A Class Action Suit Could Upend The Entire Real Estate Industry

If you have ever bought a home, or are thinking about buying one, you know it can be expensive. For most people a home is the most expensive purchase they will ever make.

But selling a home can be expensive too. In part, that's because of the commissions real estate agents collect when a home is sold.

Depending on the price of the home commissions can be tens of thousands of dollars.

A class action lawsuit brought by a group of Missouri home sellers against the National Association of Realtors argues that these fees hurt consumers by artificially inflating home prices.

This past week, a federal jury awarded the home sellers $1.8 billion dollars.

Adrian Ma and Wailin Wong, co-hosts of NPR's The Indicator, breakdown how that decision could change the entire real estate industry.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org

This episode was produced by Brittany Cronin, with engineering by Ko Takasugi-Czernowin. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Kate Concannon and Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.