National Association of Realtors CEO steps down

By Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - National Association of Realtors CEO Bob Goldberg has stepped down just days after a U.S. jury found realtors liable for inflating commissions and awarded $1.78 billion in damages.

The trade group on Thursday announced the appointment of Nykia Wright as interim CEO, starting Nov. 20.

"Bob Goldberg, who announced his planned retirement in June of this year, will serve as an executive consultant to NAR to help support the transition," it said, adding that it is conducting a comprehensive search process to identify a permanent CEO.

A federal jury in Kansas City, Missouri, found on Tuesday that the NAR and some residential brokerages, including units of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, were liable for conspiring to artificially inflate commissions for home sales.

The decision could upend decades-old practices that have allowed real estate agents to boost commissions as home prices and mortgage rates rise, making housing transactions more expensive for consumers.

Plaintiffs in the class action included sellers of more than 260,000 homes in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois from 2015 to 2022, who objected to the commissions they were obligated to pay buyers' brokers.

The verdict followed a two-week trial, and the damages award can be tripled under U.S. antitrust law to more than $5.3 billion.

NAR has said it plans to appeal and seek reduced damages.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Richard Chang)

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