Zillow Earnings Beat Estimates. Mortgages and Rentals Business Jumps.

Zillow has been building out its services offerings beyond its core agent business. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg)

Key Points

• Zillow Group’s third-quarter earnings exceeded analyst expectations, with four cents per share on $676 million in revenue.
• Mortgage revenue increased 36% to $53 million, driven by a 57% rise in purchase loan origination to $1.3 billion.
• Rentals revenue grew 41% to $174 million, with multifamily properties advertising on Zillow increasing 47% to 69,000.

Real estate listings and technology company Zillow Group posted third-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations. More users are buying homes with its mortgages, and more property managers are using it for rental listings.

Zillow on Thursday said it earned four cents a share on $676 million in revenue in its third quarter. The results beat analyst expectations, which called for two cents a share on $671 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

The company expects fourth quarter revenue in a range from $645 million to $655 million, more than the $644 million analysts on FactSet estimate. Zillow expects adjusted Ebitda in a range from $145 million to $155 million, in line with the $149 million forecast by analysts.

“Our consistently strong performance reinforces that Zillow can grow regardless of what the residential real estate market is doing,” Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman and CFO Jeremy Hofmann wrote in a letter to shareholders.

The stock climbed 3.9% shortly after the earnings were released after the market closed. Shares closed up 0.28% to $71.72 on Thursday and are down 3.2% this year, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Zillow’s residential revenue rose 7% from the year before $435 million. The category contains revenue from its agent software and advertising businesses, among other real estate industry products.

The residential category represents the bulk of Zillow’s revenue, but its mortgages and rentals businesses are growing more quickly. Mortgage revenue grew 36% to $53 million, fueled by a 57% increase in purchase loan origination to $1.3 billion, the company said.

“Our mortgage strategy is leading more buyers to choose financing through Zillow Home Loans, which is the main growth driver of our overall Mortgages revenue,” company executives wrote.

That origination volume is still relatively small in the grand scheme of things. United Wholesale Mortgage, one of the nation’s largest mortgage companies, recorded $27.3 billion in purchase loan originations in its second quarter, according to a press release.

But Zillow executives expect the company’s mortgage volume to grow. “We think we have the opportunity, and we deserve the opportunity, to be one of the biggest purchase mortgage originators in the country,” Hofmann told Barron’s in an interview.

Its rentals revenue, which includes revenue from its rental listings business, rose 41% to $174 million. The number of multifamily properties advertising on Zillow grew 47% from the same period in 2024, to 69,000.

Zillow’s rental business has grown quickly—but has also attracted criticism, including a Federal Trade Commission complaint against its rental partnership with Redfin. “We think of it [the rentals strategy] as pro-competitive, pro-consumer, and pro-property manager,” Hofmann told Barron’s when asked about the FTC complaint.

Zillow expects growth in both categories to stay strong: It foresees its mortgage revenue growing about 30% in its second half of the year compared with the same period in 2024, and rentals revenue to grow over 45% in its fourth quarter from one year prior.

“As we continue to deliver excellent results, we’re also aware of the external noise that has gotten louder in recent months—and we’re confident in our ability to execute through it, as we have the past few years whenever the volume has turned up,” the executives wrote in the letter.

The company will discuss its results on a 5 p.m. Eastern conference call.

Write to Shaina Mishkin at shaina.mishkin@dowjones.com