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Nearly 5 engaged home shoppers are competing for every listing, but affordability headwinds are weighing on sales Engaged home shoppers — Zillow users who save or share a for-sale listing — were up 21% year over year this past spring, at 4.8 shoppers per listing nationally. Buffalo, Providence and Hartford had the most engaged shoppers per listing; Houston, Miami and San Antonio had the fewest.

Housing-linked stocks are moving lower together in Wednesday morning trading, with the iBuyers taking the sharpest hits and the homebuilder fund pulling back in step.

In all 50 major U.S. metros, typical rent is less than the typical monthly cost of homeownership, giving renters a financial cushion According to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, the typical U.S. rent is $1,948 a month. The typical new home buyer's monthly payment is $3,014, a difference of $1,066 a month or $12,792 a year.

Opendoor Technologies (NASDAQ:OPEN) stock is falling 4% to $2.68 in Tuesday morning trading as rising Treasury yields and expectations for tighter monetary policy weigh on housing-related shares. Offerpad Solutions (NYSE:OPAD) stock is essentially unchanged at $3.

With permitting at a post-pandemic low, the housing shortage at the root of today's affordability crisis could deepen Residential building permits fell 1.7% in the year ending July 2026 and are now running a record 19.4% below the pre-pandemic trend line. Detached single-family home completions dropped 2.5% in 2025 to about 817,000, the third consecutive annual decline and the lowest total since 2020.

Zillow is shifting to an integrated transaction platform, driving higher revenue per connection and improved monetization despite a challenging housing market. While this is dragging on revenue recognition at the moment, and there remains uncertainty about profits, I would argue the model is working. Looking past the weak housing market and concerns regarding jostling between competitors, Zillow's valuation appears far too low given the quality of the company.

Zillow expects continued softness in the for-sale market, with newly pending sales and inventory growth both decelerating as affordability challenges push demand toward rentals Home sales fell 0.6% year over year in August, a deceleration from July's 6% annual gain, according to Zillow's August Market Report. Newly pending listings, a leading indicator of future closings, fell 2.6% year over year in August, extending a rapid deceleration from June's 7.5% annual gain — even as the number of homes for sale continues to climb.

Zillow data reveals which rental markets are drawing the most outside interest and where demand may be heading next Outside interest is growing fastest in Buffalo, Chicago and Houston, where out-of-town rental search shares grew the most year over year. In established hotspots — Raleigh (59%), Hartford (55%), New Orleans (54%) and Nashville (52%) — outside rental searchers outnumber local rental searchers on Zillow.

Zillow's rent-reporting program is helping renters build credit while expanding its housing platform from rental search to homeownership.

Zillow has reported nearly 2 million on-time rent payments to credit bureaus for free since launching its rent reporting program in 2024 In July, more than 78,000 renters who paid on time through Zillow had their payments reported to credit bureaus. That's 26% more than a year ago, reflecting strong demand for tools that translate rent into credit history.