This story originally appeared on Real Estate News.

Could Google crush the “portal wars” once and for all?

A key Google partner is starting to display home listing details directly in search results, prompting some industry experts and analysts to question what impact the feature could have on the traffic — and financials — of major portal players like Zillow, Realtor.com and others.

A ‘controlled experiment’: In some markets, Google’s data partner HouseCanary and its IDX site ComeHome are beginning to experiment with placing home listings at the top of Google search results, complete with basic details, price, images and a “Request a tour” button. According to HouseCanary, the company is licensed in all 50 states and in Washington, D.C., as a full-service brokerage. 

Real estate consultant and analyst Mike DelPrete was the first to report on the pilot listing initiative. 

HouseCanary offered some insight into the “controlled experiment” via an announcement on LinkedIn this week, suggesting that the company and Google “are innovating” and “pushing into new territory” with the effort.

“Before this test started, we contacted and notified every MLS in the regions included. We are working with those MLSs directly and we have active, ongoing communication with them throughout the test. If an MLS has questions or concerns, we address them directly and promptly,” the announcement reads. 

“The goal is simple: improve how consumers discover listings while staying aligned with the rules and expectations of the MLS community. We are excited about what we are building with Google, and we are equally committed to doing it the right way with the MLSs and other stakeholders. We will continue to communicate directly with the MLSs involved and respond quickly to any concerns.”

Impacts of previous search shifts: The move to incorporate home listing information into Google comes over a year after the search giant started integrating AI summaries directly into the top of search results. A July Pew Research Center study found that web users were less likely to click into other pages — such as news media and other outlets that had long depended on traffic as a metric for determining revenue — since Google incorporated AI summaries.

Some major mainstream news sites have seen traffic drop upwards of 30-40% year-over-year partially thanks to AI summaries, NPR reported in July. 

What analysts are saying: There may already be concern about what kind of impact home listing summaries on Google pages could have on the top portals. As the leader in home search, Zillow would be the site with the most to lose. At the time of publishing this story, Zillow’s share price has dropped more than 8% since the opening bell on Dec. 15. 

But some analysts say the concerns may be exaggerated.

“While we don’t expect a direct near-term impact on Zillow’s business, given that most of Zillow’s traffic is direct (e.g., Zillow.com, StreetEasy.com, mobile apps) and Google’s new product is currently limited to select markets and mobile browsers, we view this development as a long-term risk for real estate portals like Zillow,” Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng wrote in a recent note to clients, CNBC reports.

Piper Sandler called the concerns “overblown,” and analysts with Oppenheimer and Wells Fargo also appeared to be less concerned about immediate impacts on Zillow’s traffic and revenue. Instead, they suggest that the experiment may simply present a new opportunity for Google to generate more revenue.

Wells Fargo analyst Alec Brondolo sees “Zillow, Homes.com, Realtor.com, etc. bidding for home listing ad units rather than Google attempting to monetize directly with an ad product sold to agents,” CNBC reported. 

In a blog post, Victor Lund, managing partner of real estate consulting firm WAV Group, highlighted some issues with the pilot and suggested it could overstep existing norms and standards with the IDX protocol. 

“IDX was never designed to allow listings to be turned into paid media inventory on global ad networks. If this practice stands, it redefines IDX from a display-based cooperation agreement into an advertising license, something neither MLSs nor brokers have agreed to,” Lund wrote.

Real Estate News has reached out to HouseCanary for more details on the scope and scale of the experiment and to Zillow for comment on the new Google feature.

This story first appeared on Real Estate News.

Home search leader Zillow has changed the way that it shares climate risk information — directing visitors to the website of data partner First Street rather than surfacing it on Zillow home detail pages.

“This update ensures consumers continue to have access to important information to help them consider factors such as insurance, repair costs and long-term homeownership planning, and reflects our long-standing commitment to empowering consumers with transparent information,” a Zillow spokesperson shared with Real Estate News over email when asked about the move.

What’s less clear is the role one of the nation’s largest MLSs played in the change.

First reported by The New York Times in late November, Zillow’s removal of climate risk data from its listings comes as industry stakeholders vigorously debate over the ownership of listing data and as home insurance prices continue to skyrocket.

Why Zillow made the change — for all its listings

The New York Times story highlighted complaints from real estate agents along with the California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) and its CEO Art Carter about perceived discrepancies and inconsistencies in the climate risk data, and implied that Zillow’s change was done under pressure from CRMLS.

In a statement shared with Real Estate News, a Zillow spokesperson said that the change was made to comply with different MLS requirements but did not highlight CRMLS specifically. Zillow’s change in the way it displays climate risk data has been applied to all listings on the site, not just homes in California or those within CRMLS’ jurisdiction. 

“Zillow remains committed to providing consumers with information that helps them make informed real estate decisions. We updated our climate risk product experience to adhere to varying MLS requirements and maintain a consistent experience for all consumers,” the spokesperson said.

However, other leading portals are still showing climate data in home listings. “You can still find property level climate risk scores on Redfin,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather wrote in a social media post that linked to the New York Times story. 

CRMLS’s role and response

“There was no change in the rules,” a CRMLS spokesperson said over email when asked if there was a specific update in MLS standards and practices that would have led to Zillow’s move.  

So why now? If Zillow has implied that the change was made in order to remain in compliance with MLS practices, what exactly was CRMLS’s role in the change to home search site’s display of climate data? The dispute between Zillow and CRMLS could also be viewed as another example of the ongoing fight among major industry stakeholders over the control of listings and listing data. 

In October, CRMLS and Compass engaged in a feud over the MLS’s end user licensing agreement, which Compass CEO Robert Reffkin argued forced “over 100,000 agents to accept a 10-page agreement giving CRMLS the right to sell the agents’ content and contribution.” Carter said the MLS serves its users by managing the data they provide “as a set, not as a bunch of individual fragments” and the agreement reflects that.

The impact of skyrocketing insurance rates

As organized real estate and home search sites debate the accuracy of climate data and the merits of displaying it on property listings, one issue that isn’t being disputed is the rising cost of home insurance. Zillow’s move to point consumers off the site to explore climate risks comes at a time when more homeowners are seeing major increases in their insurance premiums and others are actually seeing the steep costs of insurance eat into their home value. 

While speaking at a November event for ResiClub, Cotality Chief Data and Analytics Officer John Rogers said the average annual change in homeowners insurance premiums was 14% for both 2023 and 2024 and is expected to be 10% in 2025. Rogers also forecasted an 8% rise in premiums for 2026 and in 2027. 

But California home owners and buyers are being hit particularly hard. According to the California Association of Realtors’ latest State of the Market annual report and survey, over a quarter of member agents signaled that their buyers were having difficulty obtaining insurance. And the number of buyers losing out on a home because of issues with home insurance has been increasing. Last year, over 14% of member agents reported that at least one sale fell through because buyers could not secure homeowners insurance while the number rose to over 16% in 2025.