Update June 6 at 5:00 pm: This year’s Fortune 500 list, released this week, notably left out several of the top large residential real estate companies from the previous edition.
Compass, Anywhere and Zillow all dropped off the list of largest companies by revenue, wealth Be the first to report. The changing rankings show how hard high mortgage rates and limited inventory are hitting companies in the second half of 2022 and weakening housing markets across the country.
Zillow ranked No. 424 on the list released last June, followed by Anywhere at No. 427 and Compass at No. 495. But those companies disappeared after revenues fell 24%, 6% and 14%, respectively.
Another real estate company absent from this year’s list is Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgage. Last year brought layoffs and huge losses to the top mortgage lender, which cut its spending by 25% in 2022 in response to a difficult market.
A spokesperson for Compass denied the drop, noting that RealTrends rankings position the company as a “First Broker in the country for two consecutive years. “
Anywhere declined to comment, and Zillow did not immediately respond.
Home sales boomed at the start of the pandemic as mortgage rates fell to a low 2%, but the market took a hit last spring when the Federal Reserve started raising rates. Mortgage rates rose above 7% in October, hitting a 21-year high and pushing mortgage applications to their lowest level since 1997.
Compass launched a series of aggressive cost-cutting measures early last year after declaring it was cash flow positive in 2023. The company laid off 800 tech employees in two rounds of layoffs, followed by another round in January 2023.
The New York-based brokerage, led by Chief Executive Robert Reffkin, lost $602 million last year, about $100 million more than in 2021.
Anywhere, parent of Corcoran, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Sotheby’s International Realty, ended 2022 with a loss of $287 million. The company, formerly known as Realogy, laid off staff in August, followed by another round of layoffs in January 2023, when it also announced the closure of its iBuying business.
Zillow posted losses in both the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Its year-end loss totaled $101 million, down from the nearly $600 million it recorded in 2021 as a result of failed home flipping operations.The company’s mortgage business was the hardest hit, with a loss of $167 million last year, compared with $52 million in 2021.
The listed platform, led by CEO Rich Barton, also carried out two rounds of large-scale layoffs last year, laying off 2,000 people.
This story has been updated with a statement from Compass.
