
House hunting used to be a pain. Now, with real estate sites like Zillow, it’s one of the internet’s favorite pastimes.
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Elahe Izadi
Okay, Rachel, grab your phone. I'm about to send you a text message.
Rachel Kurzius
Ooh.
Elahe Izadi
I wanted to send you this because I have this really weird habit that until recently, I thought was just a thing that I do and the people in my life do when I'm, like, going to different places in different cities. Even if I see a for sale sign on a house, I will Google the address of this house and I will look it up. And this is a house. I go to do physical therapy, and I drive by this very opulent house. It is five bedrooms, six baths, over 6,000 square feet.
Rachel Kurzius
Also relevant information, we've got a two car garage. This is a newly constructed home located in a, quote, tranquil neighborhood in Washington.
Elahe Izadi
D.C. where things can be very expensive. So, dear listener, this house is way beyond my means and many, many others. It's $3.995 million.
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, that's a $4 million home right there.
Elahe Izadi
Rachel Curzias writes about homes for the Post, and lately she's been reporting on a website a lot of people, me included, are obsessed with right now, Zillow. So I sent her a link to a listing that I've been keeping an eye on for months. What I love about this listing is if you look at the very second option under the photo. What is it? It's a video tour.
Rachel Kurzius
Oh, yeah. I mean, and these are so common. I can't tell you how many of these video tours I have watched in my spare moments.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah, I mean, it's like, you might be rich and famous, but I can look inside your. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Elahei izadi. It's Wednesday, June 25th. Today, forget about Instagram, forget about Facebook or even LinkedIn. I'm talking with Rachel about why one of the hottest social media apps right now might be Zillow. She explains how Zillow became so dominant that one real estate company is so suing them and calling them a monopoly. And we also talk about why so many of us cannot stop looking at houses we will never buy. Hi, Rachel.
Rachel Kurzius
Hey. Good to be here.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah, I'm really happy to be taking a break from the news and talking to you about this. Actually, like, pretty fascinating dynamic and trend that you've picked up on. First as, how did you come to this reporting? Why did you decide to look at this?
Rachel Kurzius
Well, I am absolutely a person who is looking up home listings all of the time. But what really crystallized it for me is a colleague of ours was buying a home and all of these people, of course, are asking like, oh, send us some in the listing, send us what you're looking at. And she kind of felt uncomfortable doing so because she realized how much more revealing it was than people were even asking in their questions. Suddenly, by sending along these listings, she's telling people first of all about her income bracket and about how much she is able or willing to spend on a home, as well as her taste, her preferences. All of these things are getting revealed by listings. And that was kind of percolating in the slow cooker of my brain along with, you know, daily going to Zillow, Redfin, all of these sites and looking at listings and realizing just what a rich terrain this is for understand how we interact with the idea of home.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah, that's so fascinating. And I love the way that you approach your work and your reporting because you are thinking about the, like, underlying dynamics and what this might mean about how we interact with our spaces and what that says about us. So for people who are not maybe as addicted or well versed to these sorts of sites or problems. If you're out there, if you're out there. Yeah. Just explain what kind of information can you find on a real estate app or website platforms like we're talking about, Zillow, Redfin, there's others as well. What information could we expect to see on them?
Rachel Kurzius
You can literally discover just about anything about a home or apartment from these listings. So the home's layout, what it looks like, the sale history, whether it was ever taken off the market, any environmental risks having to do with the home, its walkability score.
Elahe Izadi
The score which is like, which is like how walkable it is to other stuff.
Rachel Kurzius
Right. Or how connected it is to public transportation, et cetera, the annual tax bill. So many different pieces of information are available. Like when it was built, ac, does it have gas heating? Just from really small details to the really big pieces of information, it's all there. And of course, you're also going to see a bunch of photos which are probably among the most popular elements of these listings is just getting to go through all of these photos, many of them staged. I would say it's a red flag if there aren't any photos.
Elahe Izadi
Oh, like, yeah, okay. We'll talk about the code and the red flags in a moment. I know, like a lot of your reporting was about Zillow. I have Redfin on my phone and in my mind they're like the same thing. Are they?
Rachel Kurzius
They're different. And first of all, I would say that to Me, Zillow has become like a metonym for all home listings in the way when we're talking about Xerox or Kleenex or Band Aid or something like that. But Zillow is basically a tech company that provide real estate information. Redfin is trying to do a really different thing. Redfin is actually a brokerage, which means you could hire a Redfin real estate agent to buy or sell your home. And their whole model is they want to rely less on commissions for agents and more on salary. So they are just offering very different business propositions.
Elahe Izadi
I see, I see. Whereas Zillow is more like just a pure real estate database.
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, that's right. And they're all getting their information from the same place, which is mls.
Elahe Izadi
And just real quick, what is mls?
Rachel Kurzius
MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service, and it's a database used by real estate professionals and brokers where they basically put all the information about their listings into this database, and then that database ends up feeding all of these other sites.
Elahe Izadi
Okay, so there are differences between platforms like Redfin and Zillow, but what I'm hearing you say, Rachel, is that it does sound like Zillow really does have a lot of power in this market.
Rachel Kurzius
Yes. Zillow is the big dog, and Zillow is what people think about when they're thinking about home listings. And this idea that Zillow is so powerful is actually the subject of a new lawsuit that came out this week.
Elahe Izadi
So tell me more about this lawsuit.
Rachel Kurzius
So Compass is a major brokerage. They have a lot of real estate agents, and they are suing Zillow, and they're calling Zillow a monopoly. And they're basically saying that Zillow is violating antitrust laws. Compass wants to be able to post homes privately on their own special network, but still reserve the right to go on Zillow later on. Sometimes with certain home sellers, real estate agents won't put a home on MLS and it won't appear on sites like Zillow. This might happen if your client is incredibly wealthy or incredibly private. These are called off market listings. You might have also heard them called private listings or even pocket listings. Companies like Compass are trying to kind of expand their off market listings for what they're calling them private exclusives.
Elahe Izadi
Sounds expensive.
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, I mean, and it's intended to sound expensive and exclusive and exciting. And if you hire a Compass agent, you will have access to these special homes that no one else has access to. Compass says, basically, we're just testing the waters. It's like A soft launch of a home sale. Because as soon as a home goes on MLS and then goes on Zillow, a countdown clock starts, Right? Sometimes buyers will see red flags on sites like Zillow, for example, how many days it's been on the market. Have they had to change the price a certain amount of time?
Elahe Izadi
I mean, I look at that when I'm looking at listings, I'm like, is this a hot commodity or not?
Rachel Kurzius
Right, Exactly. Have you been languishing on the market, then? I can, you know, maybe I could put in a lower bid. And so what Compass is arguing is, look, we're just trying to figure out what the right price is. And then once we've kind of beta tested it, then we'll put it on MLS and it'll go to Zillow and all of these other places. Zillow saw that this was happening and basically said, no way. If you don't put a listing ON ZILLOW Within 24 hours, you're banned, you're blocked. And that ban is going to go into effect at the end of June. Before that ban is going into effect, Compass is suing, basically saying, you have too much power here. Like, let us do what we want. And Zillow is saying, you know what? Like, you're not being fair. You're not creating a transparent marketplace.
Elahe Izadi
How have these sites and these apps changed the world of real estate? I mean, there are people, this is their job, to sell homes, to buy and sell homes on behalf of their clients. How have these websites changed that?
Rachel Kurzius
One of the main things that has happened as a result of these online home listings is that the role of the real estate agent has changed. It used to be you've relied on your agent to find homes and help you book those tours. Now home buyers can do that on their own.
Elahe Izadi
How popular are these websites? Do we know?
Rachel Kurzius
Zillow told me that there are 2.4 billion visits to its site. That was just in the first quarter of 2025. And just to compare that to, like, how many people are actually buying homes. In all of last year, just about 4 million homes were sold in the United States. So if you want to extrapolate that, that tells us that most of the time when people are looking at Zillow, they're not buying homes, they're just looking.
Elahe Izadi
And how does that compare to other social media platforms? If we are thinking about these apps as social media platforms?
Rachel Kurzius
So by unique visitors, Zillow ranks about 15 in the United States in terms of traffic, just like, period.
Elahe Izadi
Oh, my gosh, 15.
Rachel Kurzius
So by unique visitors. Yeah. And that's according to SimilarWeb, which is a digital marketing intelligence company. And that company also compared it to. It gets about as many visitors as weather.com, so figure you want to know.
Elahe Izadi
Like, sorry, Rachel, that's a website I check every day.
Rachel Kurzius
Right. Are you also checking real estate listings every day?
Elahe Izadi
I don't know. I guess so.
Rachel Kurzius
And so that's more than PayPal, just a little bit less than the New York Times. And Zillow is the most popular of these sites, but other sites are also, you know, Redfin, realtor.com, homes.com, they're also getting quite a bit of traffic as well.
Elahe Izadi
So, Rachel, I want to understand more about how these sites got so popular and why. So if we were to think about the categories of people who are visiting this site every day, who are they?
Rachel Kurzius
The first one is the house hunters. The people who are genuinely looking to buy a house or see what the market is like. And they're looking at these listings on also homeowners who may be recently bought a home or not so recently bought a home. And they're just trying to keep tabs on the local market and figure out how much is their home worth. Did they make a good decision, feel validated or not in their decision, or keep tabs on their neighbors? And for renters or for people who aren't in the market at all for a home or don't have a home, it can be the equivalent of window shopping. It's aspirational, maybe of like, what would it look like if I lived here? Or maybe sometimes it's a little bit masochistic, like, I'll never live here. One person who I spoke to, she got rid of all of her social media apps and loves Zillow, Redfin listings. And the way she described it to me was it's voyeurism without the guilt. She used to be really into celebrity gossip and then kind of started feeling icky about it. But for the most part, when you're looking at home listings, you don't really have to feel icky. Here's all this information out there and you just get to peruse it and enjoy it.
Elahe Izadi
And, yeah, I'm getting to know the market. Is that not exactly frivolous?
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, this isn't economic. And I've also spoken to people who said that often they feel inspired. They're like, oh, this is a way that I could organize my living room or pick a backsplash or even decide like, what kind of couch do I like? Here's like, 30 different couches.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah.
Rachel Kurzius
And you can see them in the context of a home rather than just an image of a couch.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah, that's. I also feel like, you know, when you were talking about this person who got rid of all their other social media apps, and those apps can just deliver a lot of stressful information, and I wonder if there's this sort of almost like, benign appeal of just looking at these houses. Almost sort of like home redecorating TV shows that just, like, is very soothing.
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, I think that's right. And I will also say a lot of social media sites like Instagram and TikTok are also in the real estate listing game now, too.
Elahe Izadi
Wait, really?
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah. A lot of agents, for example, try to sell, especially younger agents are trying to show tours and kind of get homes to go viral, like, good viral on other social media sites as well. Just because people are interested in homes, we're. We're nosy and we like learning about how other people live. And the only other thing that I'll note about kind of the social media element of all of it is I spoke to multiple people who told me that they wished that Zillow was more of a social media site in that it had, like, direct messaging. Like, they would love to just directly message their friends. Like, look at this one. Look at this one.
Elahe Izadi
Like, have a comment section on, like, check out this bathroom backsplash.
Rachel Kurzius
Exactly. And I guess, like, for some reason, it's somewhat onerous to then just link in a text message. I don't know. I mean, to me, it's fine to just send it to the group chat.
Elahe Izadi
Well, let's take a break there, and when we come back, Rachel will explain why this addiction to Zillow is actually tapping into an ancient instinct. We'll be right back.
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Elahe Izadi
So, Rachel, I want to kind of tap into the deeper psychology here of why people who are not in the market to buy a house, they aren't using these apps and websites to actually just buy a house. Why would they be spending their time on these apps? What did you learn about just sort of human behavior as you dug deeper into this?
Rachel Kurzius
One researcher that I spoke with was telling me that basically this trend just reflects that as humans, we love dirt, we love inside information, and that that's a good thing. Right. It's not just us being nosy. It's that we've developed this interest over time because it allows our communities to better understand each other, to enforce norms and just more broadly work. And I guess I'll also say that not all of this is like, oh, we're trying to learn about our community in a positive way.
Elahe Izadi
Which would be great.
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, which is also great. But also I think that it can serve as a sort of page six. You get these kind of blind items revealing information and intrigue about people that you might not otherwise know. And some of it is like, oh, I wonder how that renovation looks. But other of it is like, are they getting a divorce?
Elahe Izadi
Oh, my gosh. And we should also say, and we've kind of alluded to it, is that it's hard for a lot of people to buy a house right now. I mean, we're kind of. We're having this fun conversation, but the reality is that this is out of the realm of possibility for many people.
Rachel Kurzius
Right.
Elahe Izadi
And especially for younger generations. I mean, there's a lot of data out there about millennials and younger people the first time they can buy a house versus, like, the older generations. And so I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that as you were digging into these sites being used for more vicarious browsing.
Rachel Kurzius
I think that's absolutely a part of the equation. A lot of people, this is really what they're doing in lieu of really house hunting, right? Like, rather than really looking around seriously, and saying, like, mm, I don't know about this furnace. It'll cost a lot of money to replace. I mean, rather than doing that, they're just kind of looking because it's a fun thing to do. It's like, if you're going to a website for a really luxury good item and you're just looking to look to be like, what. What would that be like? To be able to actually buy this while knowing, like, that's just not in my budget.
Elahe Izadi
But then does that lead us to sort of develop unrealistic expectations or just feel bad about our own circumstances?
Rachel Kurzius
I think so much of the Internet makes us feel bad about our own circumstances. And sure, I definitely spoke with people who said that they felt bad going to home listings and thinking, man, I would really love to live there. But that's just not in the cards for me. I've also spoken to people who said, if you kind of are going with no expectations of, like, this is what I want, this is what I deserve, and yet it's not happening for me, then it's a little bit more of, like, a mindless, fizzy, fun situation. I think it kind of depends, like, so many things on your kind of emotional state going into it. The other thing that I'll say about it is, for a lot of people, it's a way to kind of imagine other versions of their lives they could have lived. Right? Like, if I stayed in my hometown, would I be able to afford a home there? Or kind of, what would that look like?
Elahe Izadi
Oh, my gosh, right?
Rachel Kurzius
Like, what would happen if I decided to move to a grecian isle. Like, what kind of beautiful home? I mean, you could look anywhere, right? I mean, like, I spoke with people who told me that anytime they visit a place, one of the first things they do is look at online real estate listings. And it's just another way to get your bearings of what would my life be like if I lived here or if I were this person. And I guess whether that makes you feel good or not depends on how you feel about your current life.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah. Well, Rachel, before you go, since you are now, you know, you are an expert on how to. How to look at these apps and websites, what are red flags we should be looking out for? What are some like, features that like, if you are in. Immersed in this world, you are going to notice these things are these things. Or if this listing doesn't have that, then you should move on. Or, oh, this is like classic. Or this is just. This picture is totally misleading.
Rachel Kurzius
One thing that I really love about the listings is you basically have to adopt this like euphemistic code or language to fully understand what's going on here. Like, for example, if they say as is, that's like, there's probably something seriously wrong with this home. Cozy generally means very small. And the words that they use I tend to find really interesting because they're branding. And I just think it's fun and funny when you start to really read a lot of them, you get a sense of what they mean. I spoke with one real estate agent who told me that a couple of times when she spoke with people who were finally in the market to look after spending years of cruising on Zillow. They were kind of taken aback when they actually went into these homes in real life and realized that a lot of the way that homes are photographed and staged online is somewhat misleading or that they're actually smaller in person or whatever. And it kind of reminded me of, you know, online dating and then meeting someone in person and you're like, you don't look at all like your photos, but like, to.
Elahe Izadi
To carry that ex. That analogy even further. It's like I've only been swiping for years and then I'm finally meeting a human being in real life.
Rachel Kurzius
Right.
Elahe Izadi
My expectations are totally off, off base.
Rachel Kurzius
Yes, exactly. And so I think that. But the main advice I would have is like, if you are genuinely interested in looking at a home, like, you gotta go in person.
Elahe Izadi
Yeah.
Rachel Kurzius
You know, the online element is just part of it and you really need to go in person to get a sense of what it's actually like, real estate agents told me that they were also looking at kind of like the less sexy elements of a home. For example, like, when has the electrical box been updated? Like, what does the roof look like? Like, these are the kind of, I guess, pun intended, nuts and bolts element of buying a home that, like, you're not really looking at if you're just kind of frivolously, if you're going to.
Elahe Izadi
Your physical therapy appointment and just be like, ooh, let me look at this. $4 million, right?
Rachel Kurzius
Exactly. Like, when was the heating system updated?
Elahe Izadi
Now I need to know about this H Vac for real.
Rachel Kurzius
Exactly.
Elahe Izadi
Well, Rachel, thank you so much for joining and sharing all this with me. I really appreciate it.
Rachel Kurzius
Yeah, happy to join you. Thanks for having me.
Elahe Izadi
Rachel Kurzius writes about homes and living spaces for the Post. That's it for Post Reports. Thanks for listening. If you're looking for the latest updates on the big news of the day, check out our morning News briefing. The seven. We bring you the seven stories you need to know about every Weekday morning by 7am you can listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts. And before you go, I wanted to tell you about an exciting new season of Try this, a podcast from the Washington Post that tries to help us live better lives. It's hosted by my friend and colleague Christina Quinn, and this new season is all about keeping your gut healthy. Christina finds out what's really going on inside of our guts and why we should all care about it. We'll put a link in our show notes, or you can find Try this wherever you get your podcast. Today's show was produced by Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval and Emma Talkoff. It was mixed by Shawn Carter and edited by Lucy Perkins. Thanks also to Jennie Rogers. I'm Elahe Izadi. We'll be back tomorrow with more stories from the Washington Post.
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Podcast Title: Post Reports
Host/Author: The Washington Post
Episode Title: Can't Stop Scrolling on Zillow? You’re Not Alone
Release Date: June 25, 2025
Hosts: Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi
Guest: Rachel Kurzius, Real Estate Reporter
In this episode of Post Reports, hosts Elahe Izadi and Rachel Kurzius delve into the pervasive influence of Zillow, a leading real estate platform that has effectively become a dominant player in the housing market landscape. The conversation explores why millions are captivated by browsing home listings, even when they have no immediate plans to purchase a property.
Elahe Izadi sets the stage by sharing her personal habit of obsessively checking house listings on Zillow, highlighting how even properties far beyond her financial reach still capture her attention:
"It's $3.995 million." ([00:42])
Rachel Kurzius, who writes about homes for The Post, acknowledges the widespread obsession:
"I can't tell you how many of these video tours I have watched in my spare moments." ([01:32])
Rachel explains Zillow's evolution from a simple real estate database to a powerhouse in the housing market. She differentiates Zillow from other platforms like Redfin, emphasizing that while Zillow primarily offers comprehensive real estate information, Redfin operates as a brokerage with a distinct business model focused on salaried agents rather than commission-based ones.
"Zillow is basically a tech company that provides real estate information." ([06:08])
"Redfin is actually a brokerage... offering very different business propositions." ([05:25])
The conversation highlights Zillow's substantial web traffic, positioning it among the top websites in the United States:
"There are 2.4 billion visits to its site." ([09:58])
"By unique visitors, Zillow ranks about 15 in the United States in terms of traffic." ([10:32])
A significant portion of the discussion revolves around a recent lawsuit filed by Compass, a major brokerage, against Zillow. Compass alleges that Zillow maintains a monopolistic hold over the real estate information market, violating antitrust laws by restricting brokers from privately listing homes without immediately posting them on Zillow.
"Compass is suing Zillow, and they're calling Zillow a monopoly." ([06:42])
Compass aims to establish a network for exclusive, off-market listings—properties not typically available on MLS or Zillow—to offer clients a sense of exclusivity and control over their listings. Zillow, however, counters by insisting that their mandate is to maintain a transparent and fair marketplace.
"If you don't put a listing on Zillow within 24 hours, you're banned, you're blocked." ([07:52])
The advent of Zillow and similar platforms has significantly altered the traditional role of real estate agents. Previously, agents were the primary source for finding and touring homes. Now, buyers have unprecedented access to listings and information, enabling them to perform much of the preliminary research independently.
"The role of the real estate agent has changed. It used to be you've relied on your agent to find homes... Now home buyers can do that on their own." ([09:38])
This shift has implications for how agents interact with clients and conduct business, pushing them to adapt to a more technology-driven environment.
Rachel categorizes Zillow users into several groups:
She notes that the majority of Zillow's traffic does not translate directly into home purchases, with the platform receiving about 2.4 billion visits in Q1 2025 compared to approximately 4 million homes sold in the U.S. last year.
"Most of the time when people are looking at Zillow, they're not buying homes, they're just looking." ([09:58])
The hosts explore the deeper psychological reasons why individuals who aren't actively in the market for a home still spend significant time on platforms like Zillow. Rachel references research suggesting that humans have an innate desire for "dirt" or inside information, which aids in community understanding and social norm enforcement.
"We've developed this interest over time because it allows our communities to better understand each other." ([17:26])
Moreover, Zillow offers a guilt-free form of voyeurism, allowing users to explore affluent lifestyles and dream homes without the ethical concerns associated with celebrity gossip or invasive privacy breaches.
"It's voyeurism without the guilt." ([12:42])
However, this behavior can also lead to unrealistic expectations and feelings of inadequacy, especially among younger generations facing significant barriers to homeownership.
"So much of the Internet makes us feel bad about our own circumstances." ([19:39])
Elahe brings attention to the stark contrast between current generations, particularly millennials and Gen Z, and older generations regarding homeownership. The high costs and competitive markets have made purchasing a home increasingly unattainable for younger individuals, who often turn to Zillow as a means of vicarious browsing rather than actual house hunting.
"It's just a fun thing to do... knowing that that's just not in my budget." ([18:52])
This phenomenon underscores the broader economic and social challenges faced by younger populations in achieving traditional milestones like homeownership.
Towards the end of the episode, Rachel offers practical advice for listeners interested in using real estate platforms more discerningly. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the euphemistic language often used in listings, which can sometimes mask underlying issues with properties. Terms like "cozy" may indicate smaller spaces, while "as is" could suggest significant problems requiring repairs.
"If they say as is, that's like, there's probably something seriously wrong with this home." ([21:20])
She also cautions that online listings can be misleading due to staging and photography tricks, drawing parallels to online dating where profiles may not accurately represent reality.
"It's like online dating and then meeting someone in person... your expectations are totally off." ([22:35])
Rachel's key takeaway is the necessity of visiting properties in person to gain an accurate understanding of their condition and suitability.
"If you are genuinely interested in looking at a home, like, you gotta go in person." ([22:35])
The episode concludes by acknowledging the dual aspects of platforms like Zillow. On one hand, they democratize access to real estate information and inspire users with design ideas. On the other, they can perpetuate unrealistic aspirations and contribute to feelings of discontent among those unable to enter the housing market.
Elahe Izadi wraps up the discussion by appreciating Rachel's insights and emphasizing the importance of critically engaging with these platforms.
"Well, Rachel, thank you so much for joining and sharing all this with me. I really appreciate it." ([23:22])
Notable Quotes:
This episode of Post Reports provides a comprehensive look into how Zillow has transformed not just the real estate industry but also the behaviors and expectations of the general public. By blending expert reporting with relatable anecdotes, Elahe Izadi and Rachel Kurzius offer listeners valuable insights into the intersection of technology, psychology, and the ever-evolving housing market.