectors as $57,270 and $48,490, respectively. Positions within state government agencies paid an average of $53,740. Wage levels were comparable between nondepository credit intermediation and depository credit intermediation --- $65,100 and $64,460, respectively --- while those employed within the offices of real estate agents and brokers received an average of $51,730 per annum.
  
  

Salary by Geography

• In May 2011, pay analysis website SalaryExpert.com surveyed property appraiser wages in certain major cities and found significant variations. Among the most lucrative cities were Los Angeles and New York City, with averages of $74,597 and $64,260, respectively. However, Houston, Texas, was listed at $38,607, and Charlotte, North Carolina, at just $36,284. The bureau listed California and Nevada as the states in which, across all industry sectors, a property appraiser was liable to achieve the highest average wages --- $72,040 and $69,570, respectively. Maine and Wyoming were reported to have similar wage levels --- $51,850 and $50,410 --- while New Mexico was listed at just $41,730.
  
  

Prospects

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment opportunities for property appraisers to grow by roughly 5 percent over the decade from 2008 to 2018. This is a slower growth rate than that predicted for the whole nation, which is estimated to grow by between 7 percent and 13 percent. Although economic expansion and a growing population will spur increases in the job market, improved efficiency supplied by computerized technologies --- enabling individual appraisers to deal with more properties --- will act as a counterforce to growth. However, salary levels for the occupation should continue to be competitive.