Thousands of Chicago-area home listings started vanishing from Zillow on Wednesday morning.
Midwest Real Estate Data, known as MRED, is the regional MLS that feeds listing data for Chicago and the surrounding area to platforms like Zillow. On Wednesday, MRED cut off Zillow‘s access to its database at midnight Central Time, removing 43,000 MRED listings from Zillow and Trulia.com.
Here’s what happened.
Why did MRED Cut Off its Listing Feed to Zillow?
MRED announced the suspension in a news release today, saying Zillow failed to cure a “material breach” of its data licensing agreement by its May 19 deadline.
The breach, according to MRED: Zillow was selectively refusing to display nine listings submitted by MRED brokers. Listings MRED says were marketed lawfully under its policies.
Rebecca Jensen, President and CEO of MRED, stated:
“Rules enforcement is the most important and difficult responsibility an MLS undertakes on behalf of the cooperative marketplace. Our rules apply equally to every participant, and we have a duty to educate our participants and vendors, counsel them when they are out of compliance, and require that breaches be cured.”
MED stated that Zillow can return to compliance to get its feed restored. The nine listings Zillow refused to display are what triggered the suspension.
What listings are we actually talking about?
The nine listings at the center of the dispute are Compass Private Exclusive listings in California, Florida, and Georgia. Not a single one is in Chicagoland.
According to Zillow, those listings weren’t displayed because each one had already violated its listing access standards, and the listing agents had received two prior warnings. But MRED says enforcing that policy on listings in its feed violates Zillow’s license agreement.
As a direct response to Zillow’s refusal to display the listings, MRED pulled its entire listing feed at midnight Central Time on Wednesday after its May 19th deadline passed.
A Zillow spokesperson spoke about who they believe is paying the price:
“Chicagoland home buyers and sellers this morning have far worse access to the housing market than they had yesterday, because their local MLS decided one megabrokerage’s profits mattered more than their ability to achieve the American Dream.”
If you’re not familiar with MRED, here’s a quick snapshot of how much ground MRED covers:
- Roughly 250,000 home listings per year
- Primary coverage across Illinois, with additional reach into parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana
What’s Zillow’s response?
Zillow fired back at MRED’s suspension with a detailed point-by-point rebuttal, alleging MRED changed its own rules in October 2025 specifically to block Zillow’s transparency standards — and did so at the request of Compass CEO Robert Reffkin.
Zillow has also claimed in court that MRED isn’t exactly a neutral party. A few things worth knowing about the relationship between the two:
- Compass holds 3 of MRED’s 17 board seats
- MRED recently announced a partnership with Compass to build a nationwide private listing network
- Zillow has claimed in court that MRED is effectively acting on Compass’s behalf
Last week, Zillow sued both MRED and Compass in federal court, accusing them of conspiring to cut off its access to the listing database.
A Quick Look at How We Got Here
The tension between Compass and Zillow over this issue has been building for a while. Here’s a quick timeline of how things escalated:
- Last year, Zillow announced its private listing rule, requiring any home marketed to consumers to appear on Zillow within one day or face a platform ban
- Compass sued Zillow over that rule, accusing the company of anticompetitive behavior
- Compass dropped that lawsuit earlier this year
- In January, Compass acquired Anywhere Real Estate, becoming the nation’s largest real estate brokerage
- In February, Compass and Rocket Companies announced a three-year partnershi pto expand listings on Redfin
- In April, MRED partnered with Compass and announced a national expansion of its Private Listing Network
Compass has been clear about where it stands on Zillow’s policy. A Compass spokesperson said:
“Restricting listing visibility and penalizing agents for exercising lawful and strategic marketing options undermines consumer choice. Buyers in Chicago should not be deprived of access to listings because a platform disagrees with how a homeowner chooses to market their property.”
Here’s where things are as of Wednesday:
- Zillow sued MRED and Compass in federal court last week, accusing them of conspiring to cut off its listing access
- Zillow also asked an Illinois federal court this week to block the feed cutoff
- The judge hasn’t yet issued a decision
Meanwhile, MRED is saying the feed will stay dark as long as Zillow’s private listing ban remains in place.
Stay tuned for more as this story develops.
