US Real Estate Sector NAICS 531

Oct 21, 2025 - Merger to Consolidate Private Home Listings Market

• Compass’s $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate will create the largest U.S. brokerage by agent count, expanding its network to over 200,000 agents, according to The Wall Street Journal. The merger strengthens Compass’s push for private listings; homes that are marketed exclusively to its agents and clients before public release. While Compass argues this gives sellers more control and privacy, critics warn it reduces market transparency. The deal, expected to close in 2026, reflects broader industry consolidation amid sluggish home sales and declining revenues. Compass and Anywhere (holdings include the Century 21, Sotheby's, and Coldwell Banker brokerage brands) have a combined market share of 18%. However, real estate consulting firm RTC Consulting estimates that in luxury markets like New York and San Francisco, the combined share could exceed 40%, raising potential regulatory concerns.
• Corporate lessors of single-family homes face mounting pressure from “accidental landlords” renting out their homes when they're unable to sell, according to The Wall Street Journal. The dynamic is depressing rent growth, with top U.S. markets projected to rise just 0.8% this year, the slowest pace since 2011, according to John Burns Research & Consulting. Oversupply in some Sunbelt markets, where institutional portfolios are heavily concentrated, is driving down rents for new leases. Companies like Invitation Homes are offsetting losses by raising rents for existing tenants, but widening rent gaps may increase turnover. With nearly two million unsold homes on the market, and 2.3% of listings shifting to rentals, inventory seeping from sales to rentals is reshaping the rental landscape. Despite strong occupancy and retention, corporate landlords are underperforming the broader market, signaling challenges ahead in a housing environment marked by stalled transaction activity.

• The sluggish return to offices after the pandemic may put downward pressure on demand for office space. Despite many employers’ efforts to curtail remote work, average office attendance is still down compared to pre-pandemic norms, according to The Wall Street Journal. Overall, companies require 12% more time in the office than in early 2024, according to the workplace think tank Work Forward. However, Americans work from home about 25% of the time, unchanged from 2023, according to a Stanford economist who has operated a monthly survey of 10,000 US workers since 2020. Some industry watchers suggest that companies’ priorities have shifted away from in-office enforcement amid other more pressing concerns, including cooling consumer sentiment and unpredictable shifts in US trade policy.
• Mounting real estate foreclosure and repossession activity could impact some building owners in vulnerable regions or market segments. Real estate foreclosure starts and repossessions increased in the third quarter of 2023, according to Attom's Q3 Foreclosure Market Reports. In Q3, US foreclosure starts increased 16% compared to the third quarter of 2024, and repossessions climbed 33% over the same period. Attom's CEO, Rob Barber, said, "In 2025, we've seen a consistent pattern of foreclosure activity trending higher, with both starts and completions posting year-over-year increases for consecutive quarters. While these figures remain within a historically reasonable range, the persistence of this trend could be an early indicator of emerging borrower strain in some areas." States with some of the most foreclosure filings in the third quarter included Florida, Nevada, and South Carolina.