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Zillow Group strengthens executive leadership team with promotions and key appointments. Zillow Group, Inc. recently announced several executive changes to strengthen the company's leadership team as it continues to scale its integrated housing super app experience. Expansion of Jeremy Hofmann's role to chief operating officer & chief financial officer. Zillow has expanded Jeremy Hofmann's role, appointing him as chief operating officer in addition to his existing role as chief financial officer. In this expanded role, Hofmann will oversee both Zillow's financial strategy and day-to-day operational execution, bringing greater alignment and speed to the business as Zillow continues to scale. The Zillow Group board expanded Hofmann's role because of his proven track record as CFO - his deep command of Zillow's strategy, financial architecture, his intimate understanding of operational dependencies across the business, and the strength of the finance leadership team he has built and developed over his nine-year tenure. As one of the key architects of Zillow's current business strategy, Hofmann has been a driving force in the vision and execution of the housing super app. Combining the CFO and COO functions under a single, trusted leader positions Zillow to move with greater coordination and speed - from strategic and financial planning and capital allocation to the operational infrastructure that powers Zillow's growth. Jun Choo, who has held the role of chief operating officer since November 2024, is stepping down from the role to focus on his health and will serve in an advisory capacity through the end of 2026. "Jeremy is an exceptional financial and operational leader and a critical strategic partner to the entire executive team and me," said Jeremy Wacksman, CEO of Zillow Group. "His deep understanding of our business, combined with the strength of the finance leadership team he has cultivated, gives us great confidence that this expanded role will accelerate our ability to execute and scale." Appointment of Cassandra "Sandi" Knight as chief legal and policy officer. Cassandra "Sandi" Knight joins Zillow as its first-ever chief legal and policy officer - a newly created role that reflects Zillow's commitment to embedding legal and policy leadership at the highest level of the organization. Knight brings more than 20 years of experience in complex litigation and operational leadership across technology and financial services. Reporting to Wacksman, Knight will oversee Zillow's legal, compliance and government relations functions - helping to shape the policy landscape and advance frameworks that reflect how Zillow's innovations are creating new possibilities for consumers in one of the most important transactions of their lives. Knight will join Zillow next week from Google, where she served as vice president of litigation and discovery, leading the company's legal strategy on some of the most consequential and novel cases of the modern technology era - litigation that was critical to enabling Google's ability to innovate, operate and grow at scale. Prior to Google, Knight served as vice president and chief litigation counsel at PayPal, and spent 11 years at Morgan Stanley in senior litigation and compliance roles. "Empowering movers with a seamless, integrated experience requires us to operate in ways that build and enhance consumer trust," said Wacksman. "Sandi's exceptional legal career, her deep compliance expertise, and her experience leading through transformational moments make her the right person for Zillow. We're thrilled to welcome her to the team in this newly created role." SVP promotions. Zillow is also announcing the promotions of two senior leaders who will report directly to Hofmann in his expanded role. Katie Berroth has been promoted to senior vice president of strategy & operations, where she will lead business strategy, cross-functional business operations and partnerships. In addition, Eric Wilson has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager of mortgages, where he will oversee Zillow's mortgage operations including Zillow Home Loans. Both Berroth and Wilson are seasoned and well-regarded Zillow executives who have played instrumental roles in shaping the company's growth and operational foundation, bringing deep institutional knowledge and proven leadership to their expanded responsibilities.

Zillow reported $772 million in revenue, so why did more than 500 workers get the boot? Zillow is eliminating roughly seven percent of its workforce while reporting growing revenue, adjusted profits, and hundreds of millions of dollars in stock buybacks. Reading Time: 3 mins read Zillow layoffs are eliminating more than 500 jobs at a company that just reported $772 million in quarterly revenue and described its latest financial performance as another period of strong results. The Seattle based real estate technology company announced the restructuring on Tuesday, August 4. Washington employment records reviewed by the outlet show that 91 of the affected workers are based in Seattle. Workforce analytics firm Revelio Labs estimated that the cuts represent about seven percent of Zillow's approximately 7,000 employees. In a company blog post, Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman said the business needed a more disciplined structure as it attempts to expand. "These changes are about ensuring we have a disciplined cost structure and getting more efficient, with the right people in the right positions," Wacksman wrote. Wacksman said Zillow has experienced "strong growth" and has exceeded some of its internal goals related to helping customers buy or rent homes. Still, he argued that the company cannot continue operating with its current organizational structure if it expects that growth to continue. "We must ensure we are organized to continue winning into the future," Wacksman said. The timing of the Zillow layoffs makes the announcement especially striking. One day after the cuts were revealed, Zillow released financial results showing that its second quarter revenue increased 18 percent from the same period last year. According to Zillow's official earnings report, the company generated $772 million in revenue during the three months ending June 30, exceeding the upper end of its previous forecast. The earnings report shows growth across nearly every major part of the company. Zillow's For Sale division generated $549 million, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year. Rentals revenue climbed 31 percent to $209 million, while mortgage revenue surged 75 percent to $84 million. Zillow said its purchase loan origination volume nearly doubled to $2.2 billion during the quarter. Zillow did report a $4 million net loss under standard accounting rules. However, the company also reported $118 million in adjusted net income and $176 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Its financial disclosures show that $36 million in restructuring expenses contributed to the difference between the reported loss and its adjusted results. The broader six month numbers make the contrast surrounding the Zillow layoffs even harder to ignore. Zillow reported $1.48 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026, along with $42 million in net income and $263 million in adjusted net income. The company also ended the second quarter with $682 million in cash and investments. Zillow has also spent heavily repurchasing its own shares. The company said it bought back 5.6 million shares for $200 million during the second quarter. During the first quarter, Zillow spent another $626 million repurchasing 13.5 million shares, according to its first quarter earnings report. That means Zillow directed approximately $826 million toward share repurchases during the first six months of the year. This is also not Zillow's first round of job cuts in 2026. In January, GeekWire reported that the company dismissed approximately 200 employees following its annual performance review process. Zillow said those earlier reductions were connected to employee performance rather than market conditions or changes in the business. Combined with the latest restructuring, Zillow has eliminated or announced plans to eliminate more than 700 positions this year. While the company has presented the two rounds differently, both have reduced headcount while revenue continued growing. Revenue is not the same as profit, and Zillow has acknowledged signs of pressure. Its second quarter report shows that average monthly users declined two percent to 239 million, while total visits also fell two percent. The company pointed to broader housing market indicators that could signal a slower second half of the year. Still, the Zillow layoffs are not unfolding against the backdrop of collapsing sales or an empty balance sheet. They are happening while the company reports billions in first half revenue, positive adjusted earnings, significant cash reserves, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent buying back shares. For the workers losing their jobs, Zillow's push for greater efficiency carries a far more personal cost than the numbers displayed in an earnings report.

Realtracs, Zillow sign new MLS data license with AI use guardrails. Realtracs, the multiple listing service covering Nashville and markets across Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, has signed a new data licensing agreement with Zillow that sets explicit rules for how the portal can use broker-created listing data in artificial intelligence products, according to an announcement posted to Realtracs' own site on Aug. 5. The deal caps months of tense negotiation between the two organizations. Realtracs had extended its prior licensing deadline with Zillow multiple times over the spring and summer, and at one point signaled it could follow Chicago-based MRED's lead in cutting off Zillow's direct listing feed entirely if terms weren't reached. Under the new agreement, Zillow retains uninterrupted access to Realtracs' listing data, and brokers and agents keep access to Zillow-owned tools including ShowingTime, Follow Up Boss and dotloop. The centerpiece of the new agreement is a set of guardrails governing how listing content can be used in artificial intelligence and large language model applications - an issue that has become increasingly contentious across the MLS industry as portals and proptech vendors race to build AI-powered search, valuation and chat tools on top of broker-supplied listing data. The agreement defines approved uses for Realtracs listing data more precisely than prior terms, which Realtracs said creates greater transparency and accountability around how broker-created content gets used, including in common applications like listing search and market analytics. Brokers and agents will also gain access to more detailed listing activity reporting under the new terms, giving them better visibility into how their listings perform on Zillow's platform. Separately, Zillow agreed to notify Realtracs when individual agents reach listing suppression thresholds under Zillow's Listing Access Standards, a policy the portal uses to limit visibility for agents it determines are not complying with its data-use rules. Realtracs said the agreement supports the broader rollout of its own Data Licensing Platform, an effort aimed at establishing more consistent licensing standards across the industry that explicitly recognize the value of broker-created content - an increasingly common posture among MLSs as they push back against tech platforms' historically loose terms for reusing listing data. The agreement preserves Realtracs' support for a range of marketing strategies, including Company Exclusives and Realtracs Exclusives, while maintaining a commitment to transparency and equal access once a property enters public marketing - language that reflects the broader industry debate over off-MLS and delayed-marketing listing strategies playing out at MLSs nationally. What it means. The Realtracs-Zillow deal is the latest sign that MLSs are moving to formalize AI-specific data-use terms rather than relying on older licensing language written before generative AI tools existed. That mirrors a broader consolidation and standardization push across the MLS landscape, seen recently in moves like Miami Realtors' unification of Southeast Florida MLS access, as regional MLSs look for more leverage - whether through mergers or tighter licensing terms - in dealings with national portals. For Zillow, avoiding a Realtracs feed cutoff protects the company's listing completeness in a multi-state Southeast market at a time when the portal is also managing broader reputational and legal scrutiny over its data practices, including a recently dismissed class action over its mortgage-unit referrals. The explicit AI guardrails in this deal could become a template other MLSs point to in their own Zillow negotiations, particularly as more MLSs build out data licensing platforms similar to what Realtracs described. What to watch: whether other regional MLSs cite the Realtracs-Zillow AI terms as a benchmark in their own licensing renewals, and how Zillow's new agent-suppression notification process to Realtracs plays out in practice for agents flagged under the portal's Listing Access Standards.