From lawsuits to mergers and acquisitions at a scale never seen before in real estate and everything in between, 2025 was full of twists, turns and surprises for the housing industry. HousingWire is rewinding and breaking down the biggest storylines in the real estate industry from this past year.
Despite strong revenue growth and a rapidly scaling mortgage operation, 2025 was a challenging year for Zillow. The listing portal’s woes are primarily due to the apparently ravenous appetite for litigation that seems to have possessed the real estate industry.
Zillow’s legal challenges began ramping up in mid-June of this year when Compass filed its antitrust lawsuit against the company over its listing access standards policy.
Since then another seven lawsuits have been filed with claims ranging from Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) violations, to copyright infringement, and job discrimination. The lawsuits, which have been filed by plaintiffs ranging from home buyers to competitors like CoStar Group and even the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), threaten nearly all sides of Zillow’s business model. With thousands of agents across the country relying on various aspects of Zillow’s business, from Premier Agent to Follow Up Boss, real estate professionals are closely watching these lawsuits to see how their business and the industry in general could be impacted.
Of these eight lawsuits, HousingWire will be keeping a close eye on a few of them as we head into 2026.
Compass v. Zillow
Compass and Zillow have already headed to court over the Robert Reffkin-helmed firm’s antitrust claims against the listing portal giant. At a hearing for Compass’s preliminary injunction motion seeking to block Zillow from enforcing its listing access standards policy in mid-November, the two parties outlined their main arguments in the lawsuit. Judge Jeannette Vargas, who is overseeing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York City, is expected to rule on Compass’s motion in the coming weeks.
While her ruling may not impact the overall outcome of the lawsuit, it could provide some insight into how she is viewing Compass’s claims, which may shed some light on what to expect as this lawsuit continues to play out in the coming year.
CoStar v. Zillow
Filed in late July, CoStar’s lawsuit accuses Zillow of “rampant” copyright infringement of listing photos. The complaint claims that Zillow’s unauthorized use of CoStar images amounts to one of the largest real estate image infringement cases in history. The photos in questions of rental properties that appear on its site, as well as on Redfin and Realtor.com, through syndication deals.
As of mid-December, the two parties are in discussions to transfer the case from the Southern District of New York to a District Court in Seattle.
Regulators v. Zillow
In addition to catching the ire of other industry players and competitors, some of Zillow’s actions in 2025 also caught the attention of state and federal regulators. Initially two separate lawsuits before being merged in late November, Zillow is facing claims from the FTC, as well as attorneys general from Virginia, Arizona, New York, Connecticut and Washington, that its rental syndication deal with Redfin is tantamount to Zillow simply paying Redfin $100 million in exchange for it no longer competing in the multifamily rental listing space.
While the case is still pending, both Zillow and Redfin maintain that the deal is pro-competitive, and that it benefits both renters and property managers and has expanded renters’ access to multifamily listings across multiple platforms.
RESPA
To top things off, Zillow is also facing two separate consumer lawsuits, claiming that the company has violated RESPA. Both suits are seeking class action status.
The first lawsuit was filed by home buyer plaintiff Alucard Taylor in mid-September. This lawsuit alleges that the portal tricks consumers into using agents affiliated with Zillow through its Flex and Premier Agent programs, resulting in inflated home purchase prices.
Taylor is being represented by Steve W. Berman, a named partner at class action litigation firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, the same firm that represented plaintiffs in the Moehrl commission lawsuit.
The second suit was filed by homebuyer plaintiff Araba Armstrong in early November. This lawsuit claims that Zillow used illegal kickbacks to bolster the rapid growth of its Zillow Home Loans mortgage business.
According to the complaint, Zillow pressures agents in its Premier Agent and Flex lead programs to steer buyers to Zillow Home Loans for their purchase mortgage pre-approval. Allegedly, agents who sent more clients to Zillow’s mortgage arm for their pre-approvals received extra or higher-quality leads in exchange.
Zillow has since clarified that there is a list of factors it examines when considering to reduce a number of leads an agent receives, remove them from the program or increase the number of leads they receive.
With all of this litigation still pending as we head into 2026, HousingWire will be keeping close tabs on how everything shakes out for Zillow and the industry.
This is part one of a seven part series.
