Loan Officer Salary in Texas 2026,
$66,370 Median | BLS Data by City

The published Texas figure is $66,370 a year, or $31.91 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025 — 13.5% below the national median of $76,690, the widest gross shortfall in this unit. The band runs $34,150 at the 10th percentile to $135,280 at the 90th, with $48,030 at the 25th and $95,770 at the 75th, so the median describes a midpoint between salaried and commissioned work rather than a typical wage.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at $73,930, then Midland $72,030, Victoria $70,790, Sherman-Denison $69,900 and Waco $68,210. Midland's position reflects Permian Basin energy income and the loan sizes that go with it, while the smaller markets on the list benefit from thin originator supply — the table does not simply rank by metro size.

The Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending, through the national NMLS system, under federal SAFE Act requirements for pre-licensing education, testing and background screening. One Texas-specific feature is worth knowing: the state constitution imposes particular restrictions on home equity lending, including limits on total fees and rules about how those loans are closed, which makes Texas home equity origination a genuine specialism. Commercial and business lenders are not licensed — the SML licence covers residential mortgage origination.

Because originator commission is a percentage of loan amount, and Texas property prices are below the national mortgage market average. An originator here has to close more files to earn the same income as one in a high-price coastal market — that is essentially the whole of the 13.5% gap. It says nothing about volume or opportunity: Texas has strong purchase-mortgage demand from in-migration and construction, which is a steadier base than the refinancing-dependent markets elsewhere.

Partly, and increasingly as income rises. Texas has no state income tax, so commission is not subject to state withholding or reconciliation — a real advantage in an occupation where variable pay is the majority of earnings. At the $95,770 seventy-fifth percentile and the $135,280 ninetieth that is worth several thousand dollars a year against a moderate-tax state. At the $66,370 median the gap to the national figure is just over ten thousand dollars, which the tax advantage narrows but does not close.

Because loan size follows income and property values, and the Permian Basin generates both. Midland at $72,030 sits second in the state, ahead of Houston and Austin, which is not what a ranking by metro size would produce. The mechanism is the same one that explains the whole occupation's geography: originators are paid a percentage of what they write, so a market with higher incomes and higher-priced property pays more per transaction regardless of how many transactions there are.

Commission is measured awkwardly. OEWS captures wage and salary income, and the timing and structure of commission payments vary between employers, so the survey handles it inconsistently; independent-contractor originators are outside it entirely. The figure is also a snapshot at one point in an interest-rate cycle, and origination income in Texas swings hard with rates. Anyone benchmarking against this page should treat the $48,030 to $95,770 interquartile range as the realistic working span rather than fixating on the median.

Referral pipeline first and overwhelmingly — relationships with real estate agents and homebuilders are what generate the volume the upper half of the band depends on, and in a construction-heavy state builder relationships are unusually valuable. Then loan size, which is why Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Midland lead the table. Then product specialisation: jumbo lending, Texas home equity origination with its distinctive constitutional constraints, and commercial and construction finance all pay above conventional purchase origination. And then employer structure, since the split between base, draw and commission decides how much of a strong market the originator keeps.