Colorado Real Estate Pass Rate 2026: 42.4% State Portion

The most recent official Colorado real estate pass rate is 42.4% on the state portion — 326 of 768 candidates — for the quarter running April 1 to June 30, 2026, published by the Colorado Division of Real Estate within the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). Across the same three months the national portion passed at 59.9%, 460 of 767. Those are two separately scored halves of one licensing exam, reported in two separate tables, and the Division presents both under a page headed "Broker Examination First Time Pass Rates." Any page that quotes one Colorado number and calls it the pass rate is quoting half the exam.

One quirk has to be settled before any of this makes sense: Colorado has no real estate salesperson licence. Broker is the entry-level credential here. A first-time Colorado licensee sits the broker exam, so the figures below are the equivalent of another state's salesperson pass rate, not of another state's broker upgrade. This is the single most confusing thing about Colorado real estate licensing, and it is why Colorado numbers get mis-filed in comparison tables.

Every official Colorado broker exam pass rate

The Division publishes a school-by-school report each quarter plus an annual summary, each split into a national table and a state table with a statewide Total row at the foot. These are the Total rows. Figures were checked against the source on August 16, 2026; at that date the Q2 2026 report was the newest posted, with Q3 2026 listed as "Coming Soon."

Period	Portion	Attempt basis (as labeled)	Tested	Passed	Rate
Apr 1 – Jun 30, 2026	National	First time (page title only)	767	460	59.9%
Apr 1 – Jun 30, 2026	State	First time (page title only)	768	326	42.4%
Jan 1 – Mar 31, 2026	National	"Includes First-Time Examinees"	718	465	64.76%
Jan 1 – Mar 31, 2026	State	"Includes First-Time Examinees"	470	236	50.21%
Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025 (annual)	National	"Includes First-Time Examinees"	2,868	1,821	63.49%
Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025 (annual)	State	"Includes First-Time Examinees"	1,841	1,027	55.78%

The Q2 2026 report also prints a mean raw score column: 76.3% on the national portion and 64.2% on the state portion. Hold on to those two numbers — they explain the pass rates better than the pass rates do.

What this number does and does not count

It is a first-attempt figure, with a caveat about the labeling. The Division's landing page is titled "Broker Examination First Time Pass Rates," and the 2025 annual report and the Q1 2026 report both carry the header line "Includes First-Time Examinees" above each table. The Q2 2026 report was issued on a redesigned template headed only "School Summary Cumulative," and that template does not repeat the first-time wording. So the first-attempt framing for the newest quarter rests on the page title rather than on the report header. Read 42.4% as first-attempt, but know where the label comes from.

It counts one portion, not the exam. Colorado scores the national and state halves separately and reports them in separate tables, and a candidate can sit them at different times. That is why the two denominators do not match: in 2025, 2,868 people were tested on the national portion and only 1,841 on the state portion. The two rates therefore describe two overlapping but different groups of people. They cannot be averaged, and neither one is the share of candidates who walked out fully licensed.

It is a per-attempt rate, not a per-person outcome. Nothing in these reports tracks a candidate who fails and comes back. There is no published retake rate and no published eventual-pass rate for Colorado, so a 42.4% quarter does not mean 57.6% of those people never licensed.

Two smaller mechanics worth knowing. The quarterly tables carry both a "Tested" and a slightly larger "Total" column — 767 versus 770 on the Q2 2026 national side — and the published percentage is calculated on Tested. And the rows are grouped by the school that provided the candidate's pre-licensing education, which is the report's actual purpose: it exists so Colorado can see how schools perform, not to give applicants a difficulty score.

The Colorado broker exam: format, score, and fee

The exam runs to 154 scored questions across the two portions, and the fee is $45. Passing is not a single combined score — you must clear both bars:

• National portion: 60 of 80 correct, which is 75.0%
• State portion: 53 of 74 correct, which is 71.6%

Note which bar is higher. In percentage terms the national portion demands more, 75.0% against 71.6%, and yet it is the state portion that fewer candidates clear — by 17.5 points last quarter. A harder cut score is not what is going on.

What the portion split says about what to study

Put the cut scores next to the mean raw scores from Q2 2026 and the picture resolves. The average candidate scored 76.3% on the national portion against a 75.0% requirement — over the line by 1.3 points, which is exactly what a roughly 60% pass rate looks like: the middle of the field is sitting on the threshold. On the state portion the average was 64.2% against a 71.6% requirement — 7.4 points under. The typical Colorado candidate does not arrive marginal on state law. They arrive short of it.

The school-level rows in the same report say the same thing from another angle. Among the larger providers in Q2 2026, one national-portion result of 77.4% came with a state-portion result of 41.5%; another paired 66.2% national with 43.8% state. One provider posted 84.0% national and 84.8% state — effectively level. Small enrollments make individual schools noisy and the tiny rows should be ignored, but the pattern across the big ones is consistent: national results cluster in a fairly narrow band while state results swing by 40 points. The variable is Colorado-specific instruction, not general test-taking ability.

That points preparation somewhere specific. The national portion is the material that is broadly the same wherever you license — agency, financing, valuation, property interests — and candidates are largely getting there. The state portion is Colorado Real Estate Commission rules, Colorado licensing law, trust account requirements, and the Commission-approved contract forms, and that is where the failures are concentrated. If you are budgeting effort between the two halves, the published data does not support splitting it evenly.

One more caution the data itself imposes: the gap is not fixed. It was 17.5 points in Q2 2026, 14.6 points in Q1 2026, and 7.7 points across the whole of 2025. Quarterly numbers move on samples of a few hundred. The annual figures are the steadier read.

The bottom line

Colorado's most recent published figures are 42.4% state and 59.9% national, first attempt, for April through June 2026. Over the full 2025 year they were 55.78% state and 63.49% national. Both portions must be passed, and the state portion is the binding constraint in every period the Division has published.

Two things not to do with these numbers. Do not average them into a single "Colorado pass rate" — the denominators are different groups. And do not rank Colorado against another state unless that state also publishes a first-attempt, portion-split figure and you are comparing the matching portion; most of the ten or so states that publish anything report on a different basis, and a national-portion rate set beside a state-portion rate is not a comparison at all.

If the state portion is where the data says candidates fall short, that is where timed practice under real conditions earns the most — start with a free Colorado Real Estate Broker practice exam and see which of the two halves you are actually short on before you decide how to spend your study time.

Official numbers that matter more than an estimated pass rate

The figures below come from the official source documents linked in the table. They are included so you can make study and registration decisions from published requirements rather than an unsupported estimate.

Published detail	Value	Official source
a minimum of 168 hours of qualifying education	168 hours	Colorado Division of Real Estate
Broker License Histories $15	$15	Colorado Division of Real Estate
beyond one year	1 year	PSI / Colorado Division of Real Estate
Practical Applications (32 Hours)	32 hours	Colorado Division of Real Estate
Real Estate Closings (24 Hours)	24 hours	Colorado Division of Real Estate