The Ten: Zillow under siege 

Editor's note: In a year of epic mergers — and industry division — a handful of people and themes have emerged as defining forces. Real Estate News has selected the top newsmakers of 2025, based on their industry impact and influence. They are The Ten.

Business was booming at Zillow in 2025: Revenue consistently beat expectations, and the company's mortgage and rentals businesses reported huge gains — all the makings of a banner year.

But if you set aside the strong financials, Zillow's 2025 may be better characterized as a series of no good, very bad days. Not only was the search giant besieged with litigation, it faced new competitive threats and criticism over policy changes.

Will Zillow come through it unscathed?

Competition from unexpected places

The home search leader has expanded its offerings in recent years, enabling buyers to complete more aspects of their transaction within the Zillow-verse — a strategy that contributed to the rapid growth of its mortgage business.

Rocket moves in: While other companies have touted their full-service consumer experience, none has been a significant rival — until this year. In March, Rocket Companies — the nation's largest lender — announced its acquisition of Redfin in pursuit of "one modern, fully connected, beautiful, end-to-end experience." 

Industry insider Rob Hahn was quick to note the magnitude of the deal, suggesting that a combined Rocket/Redfin could "be a real competitor to Zillow's total dominance of real estate."

Google's 'experiment': Perhaps a more surprising development occurred in December when Google tested the real estate waters, launching a "controlled experiment" displaying home listings, basic details and a "Request a tour" button at the top of its search results. "Google has officially entered the real estate portal wars," eXp CMO Wendy Forsythe declared on LinkedIn.

For now, industry watchers aren't predicting a major disruption in the home search space, but one Goldman Sachs analyst said the move could represent "a long-term risk for real estate portals like Zillow."

Pushback on listing standards

In April, Zillow announced new standards barring listings that were publicly marketed but not widely available via the MLS and IDX feeds. The move received endorsements from several brokerages that praised the new policy as pro-consumer, but other industry leaders criticized the decision. 

CoStar CEO Andy Florance, whose Homes.com search site aims to rival Zillow, quickly condemned the move as a money grab and later questioned the legality of the policy, calling Zillow and its allies "an anticompetitive cartel." 

Hoby Hanna, CEO of Howard Hanna Real Estate — which pulled its listings from IDX in 2023 to limit competitor access — said Zillow was "overstepping" and "restricting trade."

The most virulent response, however, came from Compass CEO Robert Reffkin. The brokerage's 3-phased marketing strategy encourages sellers to first list their home as a Compass Private Exclusive — subjecting them to Zillow's ban. "This is bully behavior and is an abuse of monopoly power," Reffkin wrote on social media. 

But he didn't stop there. In June, Compass filed an antitrust complaint against the search giant — the first of several major lawsuits to hit Zillow in 2025.  

A barrage of litigation  

Competition and criticism may have been the least of Zillow's worries in 2025 as it battled lawsuits from industry players, consumers and the federal government. 

Compass claims conspiracy: While largely a response to Zillow's listing standards, Compass' lawsuit also claimed that a rentals partnership with Redfin — which adopted similar listing rules on the heels of Zillow's announcement — "gave rise to the conspiracy" at the heart of the antitrust complaint. 

During a November hearing, Compass lawyers called Zillow a "monopolist" that conspired with Redfin to boycott Compass listings, claiming it caused "irreparable harm" to "both the reputation of Compass and of its 3-phased marketing program."

A judge has yet to rule on Compass' request for a preliminary injunction to pause enforcement of Zillow's listing rules. 

FTC targets rentals deal: That allegedly conspiratorial rentals partnership also caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The agency sued Zillow and Redfin in September, claiming the deal eliminated "critical" competition in the rental advertising market.

A day later, five states filed a joint lawsuit with similar allegations. The two cases were merged on Dec. 1 and await further action — but if the FTC prevails in court, the portals could be forced to sell off assets or restructure their businesses.

CoStar sues over photos: In July, CoStar filed a copyright complaint against Zillow, accusing the company of illegally using more than 46,000 CoStar-owned photos across its home search sites — to the tune of $1 billion in potential damages.

The portal began pulling some of the photos in September, but later that month, CoStar claimed new copyrighted photos were being displayed. 

After the case was transferred to Seattle in December, CoStar said it looked forward "to holding Zillow to account in its own backyard."

Buyers cry foul over referral 'tricks': Zillow's Flex agent referral program and claims of steering and kickbacks were the subject of two lawsuits filed in the fall. 

The Taylor case was the first to land, alleging that Zillow "tricks" buyers into using one of its agent advertisers. If it's a Flex agent, Zillow then takes a hefty — and undisclosed — referral fee, resulting in inflated commissions.

In November, an amended complaint added two claims of racketeering and included witness statements suggesting Zillow violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) by pushing agents to send buyers to Zillow Home Loans.

Meanwhile, another lawsuit was filed that same month by a buyer claiming Zillow created a system of "kickbacks," linking Zillow Home Loans referrals to leads. The cases were consolidated in December and await new motions.

Feeling the heat

Zillow has denied the claims in these cases, but if the plaintiffs prevail, it could be a major blow to the company. Two recent moves suggest Zillow may be feeling skittish in light of the litigation and is proactively trying to mitigate other risks.

Dropping Matterport tours: In October, Zillow announced it was removing Matterport 3D tours from listings due to what it described as new usage restrictions from CoStar, Matterport's parent company. 

CoStar, however, denied adding new restrictions, saying the removal of the tours was "a decision Zillow made unilaterally to the detriment of their customers."

Scrapping climate details: Zillow pulled another listing feature in December — climate risk factor estimates — with The New York Times linking the move to complaints from California Regional MLS (CRMLS) about data accuracy. Listings previously displayed First Street's flood, fire, heat, air and wind risk factors.

Zillow said it was responding to MLS requirements, but CRMLS claimed it had not changed any rules and was only concerned about flood data for certain properties. Redfin and Realtor.com listings continue to display the five risk factors.   

What does this all mean for Zillow's future? 

With competition growing and litigation working its way through the courts, 2026 could be a pivotal year for the company.