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Are Brokers' Commission Rates on Home Sales Too High? A Conceptual Analysis

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  • Arnott, R.
  • Anglin, P.

Abstract

Many people in North America believe that prevailing commission rates for residential real estate brokers are too high, even though such beliefs are not based on a formal model. This paper presents a general equilibrium model of the housing market in which real estate brokers serve as matching intermediaries. We use this model to construct an illustrative example which is calibrated using data consistent with a typical housing market. The example suggests that the commission rate which maximizes aggregate efficiency is considerably below the prevailing rate. Moreover, this finding appears to be robust to changes in the matching process.
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Suggested Citation

  • Arnott, R. & Anglin, P., 1995. "Are Brokers' Commission Rates on Home Sales Too High? A Conceptual Analysis," G.R.E.Q.A.M. 95a21, Universite Aix-Marseille III.
    • Handle: RePEc:fth:aixmeq:95a21
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    as
    1. Arnott, Richard, 1989. "Housing Vacancies, Thin Markets, and Idiosyncratic Tastes," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 5-30, February.
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    10. Yavas, Abdullah & Colwell, Peter, 1999. "Buyer Brokerage: Incentive and Efficiency Implications," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 259-277, May.
    11. Wheaton, William C, 1990. "Vacancy, Search, and Prices in a Housing Market Matching Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1270-1292, December.
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    17. Arthur J. Hosios, 1990. "On The Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(2), pages 279-298.
    18. Thomas J. Miceli, 1992. "The Welfare Effects of Non‐Price Competition Among Real Estate Brokers," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 20(4), pages 519-532, December.
    19. David Geltner & Brian D. Kluger & Norman G. Miller, 1991. "Optimal Price and Selling Effort from the Perspectives of the Broker and Seller," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 19(1), pages 1-24, March.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Allen Head & Huw Lloyd-Ellis & Hongfei Sun, 2016. "Search, Liquidity, and the Dynamics of House Prices and Construction: Corrigendum," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 1214-1219, April.
    2. Abdullah Yavas, 2001. "Impossibility of a Competitive Equilibrium in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 21(3), pages 187-200.
    3. Bruce, Donald & Santore, Rudy, 2006. "On optimal real estate commissions," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 156-166, June.
    4. Lynn Fisher & Abdullah Yavas, 2010. "A Case for Percentage Commission Contracts: The Impact of a “Race” Among Agents," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 1-13, January.
    5. Kashiwagi, Masanori, 2014. "A search-theoretic model of the rental and homeownership markets," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 33-47.
    6. Peng Liu & Jia Xie, 2021. "Optimal Contract Design in Residential Brokerage," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(2), pages 493-530, June.
    7. Brent W. Ambrose & James N. Conklin, 2014. "Mortgage Brokers, Origination Fees, Price Transparency and Competition," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 363-421, June.
    8. Paul Anglin & Richard Arnott, 1999. "Are Brokers' Commission Rates on Home Sales Too High? A Conceptual Analysis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 27(4), pages 719-749, December.
    9. Andrew Caplin & John Leahy, 2011. "Trading Frictions and House Price Dynamics," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s2), pages 283-303, October.
    10. Robert Novy‐Marx, 2009. "Hot and Cold Markets," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 37(1), pages 1-22, March.
    11. Anglin, Paul M., 2004. "How long does it take to buy one house and sell another?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 87-100, June.
    12. Oz Shy, 2012. "Real Estate Brokers and Commission: Theory and Calibrations," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 982-1004, November.
    13. Han, Lu & Strange, William C., 2015. "The Microstructure of Housing Markets," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 813-886, Elsevier.
    14. Allen Head & Huw Lloyd-Ellis & Hongfei Sun, 2014. "Search, Liquidity, and the Dynamics of House Prices and Construction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1172-1210, April.
    15. İnaltekin, Hazer & Jarrow, Robert A. & Sağlam, Mehmet & Yıldırım, Yıldıray, 2011. "Housing prices and the optimal time-on-the-market decision," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 171-179.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    REAL ESTATE; HOUSING;

    JEL classification:

    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis
    • H0 - Public Economics - - General
    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General

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