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A tough real estate market took a toll on Realtor.com in recent months, with the portal’s parent company reporting Thursday that revenues in the third quarter of this year dipped.
In total, Realtor.com parent Move Inc. brought in $140 million in revenue between July and September, according to a newly released earnings report. That number represents a 1 percent dip compared to the same period in 2023. Looking just at Move’s real estate business, revenue dipped 4 percent year over year.
Move is owned by News Corp, the same company that owns an array of non-real estate businesses. In the report, News Corp attributed Move’s decline in revenue to “the ongoing impact of the macroeconomic environment on the housing market, which led to lower lead and transaction volumes.”
News Corp previously reported earnings in August. At the time, it revealed that between April and June Move’s revenue declined 2 percent year over year to $143 million. The company attributed the decline to higher mortgage rates and macroeconomic headwinds.
Thursday’s earnings report comes at a challenging time for real estate portals. On top of the high rates and headwinds News Corp mentioned during its last earnings report, Realtor.com specifically is currently locked in a conflict with rival Homes.com and its parent company CoStar. Homes.com is the newer entrant into the space and claims to be the second largest U.S. consumer portal, though Realtor.com has disputed that point.
After several years of verbal sparring — CoStar CEO Andy Florance was the most vocal participant — the conflict this year boiled over into litigation as well.
The rivalry likely has plenty more steam in it, but for now the rise of a well-funded competitor simply means that there is more pressure than ever on Realtor.com.
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