Zillow Sees Plummeting Listing Numbers

April 12, 2020
Share this Post: 

Whatever happens to the property industry after a vaccine is developed, things aren't going to go back to exactly how they were before COVID-19 began its global rampage. 

Zillow recently reported that its platform saw listings plummet 19% from March 1 to April 5, and 27% down compared to the same time last year. Total listings rose 2.5%, showing that those deciding to keep their listings up are taking on a wait-and-see strategy

In the city hit the hardest by the pandemic, New York listings fell 49% from March 1 to April 5. New listings as of April 5 were down over 50%, year-over-year.

In Seattle, Zillow's home turf, and the first city to see the Coronavirus months ago, total inventory of houses bought through Zillow Offers is up almost 38% because they aren't being sold off

This represents a dismal pattern and uncertainty for the Zillow Offers feature— something that is the epitome of Zillow's allure. CEO Rich Barton says that this doesn't mean that Zillow Offers is done for, but there is no guarantee that the service will start up again immediately after things begin to go back to normal.

There are companies keeping up their iBuying services regardless of the crisis happening in the real estate sector. Arterra Realty is keeping its iBuying scheme in motion, using a pool of funding from investors to purchase homes. Startup HomeVestors has only digitized the entire experience to support consumers staying at home. 

Zillow, like other iBuyer giants within the US sector, has suspended its iBuyer services until everything blows over. Whether Zillow can jump back from this and continue its Zillow Offers scheme, is yet to be seen.

April 12, 2020
Victoria has been writing about property portals and marketplace sites for Online Marketplaces for over 3 years. She is also our resident artist and is responsible for all of the infographic content on the site.

Subscribe to our mailing list to get the famous, free Friday newsletter!

News and analysis to help build better online marketplace businesses, in your inbox, every Friday

Related News

Nils K
Ringier's Nils Körber on ArtificiaI Intelligence, Training the Machine, and Talking about Problems

"What would you do with one million interns?" The award for the best question at the PropTech and Portal Watch...

Read More
Untitled Design 13
As OnTheMarket Hits 15,000 Advertisers, Zoopla Fights Back with Big Agency Deal

The British property portal Zoopla has announced a new long-term listings deal with Dexters, one of London's top agencies with...

Read More
Untitled Design 12
LeBonCoin Suffers Data Leak and Boliga Comes Under Cyber Attack on Same Weekend

LeBonCoin, the leading French horizontal marketplace owned by Adevinta, has acknowledged that some of its users' personal information was exposed...

Read More
Number 2S Challenging Hero Image 2
Analysis: Can Zoopla, Realtor.com and Domain See Off Challengers and Close the Gap to Market Leaders?

Well-funded challenger portals have been generating a lot of headlines in the industry recently. CoStar has been explicit about its...

Read More

Editor's Pick