By Shaina Mishkin

The turf war over real estate listings could get a big new entrant. Stocks for companies with home for-sale listing websites fell sharply on Monday on news that Alphabet's Google is testing homes for-sale ads at the top of search results.

Shares of Zillow were down 10.3%, to $67, on Monday morning. The drop puts Zillow on track for its largest decline since March 2024 and lowest close since late May 2025, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Zillow wasn't the only home listings company that appeared to be knocked by the news. CoStar Group, which owns the home listings portal Homes.com, was down about 6.1%, and on track for its lowest close since July 2022. Shares of Rocket, which purchased the real estate brokerage Redfin earlier this year, were 4.4% lower, on track for its lowest close since Nov. 21.

( News Corp, which owns Barron's, also runs home listings website Realtor.com. News Corp Class B stock was down 0.3% shortly before 11 a.m. on Monday.)

Home for-sale listings now display directly at the top of some Google search results. Real estate strategist Mike DelPrete posted about the find on his blog on Friday, and the news gained traction on social media over the weekend.

Barron's replicated the results on a mobile browser. A user searching for "homes for sale in Austin," for example, now sees a carousel at the top of search results featuring photos, prices, addresses, and stats like bedrooms, bathrooms, and size of homes for sale. The tool doesn't appear to be available in all markets; a search for "homes for sale Boise," for example, doesn't return the ads as a result. It also doesn't appear to be available to all users, even on mobile.

Clicking on the add brings users to a page with more specific information and the option to request a tour or contact an agent. "Google selects a top-rated real estate agent near you who typically replies in a few hours," the page says.

"The test is a negative for Zillow and builds upon other headwinds weighing on the shares," Gorden Haskett analyst Robert Mollins wrote in a note. "All said, we remain buyers, as the test is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Zillow's leading market share or ability to drive mid-teens revenue growth and margin expansion in 2026."

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

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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December 15, 2025 11:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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