Cost to Sell a House and Realtor Commission Statistics (2026)

The largest cost to sell a house is the agents' commission. Through at least 2024, brokers usually received commissions totaling five to six percent of the sale price, the Justice Department wrote in a December 2025 court filing (DOJ). The same filing put US broker commissions and related costs at $170 billion in 2024, about 0.6% of GDP, across roughly five million home sales worth $1.5 trillion a year, figures it drew from a Federal Reserve Board analysis (Federal Reserve).

Sellers can face other costs as well. They may pay a state or local transfer tax, give the buyer a concession toward closing costs or repairs, and spend money preparing the house. Some of those costs reduce the taxable gain on the sale: the IRS counts sales commissions, advertising, legal fees and seller-paid loan charges as selling expenses (IRS Publication 523).

The buyer's side of the closing table is covered separately in closing cost statistics, and the cost of the move itself in moving cost statistics.

The most recent national series on the buyer's agent side comes from Redfin, a real estate brokerage, which tracks commissions on closed sales. Its average buyer's agent commission was 2.42% for homes sold in the third quarter of 2025, up from 2.36% a year earlier and nearly flat from 2.43% in the second quarter (Redfin). Redfin's sample is thousands of transactions a quarter from its own listings and referred deals, so it is industry data and not a census of all sales.

The Federal Reserve Board, using CoreLogic MLS listings covering about half of US listings from 1995 to 2023, found the national average buyer's agent commission fell from about 3% in the late 1990s to about 2.7% (Federal Reserve). The authors wrote that the data suggest the 6% total commission norm "persists to some extent," assuming buyer and seller agents split equally.

No federal agency publishes a listing-agent commission series. The Justice Department's description of a 5% to 6% total is the most widely cited official figure, and it has used the same range in filings since at least February 2024 (DOJ).

NAR, the realtors' trade association, reported a median existing-home price of $417,500 in September 2026 (NAR). At Redfin's 2.42% average, the buyer's agent fee on that price is about $10,100. A total commission of 5% would be about $20,900 and 6% about $25,100. These are Walnut calculations on sourced rates and prices, shown in the table below.

Dollar commissions have risen even while percentages fell, because prices rose. Redfin reported in July 2024 that the average buyer's agent commission in its MLS data was $15,377, up from $15,124 in January of that year, even as the rate slipped to 2.55% from 2.62% (Redfin). That July 2024 series used listing data and is not directly comparable with Redfin's later closed-sale series.

Percentage commissions fall as prices rise. In the third quarter of 2025, Redfin's average buyer's agent commission was 2.52% for homes under $500,000, 2.32% for homes from $500,000 to $999,999, and 2.22% for homes of $1 million or more (Redfin). The under-$500,000 tier was at its highest level since the third quarter of 2023.

The gap widened after the settlement. Between the third quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2025, the under-$500,000 rate rose to 2.52% from 2.45%, while the $1 million-plus rate slipped to 2.22% from 2.24%. Redfin wrote that commissions are lower on high-priced homes because agents have more room to cut their percentage and still earn a large fee (Redfin).

The Federal Reserve found the same pattern across regions: rates are lowest in the Northeast, California and the Pacific Northwest, which also have the highest prices. Its model attributes about 0.2 percentage point of the long-run national decline, more than half of it, to the doubling of house prices since the mid-1990s (Federal Reserve).

Buyer's agent commissions declined slowly for decades before the settlement. In Redfin's MLS data, the average fell from 2.89% in 2013 to 2.66% in 2023 (Redfin). The Federal Reserve's longer series runs from about 3% in the late 1990s to about 2.7% (Federal Reserve).

The Federal Reserve note describes the 2002 distribution as strongly clustered at 3%. By 2022 the 2% to 3% range was more spread out, with more 2.5% and 2% rates, though 3% was still the single most common rate. In the New York, northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania metro area, the median and most common rate in 2022 was 2%.

Prices for homes are covered in home price statistics.

The settlement grew out of class actions by home sellers who argued that NAR rules forced them to pay buyer's agents. On October 31, 2023, a jury in Burnett v. National Association of Realtors found for the plaintiffs, and the court later described the result as a $1.8 billion verdict (final approval order). NAR signed its settlement agreement on March 15, 2024 (settlement agreement).

NAR agreed to pay $418 million over approximately four years, and its FAQ states that NAR continues to deny any wrongdoing (NAR settlement FAQ). The release covers more than 1.4 million NAR members, state and local associations, Realtor MLSs, and brokerages with an NAR member as principal and 2022 residential transaction volume of $2 billion or below (NAR).

Other defendants settled separately. RE/MAX, LLC agreed on October 5, 2023 to pay $55 million and change business practices, according to the company, a real estate franchisor (RE/MAX). The court wrote that the NAR and HomeServices settlements together provide an almost $700 million recovery, and that class counsel had obtained over $1 billion in proposed and approved settlements in all (final approval order).

Two practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024. Offers of compensation from a seller or listing agent to a buyer's agent can no longer be shared on a multiple listing service, though they can still be made off the MLS. And MLS participants working with buyers must have a written agreement with the buyer before touring a home, including how the agent will be paid (NAR settlement FAQ).

Sellers can still offer buyer concessions on an MLS, such as money toward closing costs, and a listing agent must disclose in writing, in advance, any payment the seller or listing broker will make to a buyer's agent, with the amount or rate (NAR settlement FAQ). NAR states that agent compensation "remains fully negotiable and is not set by law."

NAR's position is that nothing in its policies increased costs for buyers or sellers. The practice-change materials and consumer guides are collected on its settlement page (NAR).

Judge Stephen R. Bough of the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri granted final approval on November 26, 2024, with the written order filed November 27 (NAR). The order says nearly 40 million direct notices were mailed or emailed to the class, reaching more than 99% of identified class members, and the settlement website drew over 2 million unique visitors (final approval order).

As of November 14, 2024, over 491,000 claims had been made, and the claims period ran until May 9, 2025. The court counted 36 objectors and other filers and 39 opt-outs from the settlement class.

On April 10, 2026, NAR announced a separate $52.25 million agreement to resolve claims brought by homebuyers in Tuccori v. At World Properties, subject to court approval. It requires no new practice changes beyond those from the seller settlement (NAR).

Two days before the approval hearing, on November 24, 2024, the Justice Department's Antitrust Division filed a statement of interest. It said the settlement does not limit the United States' ability to enforce the antitrust laws, because the government took no part in the case, and it raised one concern: the rule requiring a written buyer agreement before any home tour "may harm buyers and limit how brokers compete for clients" (DOJ). The filing also noted that the settlement still allows offers of compensation to be made and posted publicly, just not on an MLS, and that sellers feel pressure to offer the "customary" 2.5% to 3% to buyer brokers.

The same filing notes that the department has an open investigation of NAR's rules, discussed in a 2024 D.C. Circuit decision, NAR v. United States. The Supreme Court denied NAR's petition to review that decision on January 13, 2025 (Supreme Court docket). In March 2025, the department urged a Massachusetts court to deny preliminary approval of a separate MLS PIN settlement, calling its rule changes "cosmetic" and noting that commission rates "have barely budged from the 5-6% 'standard' rates for decades" (DOJ).

In December 2025, in Davis v. Hanna Holdings in Pennsylvania, the department filed again, arguing that trade-association rules are not automatically exempt from the per se rule against price fixing. That filing is the source of the five-to-six-percent and $170 billion figures (DOJ).

NAR's Multiple Listing Options for Sellers policy took effect March 25, 2025, with MLSs required to implement it by September 30, 2025 (NAR). It lets sellers choose a delayed-marketing exempt listing, filed with the MLS but kept off IDX and syndication sites for a period each MLS sets, or an office exclusive that is not shared with other MLS participants.

The Clear Cooperation Policy, adopted in November 2019, stays in place. It requires a listing broker to submit a listing to the MLS within one business day of marketing it to the public (NAR). NAR also clarified that one-to-one, broker-to-broker communications do not trigger it, while multi-brokerage communications count as public marketing (NAR).

In May 2026 NAR published new resources on Policy Statement 8.5, a 2021 rule that bars MLSs from letting users filter out listings by compensation or by broker or agent name, and in July 2026 guidance on office exclusive listings and pre-marketing (NAR, NAR).

On Redfin's measure, commissions moved little. The average buyer's agent commission was 2.45% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 2.43% in the first quarter of 2024, when the settlement was announced. It fell to 2.36% in the third quarter of 2024, when the rules took effect, then rose for three straight quarters to 2.43% in the second quarter of 2025 and held at 2.42% in the third (Redfin, Redfin, Redfin).

Redfin attributes the rebound to a slowdown in home sales that gave buyers more negotiating power, including room to negotiate higher pay for their agents. Month by month, its average was 2.38% in July 2024, 2.35% in August and back to 2.38% in December (Redfin).

Agents surveyed for Redfin described little change. In a Redfin-commissioned Ipsos survey of 500 agents from December 2024 to January 2025, 48% said commissions in their area were about the same since the settlement, 43% said they had declined and 4% said they had increased. Fifty-four percent said clients were putting more effort into negotiating (Redfin).

Many sellers do not negotiate. In a Redfin-commissioned Ipsos survey of 4,000 US residents in March and April 2025, 37.4% of people who sold a home in the past year negotiated or tried to negotiate their agent's commission and 45.9% did not. Among recent buyers, 27.2% tried and 47.8% did not (Redfin). The seller group was 129 respondents, so the margin of error is wide.

The Federal Reserve tested whether two state policies changed rates: laws requiring buyer representation agreements (15 states) and bans on commission rebates (8 states). Over 1995 to 2023, neither effect was statistically distinguishable from zero (Federal Reserve).

Ninety-two percent of home sellers used a real estate agent or broker in NAR's 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, an all-time high, and 90% of buyers used one, the highest in four decades (NAR). For-sale-by-owner sellers stayed at a historic low of 5%, and 62% of them knew the buyer. The survey covers transactions from July 2025 to June 2026 (NAR).

Sellers are staying longer before they sell. The median seller had owned the home for 12 years, an all-time high, and the median repeat buyer was 62, compared with 36 in 1981. NAR attributes longer tenure partly to owners holding low-rate mortgages.

First-time buyers were 22% of purchases. Their side of the market is covered in first-time home buyer statistics, and ownership rates in homeownership statistics.

Sellers gave concessions to buyers in 44.7% of US home sales in the three months ending August 2026, up from 42.6% a year earlier and the highest August share since at least 2020, according to Redfin data reported by its buyers' agents (Redfin). A concession is money toward repairs, closing costs or a mortgage-rate buydown; price cuts are not counted.

Concessions were most common in Sun Belt markets: 72.8% of sales in Atlanta, 67.9% in Charlotte, 67.4% in Phoenix, 66.7% in Las Vegas and 66.3% in Raleigh. They were least common in San Jose (4.2%), New York (5.7%) and San Francisco (18.6%). Phoenix rose the most, up 15.3 percentage points, and Seattle fell most, to 48.5% from about 70%.

Nationally, 15.8% of homes sold in August 2026 had both a price drop and a concession, the highest August share in Redfin's records. Under the settlement rules, sellers can still advertise buyer concessions on an MLS (NAR settlement FAQ).

Many states tax the transfer of a deed, and in some the seller pays. New York State charges $2 per $500 of consideration, which is 0.4%, paid by the seller; New York City conveyances of residential property at $3 million or more owe an additional 0.25%, and a separate 1% mansion tax on homes of $1 million or more is paid by the buyer (New York State).

Washington's state real estate excise tax is graduated: 1.10% on sales of $525,000 or less, 1.28% up to $1,525,000, 2.75% up to $3,025,000 and 3% above that, with thresholds rising on January 1, 2027. The Department of Revenue says the seller usually pays, and local tax is added (Washington DOR). Pennsylvania's state realty transfer tax is 1% of value, often with an additional local tax, and buyer and seller are jointly liable (Pennsylvania Department of Revenue).

On NAR's $417,500 median price, the state tax alone would be about $1,670 in New York, $4,590 in Washington and $4,180 in Pennsylvania (Walnut calculations).

In NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Staging, 21% of sellers' agents said they staged all their sellers' homes before listing and 10% staged only homes that were hard to sell. Eighty-three percent of buyers' agents said staging made it easier for buyers to visualize the property (NAR). The rooms most often staged were the living room (91%), primary bedroom (83%) and dining room (69%).

For taxes, the IRS separates repairs from improvements. Improvements that add value, extend the home's life or adapt it to new uses are added to basis, which lowers the gain. Repairs such as painting or fixing leaks are not, unless they are part of an extensive remodel (IRS Publication 523).

An owner can exclude up to $250,000 of gain on the sale of a main home, or $500,000 on a joint return, if they owned the home and lived in it for at least 24 months of the 5 years before the sale, and did not exclude gain on another home in the prior 2 years (IRS Topic 701). A partial exclusion can apply for work, health or unforeseeable reasons (IRS Publication 523).

Selling costs reduce the amount realized, and therefore the gain. Publication 523 lists sales commissions, advertising fees, legal fees and loan charges the seller paid that would normally fall on the buyer. A sale reported on Form 1099-S must be reported even when the gain is fully excluded, using Schedule D and Form 8949 where required.

How capital gains are taxed beyond the exclusion is covered in capital gains tax statistics, and how much equity owners hold in home equity statistics.

Existing-home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.99 million in September 2026, up 1.5% from August and down 2.2% from a year earlier. The median price was $417,500, up 1.3% from $412,300, and inventory rose to 1.60 million homes, a 4.8-month supply (NAR).

The median home sold in 33 days, compared with 31 in August. All-cash sales were 27% of transactions and distressed sales 2%.

For a typical seller, commissions, concessions and transfer taxes come out of the equity built up over a median 12 years of ownership. Sale proceeds can go toward a down payment on the next home or into savings and investment accounts. Walnut, an AI investing app, can read a connected brokerage account to show how that money is doing after the sale.