More than a year and a half after rule changes from the National Association of Realtors’ settlement took effect, commissions remain largely unchanged. Meanwhile, a parallel shift in how homes are marketed is emerging as a new pressure point for first-time buyers.
Those are two of the top takeaways from a new report from the Consumer Federation of America and the National Urban League.
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Based on a survey of 223 housing counselors — independent, HUD-certified advisors who help buyers assess their finances and navigate the homebuying process without a financial stake in the transaction — across 37 states, the findings reinforce a pattern that shows the rules have changed, but much of the market’s behavior hasn’t.
Commissions remain largely unchanged
The headline finding is straightforward: Commissions haven’t meaningfully shifted since the NAR settlement rule changes went into effect in August 2024. Only 7 percent of housing counselors said their first-time buyer clients are paying lower commissions than a year ago, while a larger share said costs were flat or rising.
The report suggests this is largely because buyers aren’t negotiating agent commissions. Roughly two-thirds of counselors said their clients never, rarely or only sometimes push back on agent fees — limiting the price competition the rule changes were designed to introduce. Some counselors noted that attempts to negotiate can backfire, with buyers informally flagged as difficult and facing resistance from agents.
That dynamic mirrors what agents themselves are reporting. Two-thirds of agents report the same stickiness, with buyer-agent fees rebounding after an initial post-settlement dip. The worst-case scenario — deals falling apart over commission costs — has remained rare. Just 9 percent of counselors said that happens frequently. One counselor in Oregon surveyed by researchers suggested that the 3 percent commission is “an accepted practice that nobody fights about.”
Affordability — not commission — is still the real constraint
For first-time buyers, the biggest barriers remain familiar. Saving for a down payment (88 percent of counselors) and finding a suitable home (73 percent) ranked as the top challenges, far outweighing agent-related concerns. Only 7 percent said finding an agent was a significant obstacle.
Counselors pointed instead to a familiar mix of pressures facing buyers, primarily high home prices, limited inventory, competition from investors and cash buyers, and credit constraints. Even when assistance programs are available, many buyers still struggle to bridge the gap between what they can qualify for and what’s on the market. Commissions, while still a cost, are not what’s keeping most first-time buyers on the sidelines, the report found.
Pre-market listings reshape consumer access
Where the report signals a meaningful shift is in the rise of private, or “pocket,” listings — homes marketed outside the MLS or within limited brokerage networks. Nearly half of counselors said their clients sometimes, often or always struggle to find homes because of these listings.
The trend has been building for roughly 18 months, shaped by a steady cascade of industry moves.
Compass announced its three-phase marketing strategy — featuring “Private Exclusives” available only to buyers working with a Compass agent — in late 2024. NAR updated its policies in March 2025, retaining its Clear Cooperation Policy while introducing a companion framework that formally created a “delayed marketing exempt listing” category, giving brokerages new flexibility to hold properties back from public IDX feeds.
This year, Compass expanded dramatically with its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate and a partnership with Rocket and Redfin that allows its coming-soon and private exclusive listings to appear on Redfin’s platform.
A recent Consumer Policy Center report found Compass holding between 30 and 39.5 percent of unit sales across five major markets, with a double-ending rate in Washington, D.C. reaching 41 percent — far above the historic norm of 3 to 12 percent.
The dynamics have now spread well beyond Compass. In March, Zillow launched Zillow Preview, a pre-market listing product framed as a transparency-first alternative to private networks, with Keller Williams, REMAX and HomeServices of America among its initial partners. Within a week, 24 additional brokerages had signed on. Zillow positioned the product as a counterweight to hidden listings — but its rapid adoption also underscores how broadly pre-market marketing strategies have taken hold across the industry.
Consumer advocates warn the trend could limit access, particularly for first-time buyers who rely on open market inventory and lack connections to dominant local brokerages. The CFA/NUL report also raises fair housing concerns: private listings have historically been linked to racial steering and segregation, and their growth could reintroduce barriers the MLS system was built to reduce.
The report calls on state attorneys general and Fair Housing Centers to monitor the practice, and urges the FHFA to begin collecting and publishing brokerage fee data so the impact of the rule changes can be tracked more systematically over time.
A slow-moving reset
The broader takeaway is not that the rule changes failed but that their impact is unfolding more slowly and unevenly than many anticipated. Commissions remain sticky, negotiation remains limited, and the biggest obstacles to homeownership still come down to affordability and supply.
At the same time, the rise of pre-market listing strategies — enabled by evolving MLS policies and accelerated by consolidation among major brokerages — is emerging as a new front in the industry’s ongoing transformation. The market looks less like a reset and more like a recalibration, with the most meaningful changes happening not in how agents are paid, but in how homes reach buyers in the first place.
