Zillow Staggers After It Stops Buying New Homes

Shares of Zillow Group Inc. fell as much as 6.8% in premarket trading on Monday after the online real estate firm said it would stop buying new homes and work to eliminate the backlog of properties that already have.

The Seattle-based company, which acquired more than 3,800 homes during the second quarter, has seen its share price fall 27% this year after nearly tripling in 2020 amid the housing market boom driven by the pandemic.

Stocks have come under additional pressure in recent weeks after a viral TikTok video of a real estate agent in Las Vegas said that an anonymous company was carrying out a complicated plan to manipulate house prices. in your local market. Zillow is also facing increased competition from companies like Opendoor Technologies Inc., which announced in August that it bought about 8,500 homes during the second quarter.