#real-estate-agents

#real-estate-agents

When Zillow launched 20 years ago, the home-buying process happened almost entirely offline. The company's digital listings, combined with its innovative "Zestimate"-an estimate of a home's value, based on the kind of data typically only available to real estate professionals-marked a turning point for the housing market. Zestimates weren't exact representations of value, but they put power back in the hands of prospective buyers (to sellers' and agents' chagrin). Their near-instant popularity was an early "do your research" internet moment.

Entering 2026, 32% of real estate agents surveyed by Inman Intel considered leaving the industry-a rate 1.5 times higher than at the start of the year. While the 2024 "fence-sitters" were primarily driven by industry upheaval and the initial NAR settlement rules, the motivations shifted significantly by late 2025. According to Intel's analysis, the primary reasons for the spike in exit considerations in 2025 included:

As homebuyers enter the Santa Clara County real estate market, they face numerous challenges in finding a property. Elevated mortgage rates, coupled with rising home prices, have put tremendous pressure on buyers' budgets. In July, the median price of a single-family home in Santa Clara County was $1,880,000, up 1% from a year ago, while the median price for a condo or townhome was $1,008,000, a 6% increase year-over-year.

AI's current importance in real estate has risen to 5.9 out of 10, and expectations for future importance are expected to reach 7.2 out of 10.