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A federal judge isn’t buying allegations that Howard Hanna Real Estate conspired with other real estate brokerages in a “horizontal agreement” to inflate commissions charged to homebuyers.

But lawyers seeking class action status to represent homebuyers nationwide will have a chance to argue that Howard Hanna engaged in a “vertical antitrust conspiracy” with the National Association of Realtors.

In a June 23 opinion and two related orders, Federal District Judge Wendy Beetlestone further whittled down the scope of a commission-related antitrust lawsuit filed last year against Hanna Holdings by dismissing claims of “unjust enrichment.”

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Beetlestone also dismissed claims tied to antitrust and consumer protection laws in multiple states, outlining procedural issues and perceived legal deficiencies in the Sept. 16 amended complaint against the family-owned brokerage.

A North Carolina homebuyer, Scott Davis, filed the suit in May 2024, and was joined by more than two dozen other plaintiffs.

Attorneys are seeking class action status to represent homebuyers nationwide, claiming that Howard Hanna conspired with other NAR-member brokerages to artificially inflate commission rates for buyer-brokers through rules, policies, and practices imposed on NAR members and MLS users.

That NAR members “are required to obey and enforce NAR rules … only plausibly suggests a vertical agreement between Hanna and NAR, not a horizontal agreement between Hanna and its competitors,” Beetlestone wrote in explaining her order dismissing claims that Howard Hanna conspired with other brokers.

But Beetlestone said the lawsuit presents enough of an argument that a vertical agreement exists between Howard Hanna and NAR to warrant further discovery of evidence and a trial.

“Plaintiffs plausibly allege a vertical agreement between Hanna and the NAR, where the former agrees to enforce the latter’s rules in exchange for the benefits of NAR membership,” Beetlestone wrote. “Those benefits include the ability to participate in NAR-controlled MLSs, where, due to the anticompetitive effects of a handful of NAR rules restraining normal competition among brokers, brokerage fees have allegedly ballooned to supracompetitive rates and non-NAR brokers have been iced out of the market.”

Attorneys for homebuyers allege that they “bear the brunt of these inflated commissions, since sellers pass the inflated rates on to buyers as part of the purchase price of the home,” Beetlestone noted.

Future fact finding “may — or may not” prove those allegations to be true, she said.

Beetlestone dismissed claims tied to state antitrust laws in Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah, saying those states require plaintiffs to provide notice to states before filing suit. Beetlestone dismissed those claims without prejudice, leaving the door open for plaintiffs to argue that state noticing requirements don’t apply in federal cases.

Attorneys for homebuyers also sought damages under consumer protection laws in 23 states. Beetlestone dismissed claims tied to consumer protection laws in Colorado, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, saying those laws apply to conduct that involves fraud or deception.

“Nothing about the vertical relationship alleged by Plaintiffs plausibly suggests active concealment or deception,” Beetlestone ruled.

She also dismissed claims tied to Massachusetts’ consumer protection laws, saying plaintiffs failed to fulfill notification requirements.

Finally, Beetlestone dismissed without prejudice claims tied to the doctrine of “unjust enrichment,” saying attorneys for the plaintiffs failed to specify which states’ common laws provided a basis for those claims.

“This slim pleading is simply too vague to clear the bar … because the law of unjust enrichment varies from state to state,” Beetleston ruled.

Barring a settlement, the case will proceed to the discovery stage and trial in the Philadelphia-based U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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Newfound, parent company to a family of alternative, technology-enabled brokerage brands, has acquired HomeLister, a web-based home sale solution.

Inman was provided exclusive information on the deal, the terms of which were not disclosed.

HomeLister joins Houwzer, Trelora and HomeRise under the Newfound umbrella, each offering its own tiered services model for non-traditional home sales that blend software, MLS and portal marketing, and licensed agent advisement.

Mike Maher, CEO of Newfound, called the deal a “pivotal moment” for his company, and said that HomeLister capabilities will be augmented by HomeRise, launched in 2024, which allows homesellers to publish directly to local multiple listing services.

“HomeLister’s proven technology and customer-centric approach are a perfect complement to our vision for HomeRise,” he said. “Together, we are poised to redefine the real estate landscape, especially as the industry anticipates broader adoption of Model Context Protocol (MCP) across Multiple Listing Services.”

Model Context Protocol is an emerging technology that, among other things, makes it easier for artificial intelligence models to learn from data sources. It standardizes context from the source to ensure, for example, that a large language model better understands what it’s ingesting.

HomeLister leverages AI to streamline the listing process for its users and make its backend functionality more efficient, leading to the operational savings that drive its low cost services. That also provides scalability, one of the factors motivating Newfound’s acquisition, as well as what Newfound called, a “synergistic audience overlap” that will “enable more effective marketing and customer acquisition.”

HomeLister founder and CEO Lindsay McLean is moving to Newfound, according to the release.

“Our shared commitment to technology-driven improvements in customer experience and cost reduction aligns perfectly. Newfound’s impressive growth, particularly with HomeRise, showcases its capability to thrive even under challenging market conditions,” McLean said.

HomeLister secured $10 million in a Series A round in 2022 from investors M13 and Homebrew. At that point, it was operating in 17 states.

“Like so many other parts of our economy, digital transformation can drive efficiency across many aspects of the homeselling process without sacrificing quality,” McLean said in 2022. “Knowing that a home sale is one of the biggest financial transactions of a person’s life, our goal is to put power and control back in the hands of sellers by letting them select the level of support they need and saving them tens of thousands in the process.”

Newfound said in the release that it has “closed over 40,000 real estate transactions, representing a total sales volume of more than $10 billion.” With the HomeLister acquisition, Newfound brands are marketing more than 1000 active listings in 30 states. The company reports 25 percent year-over-year growth.

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Real estate franchisor Anywhere has named Barri Rafferty chief communications officer and head of public affairs, the company has informed Inman.

As head of all things communication, Rafferty will take the helm when it comes to government relations, events and other functions for the company, and will report directly to Anywhere President and CEO Ryan Schneider.

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“Barri is a dynamic leader with a proven record of success leading and elevating established global brands,” Schneider said in a statement. “Her expertise in delivering powerful messaging for a variety of stakeholders will be a substantial asset as we continue to strengthen our brands among broker, agent, investor and consumer audiences alike. I am extremely excited to welcome Barri to Anywhere, and look forward to leveraging her unique skill set as we embark on the next phase of our ongoing transformation and growth strategy.”

Rafferty is an experienced communications professional who comes to Anywhere from international shareholder advisory firm Sodali & Co, where she served as CEO of the Americas until March 2025. She has also served in various consulting roles, and was head of communications and brand management for Wells Fargo for two years.

Additionally, Rafferty previously served as CEO of Ketchum, a top 10 communications consulting firm.

Rafferty also held an interim CEO post for about one year for nonprofit C200, which helps to advance women in business. She is currently a board member for managed services healthcare company Guidehealth.

“I’m honored to take on a new challenge at Anywhere as it pursues its mission to provide a superior, end-to-end transaction experience for the millions of buyers and sellers following their homeownership dreams each year,” Rafferty said in a statement. “Our storied brands, coupled with a commitment to innovation, puts Anywhere in an ideal position to elevate the company’s status as the foremost leader in trust, integrity and performance for consumers and agents across the globe.”

In her new position, Rafferty will be a member of Anywhere’s executive committee.

Update: This story was updated after publication with additional information about Rafferty’s background. 

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Existing-home sales ticked up slightly from April to May but fell to a pace that’s even lower than the same time last year, according to new data released by the National Association of Realtors on Monday.

Existing-home sales dropped 0.7 percent compared to May 2024, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.03 million. Sales were 0.8 percent higher in the month than in April, NAR noted.

Inventory was 20.3 percent higher in May compared to a year earlier, NAR said, as the number of homes for sale rose to 1.54 million — or a 4.6-month supply.

“The relatively subdued sales are largely due to persistently high mortgage rates. Lower interest rates will attract more buyers and sellers to the housing market,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “Increasing participation in the housing market will increase the mobility of the workforce and drive economic growth.”

It’s not clear just when mortgage rates might fall or what might cause them to drop.

President Donald Trump and Federal Housing Finance Administration Chairman Bill Pulte have been publicly calling on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to either cut rates or resign from his post before his term ends next year.

But it’s not clear that a drop in the federal funds rate, which can indirectly impact the rates for car loans and credit cards, would lead mortgage rates to fall from their current rate of 6.81 percent on average for a 30-year fixed. That’s up from 4 percent a decade ago, and from a record-low of 2.65 percent in January 2021.

Amid the ongoing high-rate environment, and with consumer sentiment low — just 26 percent of Americans believed May was a good time to buy a home — sales remained sluggish in much of the country in May.

The lower sales environment has dogged economists and real estate insiders who expected home sales to be higher this year than last, when sales fell to the lowest point in nearly 30 years.

Anywhere Real Estate dropped its earnings estimate for the second quarter of this year by up to 10 percent, saying a slower-than-expected sales environment has cut into its earnings.

NAR said in December that it expected mortgage rates to fall to 6 percent this year, a forecast that has proved increasingly difficult to get right. The trade group now says stubbornly high rates are weighing on the market.

“If mortgage rates decrease in the second half of this year, expect home sales across the country to increase due to strong income growth, healthy inventory, and a record-high number of jobs,” Yun said.

The sales of existing single-family homes rose 1.1 percent from April to May, while sales were down 2.7 percent for condos and co-ops.

Some markets were particularly strong, even when compared to last year, while others were sluggish.

Home sales were up 4.2 percent in the Northeast compared to a year ago, and prices rose 7.1 percent, NAR said.

Meanwhile, sales fell 6.7 percent in the western U.S. compared to a year ago while prices ticked up 0.5 percent. 

Sales rose 1 percent in the Midwest and fell 0.5 percent in the South, NAR said.

Existing-home prices rose by 1.3 percent from a year ago, hitting $422,800 in May. That marked nearly two straight years of home price increases.

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Compass, the U.S.-based brokerage that has become a champion for private listings, has sued real estate portal Zillow over new rules that ban privately marketed listings from the platform.

The antitrust lawsuit that was filed in United States District Court in the Southern District of New York on Monday alleges that Zillow has employed “anticompetitive tactics to protect its monopoly and revenues in violation of the antitrust laws.”

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The lawsuit was the latest escalation between two powerhouses of the industry: Zillow is the largest real estate portal, with 2.4 billion visits during the first three months of this year alone. Compass is the No. 1 brokerage in the country by sales volume.

It is the latest signal that the industry remains divided over recent updates to the rules that govern real estate in the U.S., especially when it comes to how, when and where homes are marketed for sale.

“This lawsuit is about protecting consumer choice. No one company should have the power to ban agents or listings simply because they don’t follow that company’s business model,” Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said in a statement. “That’s not competition. It’s coercion. Imagine if Amazon banned a seller for offering a product on their own website first. That’s what Zillow is doing in real estate. Consumers should have the right to choose how they sell their homes.”

The fight over private versus public listings seems to have reached a peak with the new legal action. The suit also follows months of brokerages teasing or releasing their own private listing networks (including Compass, Corcoran and Douglas Elliman). Meanwhile, Redfin has joined Zillow in banning private listings that are publicly marketed.

In March, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) weighed in on the subject by opting to keep the Clear Cooperation Policy, which stipulates that agents must list properties on the MLS within 24 hours of marketing them. However, NAR also added a “delayed marketing exempt listings” option for homesellers, allowing them to delay listings to Internet Data Exchange (IDX) feeds while still making them accessible to MLS participants. Individual MLS’s are creating their own policies for how long listings may be delayed, when opting into the new listing feature.

In the complaint, Compass goes on to characterize Zillow as “relentless” in its quest for dominance in the home portal space, even releasing this spring its new “exclusionary policy” to ban listings — what Compass calls the “Zillow ban” — that had been previously marketed privately from its platform as part of its “3-Phased Marketing Strategy.”

Thousands of listings first appear only on Compass’ internal platform, where they can be viewed by Compass agents and their clients. The second phase involves marketing a listing publicly as a “coming soon” listing that isn’t yet on the MLS. Ultimately, Compass said that 94 percent of its seller clients who use the company’s private listing strategy ultimately list their homes on the MLS.

Compass alleged that Zillow moved to prevent the private listings strategy because it can’t monetize those listings.

“The strategy poses a significant threat to Zillow’s home search monopoly and its revenues,” Compass wrote in its complaint. “For Zillow, every home buyer search conducted on Compass instead of Zillow is a lost opportunity for Zillow to lock that prospective home buyer into Zillow’s ecosystem and make money selling her information to real estate agents for a lead fee—Zillow’s central business model.”

Lead-monetization was another point of contention in Compass’ suit. When properties are first marketed elsewhere, Compass alleges, “Zillow cannot make money” from those listings.

“Zillow uses the Zillow Ban to block real estate search rivals like Compass from competing head-to-head,” Compass wrote.

Compass alleged that Zillow is large enough to amount to a monopoly, and that it may have colluded with Redfin and worked directly with eXp on administering and complying with the ban.

EXp is the nation’s largest real estate brokerage by transactions. It announced on April 10 that it would support Zillow’s policy.

Neither Redfin nor eXp was named as a defendant in the Compass lawsuit. Compass named Zillow and its subsidiary Trulia as the sole defendants in the antitrust case.

In response to the complaint, Zillow said that it planned to “vigorously” defend itself from the claims, which it called “unfounded.” The company said that “most brokerages, consumer advocates and fair housing experts” supported its policies.

“At the heart of this issue is a simple principle: when a listing is publicly marketed, it should be accessible to all buyers—across all platforms, including Zillow,” the company said in a statement. “Hiding listings creates a fragmented market, limits consumer choice and creates barriers to homeownership, which is bad for buyers, sellers, and the industry at large, especially in this inventory and affordability-constrained environment.”

“Our listing access standards are designed to ensure transparency, equal opportunity, and broad visibility for everyone so sellers can maximize price and time to sell and so buyers have access to all available inventory,” the statement continued. “Limiting visibility hurts buyers and sellers, disadvantages smaller brokerages, and undermines an open market. Our focus remains on creating a level playing field that serves the best interests of everyone in the home buying and selling journey.”

Update: This story was updated after publication with additional background and details from the lawsuits. 

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