Remember when everyone said buyer agent commissions were about to disappear?
Yeah. About that.
After the NAR settlement and the rule changes in August 2024, there was a lot of dramatic predicting. Panels. Podcasts. Think pieces. Hot takes are flying everywhere. Buyer agents were apparently on the brink of extinction.
Fast forward to now, and commissions didn’t vanish. They adjusted. Then they bounced back. And in some cases, they quietly went up.
According to new Redfin data, the average buyer agent commission hit 2.42% in Q3 2025, up from 2.36% a year earlier. That’s not a collapse. That’s a rebound with confidence.
Here’s the part people miss. Commission structures don’t change just because rules change. They change when leverage changes. And right now, leverage belongs to buyers.
Homes are sitting longer. Multiple offers aren’t automatic. Sellers are negotiating again. When that happens, there’s very little motivation to mess with a system that helps deals actually close.
In a slower market, buyers suddenly have power. And when buyers have power, they tend to protect the people representing them.
Funny how that works
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Here’s the twist nobody predicted loudly enough. Buyers aren’t just accepting commissions. They’re using them as part of the negotiation.
In many cases, buyers know they might be the only offer on the table. That gives them room to ask sellers to cover buyer agent compensation. Sometimes even at higher percentages.
Not because buyer agents are greedy. But because buyers understand the value of having someone in their corner when the deal gets complicated. So, let’s be honest, it usually does.
Commission percentages aren’t flat across the board. They move with price.
Homes under $500,000 averaged 2.52% buyer agent commissions in Q3. That’s been remarkably consistent across recent quarters.
Why? Because lower-priced deals often require more work relative to the paycheck. More financing hurdles. More hand-holding. More chaos. Same number of hours. Smaller gross commission.
On the flip side, homes priced at $1 million and up averaged 2.22%. Slightly higher than earlier in the year, but still lower overall.
This isn’t new. It’s math.
Yes. But not in the dramatic way people expected.
The settlement increased transparency. It forced conversations to happen earlier. It made agents explain their value more clearly.
What it didn’t do is magically separate commissions overnight.
Consumer Policy Center researchers recently found that most buyer agents are still asking for 2.5% to 3%. That tells you everything you need to know about how sticky compensation models really are.
Structural change takes time. Especially when the market itself keeps reinforcing the old behavior.
A seller-driven market.
If inventory tightens. If bidding wars come back. If sellers regain full control, they’ll push harder for buyers to pay for their own representation.
That could happen. Markets shift. They always do.
But right now? The conditions just aren’t there.
Buyer agents didn’t survive this moment by accident. They survived because they’re still needed.
Negotiation. Education. Strategy. Problem solving. Emotional management. All the messy stuff that doesn’t show up in headlines.
The market didn’t remove the role. It reminded everyone why it exists.
And for now, commissions are simply reflecting that reality.
