In 2024 a lot of people predicted that buyer’s agent commissions were about to fall off a cliff. Headlines used numbers like 1%. Some predicted the buyer’s agent would stop existing.
Two years on, there is data. It does not say what either side expected.
Short answer: the average buyer’s agent commission dipped to 2.36% in the quarter the new rules took effect, then climbed back to 2.42% a year later, roughly where it sat before the settlement was announced. The rules changed the paperwork and the disclosure. They did not change the number.
What actually happened to buyer’s agent commissions after the rules changed?
Redfin, a national brokerage, tracks buyer’s agent commission quarterly using its own transaction data. Its published series is the clearest public record of what happened.
| Quarter | Average buyer’s agent commission | What was happening |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 2.38% | NAR settlement first announced |
| Q3 2024 | 2.36% | New practice rules took effect |
| Q2 2025 | 2.43% | Back to pre-announcement level |
| Q3 2025 | 2.42% | Holding |
Source: Redfin’s Q3 2025 commission report, published December 8, 2025, and its Q2 2025 report.
The full move from top to bottom is six hundredths of a percentage point. On a $500,000 sale, the gap between 2.36% and 2.42% is $300. That is not a market restructuring. That is noise around a stable number.
Who published these numbers, and how much weight should they carry?
This matters, so read it before you quote the figure anywhere.
These are not government statistics. Redfin is a brokerage, and this is its research arm publishing analysis of its own book of business. By Redfin’s own description, the data comes from national aggregated information on sales of Redfin agents’ listings and deals referred by Redfin, covering a sample of thousands of transactions per quarter, and it excludes most transactions where Redfin represented the buyer in order to track rates paid to outside agents.
That is a reasonable methodology and it is disclosed openly, which is more than most commission “studies” offer. It is still one brokerage’s transactions, not a census. Commissions are not reported to any federal agency, so no official national average exists. Anyone who tells you the national average commission is exactly some number is quoting a private dataset, whether or not they say so.
We are a flat-fee brokerage, so we have an obvious interest in this subject too. Treat our framing with the same skepticism, and check the linked source.
What did the August 17, 2024 rule changes actually change?
Two concrete things, both real, neither of them a price control. According to NAR’s own settlement FAQs, the practice changes took effect August 17, 2024, with MLSs given until September 16, 2024 to finish technical work.
First, offers of compensation can no longer be published on the MLS. Before, a listing carried a field showing what the seller was offering a buyer’s agent, visible to every agent searching. Now that field is gone, and any offer of compensation has to be communicated some other way.
Second, an MLS participant working with a buyer must have a written agreement with that buyer before touring a home. The agreement has to state compensation that is objectively ascertainable and not open-ended, and the agent may not receive more from any source than the amount in that agreement.
Neither rule sets a price. Both rules are about disclosure and consent. That distinction explains most of what followed.
Why didn’t commissions collapse?
Because the number was never being set by the MLS field. It was being set by what sellers concluded they needed to do to attract buyers, and by what buyers were willing and able to pay out of pocket.
Three forces held the line:
- Buyers mostly cannot pay an agent in cash. Down payment, closing costs, and reserves already stretch most buyers. Money for representation generally has to come out of the transaction, which points back at the seller’s proceeds.
- Sellers in a slower market want every buyer. With existing-home inventory at 1.62 million units and 4.9 months of supply in August 2026, per NAR’s existing-home sales data, sellers have been adding incentives, not subtracting them.
- Habit is strong. Most agents on both sides of a deal quote what they quoted before. A rule change does not rewrite a customary number by itself.
None of that makes percentage-based agents the villains. A skilled agent at 2.5% who gets a house sold for more money and fewer headaches can be the cheapest thing in the transaction. The point is narrower: the settlement was not a mechanism for lowering your cost, and treating it as one has left a lot of people assuming a discount they never received.
Does the commission vary by the price of the home?
Yes, and the pattern is consistent. In Redfin’s Q3 2025 data, the average buyer’s agent commission was 2.52% on homes under $500,000, 2.32% on homes from $500,000 to just under $1 million, and 2.22% on homes at $1 million and above.
The percentage falls as price rises, which tells you something important: the work does not scale with the price. Listing a $1.2 million home is not four times the work of listing a $300,000 home, and the market quietly prices that in at the top end while leaving entry-level buyers paying the highest rate.
That is the structural argument for a flat fee stated in the data rather than in a slogan. If the fee tracks the work rather than the price, the percentage falls out naturally instead of being negotiated for.
As a seller, do you still have to offer buyer agent compensation?
No, and you never did. Compensation has always been negotiable, and after August 2024 it cannot be advertised on the MLS at all. What you do have is a decision to make, and it is a business decision rather than a rule.
Offering compensation can widen your buyer pool, since a buyer whose agreement obligates them to pay their agent may simply be unable to write an offer on a home where nothing is offered. Declining to offer it keeps more proceeds if the buyer can cover it themselves or negotiate it as a concession.
Most sellers land somewhere in between, and the amount belongs in the same conversation as price, timing, and concessions. Talk it through with your listing agent, and if the contract language is unfamiliar, a real estate attorney is the right person to read it.
Where does a flat listing fee fit into this?
On the one side of the deal you actually control. A seller sets two numbers: what the listing side costs, and whether anything is offered to the buyer’s side. The 2024 rules touched the second. A flat listing fee touches the first.
On a $640,000 home, a 3 percent listing fee runs $19,200. Homie’s flat fee is $6,000, with the same licensed agent, the same MLS exposure, and the same representation.* The buyer-side decision stays yours either way.
This is not a claim that a flat fee is right for everyone. A home with unusual complexity, a probate sale, or a property that needs heavy marketing may be better served by a different arrangement. It is a claim that the listing fee is the line item the last two years left completely untouched, which makes it the one still worth examining.
What does this look like in Utah and Arizona?
Utah’s median single-family price in Salt Lake County was $640,000 in August 2026, per the UtahRealEstate.com Monthly Local Market Report. At that price, each half percentage point of total commission is about $3,200. Two years of national commission data moving six hundredths of a point is worth roughly $384 on that house. The fee structure you choose is worth multiples of that.
Arizona’s Phoenix metro has been running with high inventory and heavy price-cut activity through 2026, which usually means sellers are competing on concessions and terms. In that environment the listing fee is one of the few costs a seller can fix in advance rather than negotiate under pressure. If you are weighing options in Arizona, start with what a flat fee covers here.
Quick answers
Is real estate commission negotiable?
Yes. All brokerage fees, including listing and buyer agent compensation, are negotiable and set between the seller and the service provider. There is no standard rate, and any agent describing one as fixed is describing a habit rather than a rule.
Do buyers pay their own agent now?
Sometimes. The written buyer agreement states what the buyer owes their agent. In many deals that amount is still covered through the transaction by the seller or through a concession, but the obligation sits with the buyer unless something else covers it.
What is the total commission on a typical sale in 2026?
There is no official figure, because commissions are not reported to any government agency. Published estimates combining both sides generally land in the mid-5% range, but every one of them comes from a private survey or a brokerage’s own data.
Did the settlement do anything useful for consumers?
It made the conversation explicit. Buyers now sign something that states what their representation costs before they tour, and sellers decide about buyer-side compensation on purpose instead of by default. That is real, even though the average number barely moved.
Should I just skip having an agent?
That depends on the transaction and your appetite for risk, and it is worth reading up on how listing representation actually works before deciding. Representation and fee structure are separate questions.
The bottom line
The rule changes were about disclosure, not price, and the data reflects that: 2.38% before, 2.36% at the low, 2.42% a year later. Anyone who told you the settlement would cut your costs was describing a hope, not a mechanism.
What moves your cost is the fee model you agree to. That was true in 2023, it was true the week the rules changed, and it is true now.
Whether you’re buying, selling, or doing both, Homie has your back. Compare our flat listing fee, see what buyers get, or tell us about your home.
— The Homie Team
*All brokerage fees, including listing and buyer agent compensation, are fully negotiable and determined solely by the seller and service provider.
*Flat-fee pricing and service availability may vary by location.
*Examples and potential savings are for illustrative purposes only.
*Commission figures from Redfin’s published commission reports, which analyze Redfin’s own transaction data and are not government statistics. Existing-home sales data from the National Association of Realtors, August 2026. Utah market data from UtahRealEstate.com Monthly Local Market Reports, August 2026. All data obtained from sources deemed reliable but not verified. Information not guaranteed.