A couple of weeks ago, the National Association of Realtors agreed to settle more than a dozen cases alleging that the organization and brokerage firms associated with it violated antitrust laws by setting industrywide standard commissions, paid by sellers of homes. The NAR agreed to pay $418 million in damages and adopt a new business model.

If a federal judge approves the settlement, commissions — currently set at 5 to 6 percent of the sale price of a home, in contrast to 1 to 3 percent in other countries — could come down by about one-third, bringing home costs down with them.

The little-known backstory to the settlement underscores the profound differences between the Trump and Biden administrations’ approach to pocketbook issues affecting Americans. That story also serves as a reminder to President Biden: You can’t make music if you don’t blow your own horn.

For decades, federal authorities suspected that the real estate industry was conspiring to fix prices. The president of the NAR declared that even compared to class-action suits, the Department of Justice “was the bigger problem.”

In November 2020, the Trump DOJ filed “an anti-trust case and simultaneous settlement requiring the NAR to repeal and modify certain........

© The Hill