Redfin says buyer-side fees ticked down at the top while they held everywhere else. Does that trend keep going?

I read the Redfin analysis showing buyer-agent commissions on luxury homes came down slightly after the new rules while commissions on cheaper homes held or went up. Small move, but it's the opposite direction from the rest of the market, and I can't decide what it means for someone thinking about this niche.

One reading is that it's a floor effect and it stops there. A $3M seller negotiating a buyer-side fee is looking at a big dollar number and has every reason to push, so the easy percentage came off in the first year and now you're into the part where the agent actually walks. Wealthy clients understand paying for service they can see, and the chapter's whole argument is that discretion and access are exactly what the new environment rewards. Slight trim, then steady.

The other reading is that the top is where fee pressure always shows up first because those clients have advisors, read the documents, and don't feel any social pressure to pay what's customary. If percentage compression is going to spread, it starts at $5M and works down, and the trim we just saw is the first inch of a longer slide.

The difference matters because absolute dollars are big enough that a half point at the top still leaves a real check, so it's possible for the percentage to keep falling for years without anyone in the niche complaining loudly enough to notice.