Realtors president Richard F. Gaylord said the Chicago-based association is "focused on what matters most to consumers - re-energizing the housing market."
Tuesday, online real estate brokers and their potential clients received some support from The Justice Department who is forcing new industry policies that give Internet-based agents access to home listings they were previously denied.
The settlement, which still requires court approval, could save consumers thousands of dollars when buying a home.
Online real estate agents let buyers review listings at their own pace and often discount their commission fees.
Internet-based brokers have been complaining for years that the National Association of Realtors was letting real estate agents exclude some of their listings from their online competitors, many of whom offer discounted prices. More than 800 multiple listing services nationwide are affiliated with the Realtors group.
Government lawyers, in a September 2005 lawsuit, said such policies discriminated against online brokers. The MLS databases will be opened to online and traditional residential property agents, as per the settlement filed by the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
"It really does free brokers generally to engage in whatever they feel is the most efficient and effective way to compete," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Deborah A. Garza of the Justice Department's antitrust division told reporters.
She said the settlement "should lower the cost of the transaction for buying a house."
In 2006, for example, consumers saved up to 1 percent on the price of a home by using an online broker, Garza said. That year, the median home price amounted to over $225,000, with median commissions of over $11,000.
Real estate agents earned $93 billion in commissions in 2006, she said.
In a report last year, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission found limits on discount brokers' access to Web listings of properties for sale prevented consumers from getting the cost savings and other benefits online competition has brought other industries.
The report found that when house hunting more consumers use the Web than "For Sale" yard signs.
Government attorneys said, online brokers who were locked out of the MLS databases were unable to compete with real estate agents. In one case, in Emporia, Kansas, an Internet-based agent was forced out of business after the local MLS denied his access to any property listings in the local market.
Tuesday's settlement will be in place for ten years but will not take effect until late summer, or 60 days after it wins court approval.
The settlement does not obligate the National Association of Realtors to pay a fine or force the group to acknowledge any liability.
The NAR represents 1.2 million real estate agents and other members in more than 250,000 active office locations and branches nationwid
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