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The industry consensus is clear, for now: Commission rates have fallen, but not by much.
What’s less clear is what brokerage compensation will look like in the years and decades ahead if buyer negotiation and new seller options are able to erode rates over a longer period of time.
An Intel review of public financial data and surveys of real estate professionals sheds light on the issue as companies record small annual declines in rates, and agents report ramped-up negotiations with buyer clients in particular.
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The main question — whether rates are going to stabilize or continue a slow-but-steady descent — remains unanswered for now.
But there are important upcoming dates where the industry will learn more. And Intel’s monthly surveys of real estate agents and brokerage leaders suggest that the question is far from settled.
Read the full breakdown in this week’s report.
Where things stand
While the consensus opinion is that commissions have declined by only a small amount, the extent of that decline remains a closely watched topic.
Real estate tech strategist Mike DelPrete famously combed through data from the nation’s largest brokerages in November and found some evidence that rates had declined in the months after NAR’s settlement was announced.
As DelPrete pointed out at the time, the difference was small — amounting to a couple hundred dollars on the typical-sized transaction — and potentially explained by seasonal factors and other normal ups and downs.
Perhaps the clearest window into this from public filings comes from the brokerage giant Anywhere, which has been reporting the average commission rate for each major segment of its business in its quarterly financial updates to investors.
These filings reflect the year-over-year picture, which better accounts for the subtle seasonal dynamics that affect agents’ negotiations with clients.
- For Anywhere’s franchise brokerages, the dip in average broker commission rates was almost imperceptible: from 2.43 percent per side in the first quarter of last year to 2.41 percent a year later.
- But Anywhere’s company-owned brokerages — which tend to operate on the East and West coasts and deal in higher price points — saw a bigger decline from 2.41 percent to 2.35 percent over the same period.
On the April earnings call, Anywhere CEO Ryan Schneider suggested that the luxury business had seen even steeper declines in compensation rates — but no greater than a tenth of a percentage point, he said.
“I do think there’s something about the savvy buyer and seller maybe being a little more sophisticated and maybe negotiating a bit harder,” Schneider told an analyst on the call.
Later this month, Anywhere will provide their updated financial numbers covering the period from April through June — providing, perhaps, one of the earliest opportunities for a year-over-year comparison of real estate’s biggest annual client ramp-up season under the new settlement rules.
Few other real estate companies report what’s happening to their commission rates in the same level of detail. But Intel surveys of real estate agents and brokerage leaders suggest that industry professionals of all stripes are facing a roughly similar environment.
Potential for further erosion
The industry won’t know for months or years what the long-term impact of the lawsuits and the policy changes will be.
But if the experience of agents who responded to the Intel Index survey in recent months are any indication, the industry may not have hit bottom quite yet.
- In June’s survey, 45 percent of agent respondents told Intel that they had negotiated compensation with at least one buyer in the previous three months — the highest share Intel has recorded.
- That share has gradually increased each month since February, when only 32 percent of agent respondents had to negotiate with at least one recent buyer.
While today’s buyer clients appear to be striking a bit more of an aggressive stance in negotiations, sellers may be backing off of hard-line tactics as they navigate an increasingly buyer-leaning market environment.
- In the early spring, somewhere between 36 percent and 39 percent of agent respondents told Intel that they had at least one recent listing client that refused to cover the buyer’s agent commission.
- By late June, that share had dipped to 32 percent of agent respondents, even as agents fielded more questions from listing clients about whether covering the buyer’s commission was required.
As the page turned to summer, fewer agents reported that compensation had risen, and more expressed uncertainty about the direction of commission rates.
It’s against this backdrop that some of the nation’s biggest brokerages will soon provide an update on rates in the months ahead.
Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey was conducted June 21-July 3, 2025, and received 522 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
