Home shoppers searched for ranch-style homes in 2024; plus, housing inventory continues to rise in 2025, giving buyers more options
Zillow at Inman Connect New York
Leaders from Zillow, including CEO Jeremy Wacksman and Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson , recently spoke at Inman Connect New York. Some of the top themes? How we’re serving the home buyer and seller, developing tools and technology that make the real estate transaction easier, and addressing top industry issues, such as listing access. Check out a few key takeaways here.
Private listing networks harm the real estate industry
As a company committed to transparency, Zillow believes everyone should have access to all listings. CEO Jeremy Wacksman and Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson dive into private listing networks and how they harm buyers, sellers and agents and undermine fair housing. Want to learn more? Check out these videos from Jeremy Wacksman and Errol Samuelson.?
Zillow Group hires Zuhairah Washington to lead Market Operations and Flex agents and teams
Zuhairah W. will now lead operations and scaling initiatives to support Zillow’s Flex agents and teams as Zillow continues to focus on offering a seamless experience for consumers. Strengthening agents’ ability to grow their brands and businesses online, while providing software and services that enable them to offer exceptional customer service, has always been central to the company’s strategy. Get the full details here.?
ZHL webinar: Buying your first home in 2025
Zillow kicked off the new year with an informative webinar aimed at educating aspiring home buyers about the intricacies of the home-buying process. Led by Zillow Home Loans Senior Economist Kara Ng and Loan Officer MacKenzie Forster-Garcia , the session provided valuable insights to help potential buyers use BuyAbilitySM to align their finances and prepare to work with a real estate agent. Watch the full webinar here.?
December 2024 market report: Inventory continues to climb, giving buyers more options
Overall, the market is stabilizing as sellers return, providing buyers with more opportunities. Zillow’s market heat index reflects a balanced market for the first December since 2019, enhancing buyers’ negotiating power. The housing market saw less competition as inventory approached pre-pandemic levels, with nearly 1 million homes for sale — more than any December since 2019. While inventory is still 25% below 2018–2019 averages, it marks an improvement from previous shortages. The typical U.S. home value stands at $358,461, and monthly payments have risen 1.6% from last year. Dive into the market trends here.
December 2024 rental market report: Mortgage rate volatility drives single-family rent growth, while multifamily moderates
In December, U.S. rent growth slowed, with the typical asking rent at $1,965, a 3.4% increase from last year and an income requirement of $78,592. Single-family rents rose 4.4% to $2,174, driven by high mortgage rates, while the gap between single-family and multifamily rents reached a record 20%. Looking ahead to 2025, concessions in the multifamily market are likely to continue, with future rent growth depending on mortgage rate trends and new multifamily construction potentially alleviating rent pressures. Learn more about the rental market.
The Wall Street Journal: “Housing Shortage, Not Volatile Rates, Is Biggest Obstacle for Buyers, Zillow CEO Says”
“‘Not to oversimplify, but you really can boil the housing affordability crisis down to an availability crisis,’” Wacksman said. ‘“Getting more homes available is going to be ultimately what starts to unstick the housing market.’”
RealWealth podcast: “Who’s Buying Real Estate in 2025? Insights from Zillow’s Trends Expert”
In this episode of “The Real Wealth Show,” Kathy Fettke interviews Zillow trends expert Amanda Pendleton to discuss current home-buying trends. Pendleton offers essential insights for navigating today’s challenging market for first-time buyers, investors and real estate professionals. They explore the demographics influencing the market, regional hot spots, how buyers are coping with high interest rates, and evolving preferences.?
“Gone are the days of endlessly scrolling through home listings on Zillow, filtering solely by location and budget. The real-estate hub has continued to build on its search features, making it possible to look up places by commute time and nearby schools, and even specific qualities like solar panels and induction cooktops. Some of its users have even searched for things as odd as ‘roller coaster’ and ‘laser tag.’ No judgment.”
Chief People Officer Dan Spaulding joins NPR’s “Booming” podcast to weigh in on “What’s behind Amazon’s all-or-nothing return to office policy?” Spoiler alert: Zillow’s Cloud HQ model couldn’t be more different. As Spaulding shared in the episode, “We have four times the volume of applicants than we did before we engaged in this strategy. So for us, by any measure, people are excited to work at Zillow. If somebody out there is looking for a great distributed job, we’d love to talk to you.” Interested in learning more? Check out career opportunities here.