Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), which claims almost 50,000 members in the Chicago region, has issued a forceful public rebuttal to Zillow’s recent study alleging that private listings in Chicago reinforce housing segregation, pointing to internal Zillow documents as it argues the portal giant’s criticism may be driven more by business strategy than consumer protection.…
NEW YORK CITY—U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas heard closing arguments Friday, Nov. 21, capping off a weeklong hearing between real estate giants Zillow and Compass. At the heart of the case is Compass’s Three-Phased Marketing (3-PM) Strategy, which allows homesellers to market properties privately before listing them publicly on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and…
With Compass and Zillow locked into a high-stakes fight over listing restrictions and market power, company executives testified in federal court for the third day yesterday as Compass leadership addressed the specifics of its private listing-focused strategy, from alleged harm to its business from the Zillow rules, to how it communicated with agents. The trial—officially…
After the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) made comprehensive updates to MLS policies—saying that most are meant to “modernize” and remove “outdated practices”—brokers who are currently suing NAR are citing the changes as an acknowledgment that these policies ran afoul of the law. In a court filing yesterday, lawyers representing three real estate professionals in…
In a class-action lawsuit focused on Zillow’s mortgage referral and fee structures, plaintiffs just added a bevy of new accusations, citing a handful of “confidential witnesses”—current and former loan officers and agents who worked with the company—who claim Zillow sought to hide the fact it was funneling customers to its mortgage business. Alleging violations of…
AI has entered the real estate chat—and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. While some say the AI bubble may burst in the next year or two, that’s not the feeling you get perusing real estate tradeshow exhibit halls where vendors pitch AI solutions for just about everything. Whether it’s the promise…
NEW YORK CITY–As the afternoon session of the Compass-Zillow preliminary injunction hearing got underway in courtroom 14C at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in downtown Manhattan on Nov. 18, with Judge Jeannette Vargas presiding, the intensity from the morning session continued with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin on the stand. Throughout the day, attorney Bonnie…
NEW YORK CITY—Facing off in what seems more and more like a battle for the future of real estate, Zillow and Compass kicked off a four-day evidentiary trial in the Southern District of New York this morning in their high-stakes dispute over restrictions around private listings, with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin taking the stand to…
At the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting Dec. 9-10, the final one of 2025, the voting committee will decide whether to adjust interest rates—with one voting member, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, already making his voting intentions clear. In a Monday, Nov. 17 appearance at the Society of Professional Economists held at Oxford…
HOUSTON—The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) wrapped up its annual conference Monday with the Board of Directors (BOD) approving sweeping policy changes, many explicitly as part of an “antitrust risk assessment” effort. Most notably, the association, today, announced the approval of 18 comprehensive updates to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) Handbook, constituting the most extensive…
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