The iBuyer declined to confirm how many employees have been let go. Recent SEC filings show widespread cuts compared to a year earlier.
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Arizona-based iBuyer Offerpad confirmed it has laid off employees and restructured teams on Friday, days after it reported an ongoing slide in sales and revenue that drove its shares to all-time lows.
The company declined to comment on how many employees it was letting go, saying only that it was hoping to return to profitability.
“We’ve made some operational adjustments, including restructuring certain teams to better align with our strategic objectives,” an Offerpad spokesperson told Inman. “These changes are designed to enhance our efficiency while maintaining the core of our business — our cash offer.”
The company said it was focused on its automated valuation model that helps it price homes as part of its quick cash offer process.
“While we are not disclosing specific numbers regarding the number of people affected or the details of team adjustments, we can share that we have made strategic operational changes across multiple departments to enhance our operational efficiency and strengthen our core business offerings.”
In reporting second quarter earnings, Offerpad said it had reduced employee headcount in three areas: Sales, marketing and operations; general and administrative; and technology and development.
Offerpad reported slashing sales, marketing and operating expenses by $8.8 million, or 30 percent, during the second quarter — mostly by cutting advertising expenses by $7.4 million. Those efforts to reduce expenses were partially offset by an increase in variable costs associated with the increase in homes sold, the company said.
A $2.2 million reduction in general and administrative expenses was attributed to lower fees associated with credit facilities and headcount reductions, while the $1.3 million in cost cuts in technology and development were “primarily attributable to decreased average employee headcount.
Offerpad also wrote that it had cut its technology and development expenses by more than half, noting that the decrease was “primarily attributable to decreased average employee headcount.”
Offerpad’s $13.8 million second-quarter net loss was a 21 percent improvement from the first quarter, when the company was $17.5 million in the red, and a 38 percent reduction from its $22.3 million net loss in Q1 2023.
But revenue during the spring homebuying season was also down 12 percent from Q1, to $251.1 million, as home sales declined by 12 percent, to 742.
Offerpad said it expects Q3 revenue to continue to decline, to between $185 million and $225 million, and that home sales will drop to between 550 and 650.
“We’re committed to supporting our transitioning team members and have provided meaningful severance packages and support services,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus remains on leveraging our proprietary technology and market expertise to deliver exceptional value to our customers during this dynamic real estate market.”
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Editor’s note: Inman does not endorse any presidential candidate.
Affordable housing has been in decline since the aftermath of the Great Recession, and now, at the threshold of another presidential election, affordability is at a crisis level. Agents and consumers alike are frustrated with low inventory, high rates, and near-impossible regulatory hurdles that those who want to build affordable new construction have to face.
In the past few weeks, President Biden stepped down and endorsed Kamala Harris as his replacement, and Harris has now chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Meanwhile, former President Trump announced his official veep candidate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, and the mid-July Republican National Convention (RNC) cemented the pick.
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is later this month, but it’s safe to say the race for November has reached a fever pitch as the battleground state campaigning continues.
With this rapid change in events, many Americans are left with more questions than answers about what this next election will mean for their households and which candidate has their best interests at heart.
Housing is connected to almost every part of life for the average American. Earning a fair wage, zoning, taxes, location and transportation issues — where we choose to live and where we can afford to live — play a vital role in whether citizens feel safe, successful and happy.
Americans are working harder than ever to keep the lights on, have a roof over their heads and put food on the table — and this election will be won on kitchen table issues. The stakes are high, and viewpoints are boiling, but when it comes to housing, almost everyone can agree that something has to change.
Read on for information about the presidential candidates’ proposed plans to change the landscape of housing and what this could look like for your kitchen table personally and professionally come 2025.
What we know about Harris’ housing plan thus far
President Biden’s administration has faced an uphill battle in making housing more affordable due to a gridlocked legislative branch.
Although progress with student loan debt cancellation was aimed at creating more opportunities for homeownership, high interest rates and low inventory make it challenging for low-income Americans to become homeowners.
After President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris on July 22,2024, she gained rapid momentum with Democratic delegates. On Aug. 6, the Democratic National Committee announced that Harris received 4,567 votes (99 percent) from delegates, according to ABC News.
Last year, Vice President Harris detailed her thoughts and initiatives on making homeownership more accessible to all Americans and why it’s critical for the hope, health and strength of our country in a special presentation celebrating the success of new homeowners who have benefited from existing government-supported programs that are designed to level the playing field and reward hard work.
On July 30, 2024, Vice President Harris spoke to a crowd of 10,000 supporters in Atlanta, and one of the key issues on housing in her speech zeroed in on capping rents and getting a handle on corporate landlords who are playing a significant role in the affordability issues happening right now, where the average rent is exceeding more of an American’s income than ever before.
CNBC interviewed Lending Tree, Senior Economist Jacob Channel on July 24 about Harris, and he is optimistic about her previous viewpoints on housing.
“Generally speaking, it does seem like affordable housing, zoning has been something that has been a talking point of hers for a while now,” Channel said. “If they keep on the same course that the Biden administration was on, I think there’s potential for a lot of good.”
Although Harris has not revealed her personal plan, many believe it will reflect Biden’s plan with her own personalized touch. America will likely hear more about her plans during the upcoming Sept. 10 ABC debate, expected to take place in Philadelphia, which former President Trump agreed to on Aug. 8. The candidates are still in talks for future debates.
Harris is likely to further the efforts and investments made in the proposed 2025 housing plan. The American Rescue Plan includes an investment of $258 billion in several different areas to “give working families a fair shot,” while asking the wealthy to “pay their fair share.”
Again, Harris has not formally announced any changes or additions to the current White House fiscal 2025 plan, but her record — which includes drafting and helping pass the California Homeowner Bill of Rights and introducing the Rent Relief Act in 2018, a bill that gives tax credits to renters who spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities and earn under $100,000 — shows a history of advocating for affordable housing and renter rights.
If you’re curious about Harris’ running mate’s record on housing, Gov. Waltz signed a $1 billion housing investment plan into law in 2023 to “reduce disparities in housing and homeownership, improve access to affordable housing, provide rental assistance, and invest in homelessness prevention across the state.”
Talking points
It’s important to note that the proposed 2025 fiscal plan builds on the changes the White House introduced in Biden’s Housing Supply Action Plan. The goal in 2025 is to reduce barriers to homeownership, lower housing costs and build two million new homes.
Here are a few critical points from Biden’s affordable housing plan fact sheet.
Fiscal 2025
Biden’s fiscal plan for 2025 budgets more than $258 billion to build or preserve more than two million units.
According to Biden’s Fiscal 2025 fact sheet, the budget would provide $20 billion in mandatory funding for a new Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion, invest $1.3 billion in the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) which would construct and rehabilitate affordable rental housing and provide homeownership opportunities, and provide $7.5 billion in mandatory funding for new Project-Based Rental Assistance contracts.
Mortgage relief
The administration plans to ask Congress to pass a mortgage relief credit that would provide middle-class, first-time homebuyers with an annual tax credit of $5,000 a year for two years, totaling $10,000.
The administration wants to create a pilot program that will waive the requirement for lender’s title insurance on certain refinances to save thousands of homeowners up to $1,500 (an average of $750) on their refinance closing costs.
Commission changes
In Biden’s State of the Union address, he highlighted lowering housing costs and promoting competition in the industry, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has prioritized those goals.
Tax credits
This bi-partisan plan, called the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit, is aimed at new construction or substantial rehabilitation of “affordable, owner-occupied housing located in distressed urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods,” and it’s designed to “mobilize private investment to build and substantially rehabilitate 500,000 affordable homes for moderate- and middle-income homeowners over the next 10 years.”
Innovation fund
The Innovation Fund for Housing Expansion requests over $185 billion in mandatory funding over 10 years for programs at HUD as well as tax credits to provide affordable housing.
Unhoused
Biden’s proposed budget aims to work toward the ambitious United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) goal of reducing homelessness 25 percent by 2025 and ultimately ending it. The budget would provide “housing vouchers for youth aging out of foster care and extremely low-income veterans,” two groups disproportionately at risk of becoming unhoused.
Renter costs
The plan calls for lowering costs for Renters, enforcing the Blue Print for Renters Bill of Rights, more oversight in taking away tax incentives from land landlords who participate in rent gouging, and cracking down on junk rental fees, which currently create many financial issues for renters with a limited income.
Housing for seniors
As part of the Biden Administration’s “Investing in America” tour, HUD announced $115 million in grant funding in February to support the development and improvement of affordable rentals for low-income seniors.
Trump’s housing plan
After winning the 2016 election, the Trump administration launched initiatives to rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those initiatives were never fully realized and have been largely reversed by the Biden administration.
While former President Trump takes credit for homeownership gains made during his term, one could argue that those gains were specifically due to low interest rates caused by the pandemic, which turned the real estate market on its head and stopped foreclosures due to moratoriums.
This shift in the balance of the market has been disrupted ever since, and the housing industry has struggled to keep up with the demand, ever-rising appraisals, and low inventory, thanks to those who were lucky enough to capture that low rate and are now “locked in” to their current residence for the foreseeable future.
Although it’s not hard to find general facts and statistics about what’s not working in the housing market, it’s much more difficult to find information about what the Trump-Vance administration will do to fix the housing crisis.
Realtor.com noted this in a July 19, article after Trump’s lengthy RNC speech, in which he talked about the housing crisis but failed to give a solid plan other than he will fix it.
Sen. Vance’s track record on housing is very conservative, reflecting that he wants inflation under control, and he has been very vocal about it. Vance is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
“It’s being positioned as congressional Republicans are heartless because they want to pass these spending cuts. Well, I think the more heartless thing to do would be to do nothing, to allow the inflation to continue to spiral out of control, higher interest rates, higher rent payments, higher mortgage payments for American families,” Vance told Business Insider.
Trump’s agenda for housing is not as detailed as the current administration, but he promises sweeping change and describes his policy as a “quantum leap” for Americans’ standard of living. Not listing specifics, the plan promises that things will be more affordable because of the policy that will be implemented. In a nutshell, Trump says he will cut energy costs and interest rates, and the economy will improve.
Trump also says that drilling and lowering energy costs will lower the costs of everything in the economy.
In this recent Fox News phone interview, his supporters specifically asked him what he would do about the rising cost of housing. He says, “We’re going to drill baby drill,” and points to “the worst inflation we’ve probably ever had in our country, and it started because of energy.”
Editor’s note: Neither the President nor Congress control interest rates; it’s the Federal Reserve.
Talking points
Here are a few critical points from the Trump-Vance campaign on how they will “revolutionize the American standard of living.”
Building freedom cities
There will be a contest held to help determine where these 10 proposed new freedom cities will be built to offer Americans a new chance at the American dream. Each city will be about the size of Washington, D.C. These cities will be built on vacant government-owned land and support hundreds of thousands of hardworking families. There are also additional plans to innovate flying cars for these cities.
“We will hold a competition to build new freedom cities on the frontier to give countless Americans a new shot at home ownership and the American dream,” former President Trump said, according to Daily Mail.
Trump says he will lower the cost of homes and cars, and he will ask Congress to give money to young families who have a baby. This is mentioned in the agenda but, again, with few specifics.
“We will support baby boomers and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom, how does that sound? I want a baby boom, You men are so lucky out there. You are so lucky, men,” Former President Trump said, according to Daily Mail.
Tax cuts
The former president touts major tax cuts but offers no specifics — other than a plan for higher tariffs. There’s no information about how tax cuts would work or where taxes would be cut or lowered, but he seems sure that these measures would improve the economy.
Unhoused
The Trump administration plans to relocate the homeless population into “tent” cities and build larger mental health institutions.
How Project 2025 fits in
The 900-page “mandate” created by The Heritage Foundation for the next “conservative administration” has a detailed section that specifically references HUD and reorganizing many different departments. That chapter was written by Trump’s former HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
Trump has said that this is not the plan for his administration, but as the current Harris ticket warns, there are too many connections and correlations between the Heritage Foundation and those connected to Trump’s campaign to dismiss. This might help explain why Agenda 47 is so vague and also has similar, but not as detailed, overtones as Project 2025.
Both Agenda 47 and Project 2025 mention replacing those in current government positions and dissolving departments that are earmarked as “wasteful” spending.
Project 2025 is currently accepting resumes for those interested in working in the new positions and is also offering organized training to be prepared.
This plan is supposed to follow a 180-day overhaul, and housing aside, the mandate is aggressive and touches every aspect of every American’s current life.
There is a comprehensive transition plan for federal agencies, potentially trimming up to 50,000 federal jobs.
HUD
Chapter 15 details an extensive reset and reorganization of HUD.
HUD’s new political leadership team will need to reexamine the federal government’s role in housing markets across the nation, and seemingly return more power back to state control.
The plan will repeal climate change initiatives and spending in the department’s budget requests.
No more Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
The plan will repeal the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation created under the Biden Administration and any other uses of special-purpose credit authorities to further equity.
Highlights from the Project 2025 Tax Plan are sweeping and extremely detailed. This includes reorganizing the current tax bracket system into just two tax brackets, simplifying or eliminating current breaks and deductions, a federal consumption tax, breaks on investments and capital gains and several other very strategic moves that the architects of Project 2025 believe will benefit many, and have an immediate impact on improving the economy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan
Although the likelihood of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan actually seeing daylight seems nearly impossible as a third-party candidate, the concept shows that he has given some serious thought to a simple and actionable plan that could make a direct impact.
Kennedy calls for creating 3 percent interest mortgages that are funded with government-backed bonds to help with affordability. He likens the plan to borrowing money from a “rich uncle,” but the uncle is Uncle Sam.
Tax code
Kennedy’s proposal would change the tax code to disincentivize the corporate entities purchasing homes out from under the average purchasers. These tax changes would help many different sectors and encourage the economy.
Minimum wage
Kennedy’s plan calls for raising the minimum wage so that more households have incomes that reflect current cost-of-living struggles.
Small business
One of Kennedy’s key messages is that it’s “‘We the people,’ Not ‘We the corporations,’” and much of his overall policy states that he will be vigilant in separating big corporations out of controlling government business and the business of the middle class.
By creating incentives that would support small businesses, Kennedy hopes to not only improve small businesses’ bottom line but also to get big-name corporations out of American food and medicine and from further harming the environment. In his view, creating equal ground for small businesses means cracking down on regulations for large corporations.
A hazy horizon for housing
There is a tangible feeling of the American dream pulling further and further away from the lower and middle classes. It’s not just that things are too expensive; it’s that values and ideas are shifting into new spaces that are not part of the status quo.
“While 64% of upper-income Americans say the American dream still exists, 39% of lower-income Americans say the same – a gap of 25 percentage points,” according to Pew Research.
What is clear about owning a home is that homeownership is a pathway to building stability, health and generational wealth. It’s not something that should be so far out of reach that one gets tired of holding out one’s arm to reach for it. There is a reason that laws were put in place to protect the rights of all Americans and their ability to gain homeownership, mortgages and fair appraisals.
History.com describes the 1968 Fair Housing Act as “the last great legislative achievement of the civil rights era.” There is so much more on the line for 2025 than housing affordability; the equity of the American dream is also at stake. While we do not have a crystal ball for the future, we do have a clear picture in the rearview mirror of the past.
Additional resources
Rachael Hite is a former agent, a business development specialist, fair housing advocate, copy editor, and is currently perfecting her long game selling forever homes in a retirement continuing care community in Northern Virginia. You can connect with her about life, marketing and business on Instagram.
A surprise drop in mortgage rates got homebuyers off the sidelines and into home tours. However, affordability and recessionary concerns have kept buyers from making purchases.
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A surprise drop in mortgage rates brought homebuyers out of the shadows in July, according to Seattle-based brokerage Redfin’s latest market report.
Thirty-year mortgage rates dropped to a daily average of 6.34 percent on Aug. 5, the lowest level since April 2023. Although the daily average has since risen to 6.58 percent, it’s still a needed reprieve. In the last month alone, moderating rates have given homebuyers a $30,000 boost in buying power, boosting the typical buyers’ budget from $437,000 to $466,000.
Thankfully, the drop in mortgage rates has coincided with cooling median sale price growth.
The median sale price for the four weeks ending Aug. 4 was $389,750, a 1.51 percent or $6,000 drop from early July’s all-time high of $395,750. Although the 1.51 percent change represents a “typical seasonal decline,” it also represents the smallest annual increase (+3.2 percent) in median sales prices since December.
Moderating mortgage rates and home prices have encouraged homebuyers to begin weighing their options, as evidenced by several key touring metrics. The Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index, which tracks requests for tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents, declined 13 percent year over year, the smallest decline in three months. Meanwhile, ShowingTime tour requests have increased 13 percent from January, and Google searches for “home for sale” rose 4 percent from June.
However, increased interest hasn’t translated to sales just yet. Pending sales, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, logged its largest annual decline in nine months at -6.7 percent. The late-July drop in mortgage rates didn’t yield an increase in offers written with Redfin agents, the report said.
Shoshana Godwin
Despite the stall in offers and pending sales, Seattle-based Redfin Premier agent Shoshana Godwin said she’s seeing more homebuyers move forward on their plans as they fear rates will drop “too low” and spark a 2020-esque frenzy.
“Many of the buyers I’m working with are excited because they’ve been casually house hunting for a year, waiting for rates to come down before they make an offer,” she said in a written statement. “Now a lot of those buyers want to get in now, before rates get too low and cause more competition.”
Unlike in 2020, where homebuyers snapped up whatever was available, she said today’s homebuyers are very discerning — only making offers on move-in ready listings.
“One of my listings, which went on the market last week, had over 100 parties come through and received nine offers,” she said. “Buyers are securing lower rates than they were a few months ago, but costs are still high enough that buyers are picky. If they’re going to have a high monthly payment, they want a move-in ready home so they don’t have to pay for upgrades.”
It looks like homebuyers will have more to choose from in the coming months, as new listings rose 5.9 percent year over year during the last four weeks ending on Aug. 4. Those new listings, matched with a growing share of stale listings more than 30 days old, have bolstered inventory to 3.4 months of supply at the current sales pace.
And of those listings, 7.2 percent experienced a price drop, further signaling the movement from a sellers’ market to a balanced market.
The Engel & Völkers Americas president and CEO took time to chat with Inman and shared why agents should be concentrating on relationships — not confusion around commission lawsuits.
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Agents have navigated significant industry shakeups and instability in the last year as commission lawsuits continue to impact the way they have done business for decades. They’ve also had to grapple with the reality of industry changes while simultaneously battling market challenges, like high interest rates and high home prices.
But homebuyers and sellers are increasingly gaining confidence and getting back into the market more, Engel & Völkers Americas President and CEO Anthony Hitt told Inman. That movement has him feeling more positive than he’s felt in about the last two years.
“I have not been this optimistic for quite a while,” Hitt said. “It’s nice to feel better about where we are as an industry, where things are going and seeing some real positivity on the horizon.”
The president and CEO shared more thoughts with Inman on the current state of the market and the importance of maintaining focus as industry distractions continue. Here’s what he had to say, edited for brevity and clarity.
Inman: What are the biggest challenges in the market for Engel & Völkers agents and brokers right now?
Anthony Hitt: Probably the biggest challenge for anyone in the industry right now — and I would not exclude Engel & Völkers — is focus. Because I think with the lawsuits and all the noise we have in our industry, sometimes we forget just to focus on taking care of our clients, building relationships and selling properties. And I think that’s really what our focus is as a brand right now, is making sure that we are, I don’t want to say ‘back to the basics,’ but really focused on the basics of building those relationships and taking great care of our clients.
There is so much happening right now in the industry that I could understand where it would be hard to focus.
Absolutely. And it’s definitely easy to let all of that distract us. But as I [said] at our EVX stage earlier this year, there’s always something that’s going to disrupt or destroy our industry and our careers — and it’s yet to happen. Usually those things that mask as disruption end up being huge opportunities, and I think our current environment is definitely one of those situations.
Good. Aside from all of these things that are happening with the lawsuits and changes to regulations, etc., what sorts of broad-stroke trends are you seeing in the summer market right now?
I’m going to go back to really looking at what our advisors are doing. We’re seeing that the market generally, and I’m speaking generally across the Americas, has stabilized. We still have shortages of inventory, but buyers are seeming to get off the sidelines a bit more. Interest rates, while they’re not coming down at the pace that most of us would like to see, the fact is, I think most buyers are resolved [that] this is the environment that they’re in. And sellers who need to move on are making the decision to go ahead and move on.
So those advisors who are focused on helping clients make those moves are the ones who are actually seeing a pretty good summer. If I look at our individual advisors in our brand, we’re generally having a very good summer.
That’s great to hear. Are there any hot markets in particular you’ve heard about from your advisors?
I think what we’re seeing is that it really does kind of vary. There’s a lot of areas that seem to be, either the interest is there or [it’s] back. A lot of the second-home markets that had quieted down seem like they’re picking up a little bit. The metros where we weren’t really quite sure what was going to happen are also picking up. So generally I think every place is a good market right now, with very few exceptions.
I like being this optimistic, by the way. I have not been this optimistic for quite a while. It’s nice to feel better about where we are as an industry, where things are going and seeing some real positivity on the horizon.
Absolutely. I’m also curious about what plans Engel & Völkers has for the company through the remainder of 2024.
Well, this answer may not be the most exciting answer, but we’re not a shiny-objects brand. We’re not really always looking for the next big thing. We’re looking at doing the things we do better and I think you’re going to continue to see that, where we just keep our focus — back to my first point — keep our focus on taking good care of our clients, making sure that our advisors have the tools they need to actually move the dial on their businesses and taking care of their clients, and you’re going to see a lot more of that.
Our development services designation and team are doing some amazing things and we’re seeing them really pick up some steam as the new-home market is starting to increase.
We introduced commercial a couple months ago in the Americas and we’re also seeing a lot of movement with our new commercial designation and teams.
So those would be the biggest focuses for us right now, is doing what we do and doing it better. We like to use the word ‘refinement’ — just continuing to refine who we are, where we’re going and how we take the best care of our clients.
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The Consumer Federation of America also tells consumers not to agree to pay an agent just to see a home, but to sign a touring agreement with no financial obligation instead.
Need help highlighting value in a buyer-broker presentation? Jimmy Burgess talks with Andrew Undem, who shares his “8 pillars of value” strategy for showcasing client benefits.
Jobs reports trigger recession fears, sending rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages plunging to new 2024 lows as investors rotate out of stocks and into bonds.
Four months after releasing a first-of-its-kind short-term touring agreement, Zillow has released 24 state-compliant versions of the agreement exclusively for Premier Agent partners.
Credit: Canva Pro Photos
A Washington listing photographer said Zillow Gone Wild used her photo without permission in February 2022. After attempting to negotiate a payment of roughly $30,000, she’s now suing for a maximum judgment of $300,000.
Expedia Group met the high end of its earnings expectations for the second quarter of 2024, despite a challenging macro environment and softening travel demand, according to an earnings report released Thursday.
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Expedia Group met the high end of its earnings expectations for the second quarter of 2024, despite a challenging macro environment and softening travel demand, according to an earnings report released Thursday.
The firm reported total lodging bookings of $20.7 billion for the second quarter across all of its platforms, including Expedia, Vrbo and Hotels.com, an 8 percent increase from 2023. Revenue was at $3.6 billion for the quarter, an increase of 22 percent compared to the previous year.
Room nights posted double-digit growth totaling 98.9 million in the second quarter. Growth accelerated to 10 percent, with Brand Expedia at nearly 20 percent growth. Total room nights grew at the fastest rate since the first quarter of 2023.
The company registered a net income of $386 million and an adjusted net income of $469 million.
“Our second quarter results came in at the high end of our expectations, with gross bookings and revenue growing 6 percent. We’re pleased with our momentum and the sequential improvement in our consumer brands. However, in July, we have seen a more challenging macro environment and a softening in travel demand. We are therefore adjusting our expectations for the rest of the year,” Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin said in a statement.
In July, Expedia saw flat average daily rates (ADRs) in the second quarter stemming from exchange rate issues, with customers trading down to lower-priced properties, executives said on an earnings call.
The company also referenced a softness in air ticket prices.
These factors collectively drove weaker-than-expected growth across both consumer and B2B businesses in July, and they are influencing the outlook for the third quarter in the full year.
Expedia expects third-quarter gross bookings and revenue growth to be in the range of 3 percent to 5 percent compared to last year.
For the full year, gross bookings are anticipated to be at the low end of the previously communicated range of mid-to-high single-digits at approximately 4 percent and revenue growth 2 points higher at approximately 6 percent.
“While the more recent market environment is challenging, it is this ongoing execution against our growth initiatives combined with our strong financial business position [that] give us confidence in our long posture of opportunity to deliver profitable growth,” Whalen said.
This article was updated with additional information from Expedia’s earnings call.
