The real estate settlement helps home buyers. But prices are still too high.

In the United States, nothing has been certain except death, taxes and the 6% real estate agent commission. But after a legal settlement this month, the list might be down to two again. The agreement, which could result in lower real-estate-agent fees — and, therefore, lower home prices — is much-needed relief at a time when housing remains stubbornly expensive.

The National Association of Realtors last week committed to abandoning a century-old tradition: requiring sellers’ agents to split a service fee, expressed as a percentage of the sales price, with buyers’ agents. Though in theory the rate is negotiable, in practice NAR enforces it through conditions it places on access to the databases on which nearly all properties for sale are listed. This has led realtors to agree on a standard commission, limiting competition among agents on price and service quality.

The numbers speak for themselves. While commissions in other industries rise and fall with economic tides and technological innovations, the real estate commission has not. Homeowners selling $400,000 homes, around the national median, spend $24,000 or so in commissions — $12,000 to their agents and $12,000 to buyers’ agents. Add up all sellers across the country, and sellers are paying around $100 billion yearly in commissions, according to a 2019 Brookings report.

Relaxing NAR rules pertaining to commissions, as the settlement will do, could decrease total commissions by as much as 30%. Sellers might list their homes for less in the first place. Lower transaction costs could also encourage them to sell more often, bringing badly needed supply to the housing market — and driving down prices even further.

With commissions more negotiable, buyers will also likely have more opportunity to choose agents based on their charges. Want boutique services from the best of the best, always tipping you off to the hottest homes on the market and available to tour them on the spot? You’ll have to pay more for that than for bare bones representation when you’ve decided to make an offer.

This shift should have happened long ago. After all, the internet has made it easier than ever for buyers to buy and sellers to sell without much expert intervention. The only reason it took this long, the public and the courts both began to recognize ahead of this month’s settlement, was NAR-sponsored collusion.