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Compass faces no real harm from Zillow’s updated policy banning publicly marketed private listings from its platform, the portal said in a new legal filing on Monday.

In response to filings in Compass’ antitrust lawsuit challenging Zillow’s private listings policy, the nation’s largest real estate portal said that Compass waited until near the deadline to go to court and was seeking to “turn back the industry-wide status quo of transparency and liquidity.”

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“Zillow provides maximum transparency and has become a trusted resource for millions of users, who are able to use Zillow to find buyer agents who represent their best interests rather than relying on listing agents whose duty is to the seller,” the company wrote in its filing.

It was Zillow’s first response in court to the lawsuit Compass filed a week ago. On Friday, Compass also asked the judge overseeing the case to file a preliminary injunction on Zillow’s updated listing access standards, which require listings to be filed on the MLS and therefore on Zillow within one business day of any public marketing.

The policy seemed to take aim at Compass’ 3-Phased Marketing Strategy, the first of which includes putting a listing on the brokerage’s private listing network without going onto the MLS. The first phase of a Compass listing under the strategy is known as a Private Exclusive.

“Put plainly,” Compass wrote in its complaint, “Zillow has granted itself the power to ban every Compass Private Exclusive listing from going to Zillow because of the way in which Compass markets and executes its Private Exclusive listing strategy internally and externally.”

In its lawsuit, Compass argued that its Private Exclusives were considered “office exclusives,” or exempt listings where the seller directs their agent not to widely disseminate a listing publicly. 

According to NAR: “The office exclusive listing shall be filed with the MLS but not disseminated to other MLS Participants and Subscribers.” 

A spokesperson for NAR declined to comment on whether Compass’ Private Exclusives were considered office exclusives under that definition.

“NAR is not a party to this lawsuit and has no comment,” the spokesperson said.

According to Zillow’s updated policy, a listing within a brokerage’s private listings network would violate the policy if that network is itself publicly marketed on the brokerage’s website.

“Compass would erect new barriers for buyers by making listings exclusive to each broker — resulting in reduced transparency, less market liquidity, and a more frustrating and less efficient experience for buyers and sellers,” Zillow wrote in its filing.

“Likewise, other entities that display for-sale listings to prospective buyers, including Compass, remain free to display such listings from any source, including the MLS, regardless of whether Zillow would display them,” it continued.

The legal filing was made in opposition to Compass’ request for expedited discovery.

Compass attorneys are hoping to receive from Zillow any communication between Zillow, Redfin, eXp and other brokerages, along with unspecified documents about what it calls the Zillow Ban, documents outlining Zillow’s interactions with certain MLSs, and more.

It also wants data about Zillow’s users and traffic, and documents related to competition in the real estate portal market.

In its filing, Zillow wrote that the request was unreasonable.

“Compass’s requests seek potentially hundreds of thousands of documents (if not more) and terabytes of highly confidential data,” the attorneys wrote. “Compass, without seeking leave, has also indicated that it will seek fact depositions and expert discovery.”

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Zillow’s ban on private listings took effect on Monday, the latest development in an ongoing battle that will determine the future landscape for marketing and home search in the U.S.

The ban set up a test for sellers: You can market your home off the multiple listing service as long as you’re comfortable with your listing also not showing up on the biggest real estate portal in the country.

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Zillow Group, which, along with subsidiaries like Trulia, collectively attract 227 million users each month, took the latest step toward its stated goal of providing consumers with broad and transparent access to as many listings as possible.

The months leading up to the day of reckoning were filled with legal battles and questions about the definition of private listings themselves as agents, brokers and their clients continued to navigate a tumultuous time in the industry.

Here’s what you need to know about the new state of affairs on Zillow.

What listings are impacted?

The updated policy bans listings that aren’t added to the MLS within 24 hours of being publicly marketed.

“What’s not allowed under the listing access standards,” Zillow wrote, is “publicly marketing that off-MLS listings are available if a buyer is willing to work with an agent or brokerage.”

The portal also clarified that listings within a brokerage’s private listing network would be prohibited if the network itself is marketed to consumers on a public-facing website.

Zillow Group said the ban does not apply to Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings — a type of listing status created via recent changes to the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy — as long as they’re submitted to an MLS within one day of public marketing.

“Coming soon” and office exclusives also comply with Zillow’s listing access standard as long as listing brokers are adhering to NAR’s guidance for each listing status. That guidance says that office exclusives are required to be submitted to the MLS, but aren’t widely distributed to other subscribers.

Zillow said that for sale by owner (FSBO) listings, rental listings and new construction listings sold by the builder are also permitted.

The ban arrives amid growing industry focus on private listings, with Compass leading the charge in creating a network of such properties.

Though different industry players have debated just exactly which listings might ultimately fall under the terms of the ban, Zillow has already begun warning agents that their listings are not in compliance. 

Zillow and Compass are also currently locked in a lawsuit over the nature of the ban. In its complaint that initiated the suit, Compass argues that Private Exclusives — or listings marketed exclusively via Compass’ platform — “that are referenced in advertisements on Compass.com mentioning the number of Private Exclusive listings available in a city or specific geography, or similarly returned in response to a search result on Compass.com, will trigger the Zillow Ban.”

“Put plainly,” the complaint adds, “Zillow has granted itself the power to ban every Compass Private Exclusive listing from going to Zillow because of the way in which Compass markets and executes its Private Exclusive listing strategy internally and externally.”

Zillow didn’t respond to a request for comment about whether Compass’ Private Exclusive network is specifically banned by its updated policy.

How many listings are impacted?

Compass notes on its website and seller disclosure form that Private Exclusives aren’t initially listed on the MLS, which it says could reduce the number of potential buyers who see the listing, reduce the number of showings, reduce the number of offers and reduce the final sale price for the property.

Still, the company says, nearly half of its clients in the first three months of this year chose to start with a private listing. Most of them, 94 percent, ultimately moved on to list the home on the MLS, the company says.

For Compass, the first three months of 2025 included 19,393 listings that started as Private Exclusives.

Compass’ Private Exclusives network was an expansion of existing options for more tailored private home sales for celebrities, judges or politicians, for example.

That was before Zillow announced the update to its listing access policy.

It’s difficult to say how many listings throughout the country would be in violation of Zillow’s updated policy, though the number would likely represent only a small percentage of all listings.

‘The life of the listing’

Zillow said that listings that violate its policy are banned for the “life of the listing.” That refers to the time a home is being sold by a broker who did not follow Zillow Group’s listing access standard, resulting in that listing being banned from Zillow and Trulia’s sites.

However, if the seller terminates the listing agreement with that broker and signs a new agreement with a broker who follows the listing access standard, Zillow and Trulia will lift the ban and display the listing.

What else?

Compass filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Zillow last week and later asked the judge in the case to stop Zillow from enforcing its updated policy.

A ruling on that latter request isn’t expected until later this summer or in the fall, putting in place a question about how many sellers will ultimately decide to go with a private listing.

Meanwhile, Homes.com has said it would continue to show all listings despite the moves by Redfin and Zillow. Realtor.com hasn’t revealed any plans for a ban.

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Mortgage rates may still be higher than anyone wants, but new numbers from the National Association of Realtors show that strong job and wage growth helped push pending home sales higher in May.

The numbers, out Thursday, show that pending sales rose 1.1 percent year over year last month. Compared to April, pending sales rose 1.8 percent. The increases are small, but NAR framed them as a positive sign anyway and attributed them to other positive economic progress.

“Consistent job gains and rising wages are modestly helping the housing market,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Hourly wages are increasing faster than home prices. However, mortgage rate fluctuations are the primary driver of homebuying decisions and impact housing affordability more than wage gains.”

NAR’s pending home sales report is considered a leading indicator for the housing market at large. It tracks pending sales of existing homes. NAR reported that all four regions that it tracks experienced increases in pending home sales in May, according to the new data.

The uptick also coincided with a string of signs that home prices were declining in some regions while booming elsewhere.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported this week that home prices fell 0.4 percent from March to April in the U.S., with price declines more pronounced in some regions and gains more pronounced in others.

Pending sales were down 0.5 percent in the Northeast compared to May 2024. Still, they were up 2.1 percent compared to April 2025.

The FHFA report found that home prices in New England were 5.5 percent higher in April 2025 than a year earlier. Home prices were up 7.4 percent this year in the Middle Atlantic, which includes New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

“The Northeast’s housing shortage is boosting home prices, with more than a quarter of homes selling above list price,” Yun said. “Conversely, more inventory in the South gives homebuyers greater negotiation power. Price declines in the South should be considered temporary given the region’s strong job creation.”

Pending home sales rose 6 percent in the West compared to a month earlier, NAR said, the strongest growth among the four regions.

NAR’s pending sales report stood in stark contrast to a separate report, also released this week, which found that sales of newly constructed single-family homes dropped 13.7 percent in May 2025 from the previous month.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales hit 623,000 in May, which was 6.3 percent below the May 2024 rate of 665,000, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported on Wednesday.

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