Although the spring home-buying season is several months away, buyers and sellers have some motivation to come off the sidelines. In early September, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage had an average 6.35% interest rate, down from 7.12% a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac. And a $418 million settlement reached earlier this year with the National Association of Realtors led to new requirements for real estate transactions in ways that could save you money on the purchase or sale of a home.
The settlement stemmed from class-action lawsuits that claimed the industry-wide practice of requiring seller’s agents to specify the commission being offered to buyer’s agents artificially inflated real estate commissions. The NAR, which agreed to settle the lawsuits but denied the allegations, says commissions have always been negotiable, but they’ve generally held at 5% to 6% of the sale price for years.
