Best States for Property and Real Estate Managers: California Tops Rankings, Washington Leads on Pay

Across the LaborCove rankings for property, real estate, and community association managers, the data highlights several distinct patterns. First, national context shows a median annual salary of $69,990 and employment of 311,180 for this occupation, with a projected national employment growth rate of 3.6%. Within that landscape, some states in the top 10 have median salaries modestly above the national figure, while others are far higher. Second, California leads the state rankings with the highest LaborCove Geography Score among the supplied geographies, the largest reported state employment count, and a median salary above the national level. In contrast, Washington holds the #2 rank with a smaller employment count but a substantially higher median salary than both California and the national benchmark. Third, Texas illustrates that a high LaborCove ranking does not depend solely on pay. Texas ranks #3 overall with the second‑largest employment count in the top 10, but its median salary is below the national median. Other states—such as New York, Massachusetts, and Colorado—pair smaller employment counts with higher median salaries than the national figure. Finally, several mid‑Atlantic and East Coast states (New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia) appear in the top 10 with median salaries above the national median and mid‑range employment counts. Together, these results show that no single state dominates every metric; instead, each combines different levels of median pay, employment, and Geography Score that may appeal differently depending on whether you prioritize salary levels, the scale of the existing workforce, or the overall state ranking.

Before comparing states, it is useful to anchor on the national numbers for property, real estate, and community association managers. Nationally, the median annual salary for this occupation is $69,990, and total employment stands at 311,180. The occupation also has a national projected employment growth rate of 3.6%. This projection applies to the occupation as a whole across the United States and does not describe the trajectory of any specific state. When we look at the top states in LaborCove’s rankings, several have median salaries above $69,990, while others are closer to or below that national benchmark. Interpreting state numbers against this national context can clarify which locations currently report higher or lower median pay for this occupation.

California ranks #1 in LaborCove’s state results for property, real estate, and community association managers, with a LaborCove Geography Score of 66.79. Its median annual salary of $77,030 is higher than the national median of $69,990. California also has the largest reported employment count among the supplied top geographies, with 50,040 people in this occupation. That employment figure is part of the broader national total of 311,180. Despite holding the top overall rank and the highest employment count among these states, California does not have the highest median salary in the top 10. Several other states report higher median salaries while ranking below California in the LaborCove scoring.

Washington illustrates how a state can have a higher reported salary than California but still rank below it overall. Washington holds the #2 rank with a LaborCove Geography Score of 56.33 and a median salary of $119,320, which is higher than both California’s $77,030 median and the national median of $69,990. Its reported employment count of 2,950 is also smaller than California’s 50,040. Several other top‑10 states combine median salaries above both California and the national benchmark with smaller employment counts than California. New York has a median salary of $99,390 and employment of 11,390; Massachusetts reports a median of $103,410 and employment of 7,320; and Colorado has a median of $100,080 with employment of 2,230. These comparisons show that the highest reported median salary in the group belongs to Washington, not the #1‑ranked state, and that New York, Massachusetts, and Colorado also have higher median salaries than the national median while having smaller employment counts than California.

Texas ranks #3 in the LaborCove list with a Geography Score of 53.29 and an employment count of 45,350, which is smaller than California’s 50,040 but larger than the reported employment in every other top‑10 state. Its median annual salary of $61,320 is below the national median of $69,990. Florida, ranked #7 with a Geography Score of 45.10, has an employment count of 30,160. That is smaller than California’s 50,040 and Texas’s 45,350 but larger than the employment counts reported for Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Florida’s median salary of $70,810 is slightly above the national median of $69,990. Together, California, Texas, and Florida account for the three largest reported state employment counts among the top 10, but they show different relationships to the national median salary: California and Florida are above the national benchmark, while Texas is below it.

Three mid‑Atlantic and East Coast states appear in the top 10 with similar patterns of mid‑range employment and median salaries above the national figure. New Jersey ranks #8 with a Geography Score of 41.34, a median salary of $82,850, and employment of 7,110. Maryland ranks #9 with a Geography Score of 39.42, a median salary of $81,900, and employment of 6,060. Virginia ranks #10 with a Geography Score of 37.14, a median salary of $79,810, and employment of 5,570. All three have higher reported median salaries than the national median of $69,990 and smaller employment counts than California’s 50,040 and Texas’s 45,350. Their employment counts are closer to those in New York, Massachusetts, and Colorado than to the very largest states in the ranking. Within the top 10, these states illustrate that a state can appear lower in the overall rank order yet still report median salaries above the national benchmark, paired with moderate employment levels for this occupation.

The top‑10 state rankings for property, real estate, and community association managers draw on several different metrics rather than a single dominant factor. California leads the group with the highest LaborCove Geography Score and the largest reported employment count, but Washington reports the highest median salary. Multiple other states—New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia—also post median salaries above the national figure while differing in rank and employment scale. Because the national projected employment growth rate of 3.6% applies to the occupation across the entire United States, it does not indicate which individual states will grow faster or slower. Instead, the state‑level data in this article describe current reported salary and employment patterns at the time of the May 2025 OEWS reference period. When using these rankings, it can be useful to separate three questions: how a state ranks overall in LaborCove’s scoring, whether its median salary is higher or lower than the national median, and how its employment count compares to other states in the top 10. Considering those dimensions together can help you interpret how each of these leading states fits into the national picture for this occupation.

LaborCove’s rankings for property, real estate, and community association managers are built from structured labor‑market data and the proprietary LaborCove Geography Score. For this article, national wage and employment figures and state‑level median annual salaries and employment counts are based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data with a reference period of May 2025. The ReportYear 2026 reflects LaborCove’s product and reporting cycle and is not the OEWS observation year. The national projected employment growth rate of 3.6% is a separate national‑level projection for this occupation. It describes expected change in employment for property, real estate, and community association managers nationally and is not a forecast for any individual state. LaborCove’s Geography Score aggregates multiple labor‑market dimensions into a single value used to rank locations. In this article, we use the supplied scores and ranks without inferring how much each underlying factor contributes. Rankings and scores are best interpreted as one input to planning, to be weighed alongside your own considerations such as location preferences, experience, and role fit.