The National Association of Realtors - a powerful trade group that has long set guidelines for home sales - has agreed to pay $418 million in damages to homeowners who sued the organization and brokerages for conspiring to keep real estate commissions artificially high.
Key to the settlement: the elimination of the group's decades-old rules on broker commissions.
Home sellers had objected to the longstanding practice of paying a combined 5 to 6% commission for both their own agents and for buyers' agents.
The changes, expected to start mid-July, should make it easier for buyers to negotiate fees with their own agents or use no agents at all.
That could also spur more home sales by lowering commissions by thousands of dollars, a benefit to less-wealthy individuals and families struggling with inflationary pressures or being priced out of their neighborhoods.
Shares of several brokerages, including Douglas Elliman and Re/Max, fell after the settlement was announced.
