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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Shares of <keyword id="12330090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="zillow" source="Orion">Zillow</keyword> extended their three-day plunge as the company abandoned its home-flipping business.</li><li>From last Friday's close of $103.63 to Wednesday's intraday low of $63.13, the stock has slipped 39%.</li><li>"ZG is exiting a very risky and unprofitable business but it raises questions on management's execution," Bank of America said.</li></ul>Shares of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/z-stock">Zillow</a> extended their three-day plunge as the company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-homebuying-unit-shutting-down-layoffs-2021-11">abandoned its home-flipping business</a> amid housing-market pressures.Rich Barton, CEO and cofounder of Zillow, made the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-homebuying-unit-shutting-down-layoffs-2021-11">announcement</a> after market hours Tuesday during the company's third-quarter earning's call. He also said Zillow is laying off 25% of its workforce.The stock fell as much as 28% on Wednesday alone, extending its three-day loss to 39%. Zillow shares are now down 33% year-to-date.Zillow's instant-buying or iBuying division - which enabled the company to quickly buy up homes for sale and flip them at a profit - was disrupted by the volatility of the pandemic, when big demographic shifts made it very difficult to predict the short term trajectory of house prices.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ibuyer-defunct-why-did-zillow-stop-buying-houses-2021-11">Insider's analysis</a> found that the company listed around <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-offers-pause-ibuyers-homes-atlanta-phoenix-dallas-houston-minneapolis-2021-10">64%</a> of its homes in key <keyword id="11893875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="markets" source="Orion">markets</keyword> for less than these were purchased for. This overpaying has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-is-zillow-buying-homes-ibuyer-impact-sellers-buyers-2021-10">most evident</a> in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Minneapolis, and Atlanta - five of its biggest markets.Zillow said it was unable to sell its housing inventory for a consistent profit despite home prices surging to record highs. On October 18, it announced it would pause iBuying for the rest of 2021. Not long after, on November 2, the company said it would shutter the division. Its CEO admitted that Zillow <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-ceo-explains-ibuying-shutdown-and-earnings-losses-2021-11">could not master</a> developing an algorithm and acquisition process that could reliably predict the trajectory of the nation's housing market. The wind-down of the business, founded in 2004, will take "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-ceo-explains-ibuying-shutdown-and-earnings-losses-2021-11">several quarters</a>," he added.The recent news will have adverse effects on the $20 billion property technology firm, which had previously <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-homebuying-unit-shutting-down-layoffs-2021-11">hinged its future growt</a>h on iBuying. "ZG is exiting a very risky and unprofitable business but it raises questions on management's execution and judgment on capital allocation," Bank of America said in a note on Wednesday. "We have been cautious on the iBuyer business."

Zillow extends 3-day plunge to 39% as the company abandons its home-flipping business amid housing-market pressure

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Office culture is important to people in their job search, says employee engagement and diversity expert Bernard Coleman.</li><li>Businesses can attract new talent by proving they care about what matters most to future employees.</li><li>Coleman believes recruiters can source better talent by expanding their search pool and engaging with those that's right for their company.</li></ul>When it comes to <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/202002/coeli-carr/hire-recruiter-agency-headhunter-candidate-job-board.html">recruiting</a> well, it is an art as much as it is a science. Unfortunately, many organizations aren't unlocking the full power of recruiting, and are settling by using outdated processes.To <a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/reports-americas-best-brightest-dont-want-to-work-at-big-tech-companies-anymore.html">attract the best and brightest</a>, you need to make sure your recruiting <keyword id="6363690" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Strategy">strategy</keyword> and team are up to the challenge and are <a href="https://inc.com/marcel-schwantes/new-study-reveals-4-steps-companies-need-to-take-to-create-a-winning-workforce.html?_ga=2.257605196.695998756.1614953199-989504438.1614008491">up-to-date</a> for what the future of <keyword id="6359973" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="recruitment">recruitment</keyword> will look like. So if your organization really wants to succeed, your recruiting needs to level up, and fast. Here are four essential ways to supercharge your recruiting.<h2>1. Change where you look for talent</h2>A lot of recruiters look for talent in the exact same places: the same universities, the same companies, etc. Instead, sourcing should be like fishing: Cast a wide net and go where the fish are. Because if every recruiter is sourcing from the same places, they are effectively overfishing and creating a perception of scarcity. The perception of talent scarcity typically comes from a combination of three elements: overtaxed pipeline, lack of knowledge, and speed over precision. All three elements are solvable. First, expand the search to find more talent by looking in new places. If you normally recruit at schools, change it up and choose new alternatives like historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) that match your general skills and needed criteria. Second, study up on the type of talent you're seeking and find where they congregate. Simply put, go where the talent hangs out virtually and in-person to build presence and relationships. Further, deploy more complex Boolean searches to achieve richer results on websites like LinkedIn. The greater specificity, the better. Finally, proactively build pipelines to create evergreen channels instead of reactively starting new searches.<h2>2. Better define your employee vision proposition</h2>Talent naturally wants to know what it's like to work at your company. They'll look at the company website, read Glassdoor and other places that convey the culture so the employee value proposition (EVP) needs to be crystal clear. Talent needs to know what the company stands for, what the company is committed to, and they want to connect to the mission beyond the boilerplate language.People are interested in <keyword id="3864760" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="diversity-and-inclusion">diversity and inclusion</keyword>, in what office culture feels like, how people treat one another, to know they'll be engaged and set up for success. Overall they want to know the entirety of the employee experience. That's why the EVP must be clearly understood in words but also in actions. Organizations have one time to make a great impression.<h2>3. Go beyond LinkedIn</h2>LinkedIn is a powerful tool. But used in isolation, it is an incomplete plan, and over-reliance on any one tool is a limiting strategy. Great recruiting requires a differentiated approach. You should use different tools because all talent isn't listed on LinkedIn. Try using Twitter lists, where you can follow certain industries like technology and sub-categories to find different ways to connect to candidates. Leverage Slack and explore the numerous communities to informally source and start up conversations with passive candidates.Using all the tools, you can have improved outcomes and find talent that's off the beaten path.<h2>4. Gatekeeper versus door opener</h2>Recruiters have a great deal of influence and should lean into how they can maximize the recruiting experience. Recruiters are the first people talent meets and should act as door openers to opportunity, as opposed to gatekeepers.Roz Francuz-Harris, director of technical recruiting at Zillow and host of the podcast Y'All Hiring, put it well when she said to be mindful of your impact on job seekers at one of their most vulnerable points in life. When you act in a way that is either elitist or not fully transparent, it creates an image of a gatekeeper. As a recruiter, you want to be talent advisors to clients, add value, and be an asset to the business.As much as you are interviewing the applicant, they are interviewing you and gauging the acceptableness of the culture. At the end of the day, as the saying goes, you're not just recruiting employees, but are sowing the seeds of your reputation.

4 ways businesses can better attract and recruit new talent

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">Kyndell Harkness/Star Tribune photo illustration</div></div></div>
Real estate listings site Zillow has agreed to purchase Trulia for $3.5 billion in stock, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zillow-announces-acquisition-trulia-3-123000565.html">the companies announced in a joint statement</a>.
It's a 25% premium to Trulia's Friday close.
Each Trulia shareholder will get .444 Class-A Zillow shares.
Zillow shares are halted. Trulia is up 16%.
Bloomberg <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/zillow-said-to-be-seeking-to-buy-rival-real-estate-site-trulia.html">had reported Thursday</a> that Zillow was seeking $2 billion.
This weekend San Diego realtor and blogger Jim Klinge <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/consequences-of-a-zillow-trulia-merger-2014-7">discussed</a> how this merger could thin out the ranks of America's real estate agent population within two years:
The local associations of realtors and the MLS companies who have feasted on having realtors paying dues regardless of production will suffer - and should die off completely if 20% of the realtors are doing 80% of the business. They can't survive an 80% reduction in dues.
When consumers see that their agent-friend down the street hasn't sold a house in six months - they will hesitate. The Zillow advertising will encourage you to select one of their top producers instead (the ones paying for advertising).
<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zillow-announces-acquisition-trulia-3-123000565.html">Here's the full merger announcement:</a>
SEATTLE and SAN FRANCISCO, July 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ:<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=z" data-rapid_p="8">Z</a>) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trulia, Inc. (<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=trla" data-rapid_p="9">TRLA</a>) for $3.5 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. The Boards of Directors of both companies have approved the transaction, which is expected to close in 2015.
The combined company will maintain both the Zillow and Trulia consumer brands, offering buyers, sellers, homeowners and renters access to vital information about homes and real estate for free, and providing advertising and software solutions that help real estate professionals grow their business. At closing, Trulia CEO Pete Flint will remain as CEO of Trulia reporting to Zillow CEO, Spencer Rascoff, and will join the Board of Directors of the combined company. In addition, at closing, a second member of Trulia's Board of Directors will join the board of the combined company. Further operational and organizational details will be announced at closing.
"Consumers love using Zillow and Trulia to find vital information about homes and connect with the best local real estate professionals," Rascoff said. "Both companies have been enormously successful in creating compelling consumer brands and deep industry partnerships, but it's still early days in the world of real estate advertising on mobile and Web. This is a tremendous opportunity to combine our resources and achieve even more impressive innovation that will benefit consumers and the real estate industry."
"Trulia and Zillow have a shared mission and vision of empowering consumers while helping real estate agents, brokerages and franchisors benefit from technological innovation," said Flint. "By working together, we will be able to create even more value for home buyers, sellers, and renters, as well as create a robust marketing platform that will help our industry partners connect with potential clients and grow their businesses even more efficiently. Our two companies share complementary employee cultures with innovative, consumer-first philosophies and a deep commitment to create the best products and services for our industry partners."
Both Zillow and Trulia are primarily media companies, generating the majority of revenue through advertising sales to real estate professionals. Despite continued growth as public companies, significant opportunities of scale remain as the majority of advertising dollars in the real estate sector have yet to migrate online or to mobile. For example, the two companies' combined revenue currently represents less than 4 percent of the estimated $12 billion[i] real estate professionals spend on marketing their services to consumers each year.
Zillow and Trulia are two rapidly growing real estate sites on mobile and the Web, enabling advertisers to reach a large and expanding consumer base. In June, Zillow reported a record 83 million unique users across mobile and Web[ii]. For the same month, Trulia reported a record 54 million monthly unique users across its sites and mobile apps[iii]. The two brands have limited consumer overlap - approximately half of Trulia.com's monthly visitors do not visit Zillow.com, and approximately two-thirds of Zillow.com's monthly visitors across all devices do not use Trulia.com[iv]. Maintaining the two distinct consumer brands will allow the combined company to continue to offer differentiated products and user experiences, attract more users and maximize the distribution of free content across multiple platforms, apps and channels.
A summary of expected benefits of the deal, include:
<ul style="padding-left: 30px;" type="disc">
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Faster Innovation. By combining resources, the companies expect to accelerate innovation on mobile and Web to provide more valuable tools and services to consumers and professionals.</li>
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Greater Access to Free Real Estate Market Data. The companies expect to share real estate market data, housing trend analysis, and forecasts to make more free data available to consumers and real estate professionals to empower people to make more informed decisions.</li>
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Broader Distribution. Home sellers and their agents, brokerages, and participating MLSs will benefit from seamless free distribution of listings across even more platforms to reach an even larger audience of consumers.</li>
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Enhanced Value and ROI for Advertisers. The companies expect to offer shared services and marketing platforms for advertisers that enhance agent productivity and marketing and deliver greater return on their investment.</li>
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Corporate Cost Savings. By operating independent consumer brands through one corporation, the companies expect to realize synergies to improve overall operational efficiency over the long-term. By 2016, management expects to achieve at least $100 million in annualized cost avoidances.</li>
</ul>
Transaction Details
As part of the agreement, Trulia shareholders will receive 0.444 shares of Class A Common Stock of Zillow, Inc.[v] for each share of Trulia, and will own approximately 33% of the combined company at closing. Current Zillow holders of Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock will receive one comparable share of the combined company at closing, and will represent approximately 67% of the combined company. The transaction assumes Trulia's convertible notes will be assumed by the combined company at closing. The value of the deal represents a premium of 25% to Trulia's closing price on July 25, 2014. 
The agreement is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the expiration of U.S. antitrust waiting periods and shareholder approval of both companies. Zillow co-founders Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, who control a majority of the shareholder voting power of Zillow, have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction. In addition, Trulia directors holding 7.4% of Trulia stock have entered into voting agreements with Zillow to vote in favor of the transaction.
Representation
Goldman, Sachs &amp; Co. acted as the exclusive financial advisor, and Shearman &amp; Sterling LLP and Perkins Coie LLP acted as legal counsel to Zillow. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as a financial advisor, and Goodwin Procter LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &amp; Rosati acted as legal counsel to Trulia. Qatalyst Partners LP also acted as a financial advisor to Trulia. 
Conference Call to Discuss Acquisition at 9 a.m. EDT / 6 a.m. PDT
Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff will host a conference call today with Trulia CEO Pete Flint at 9:00 a.m. EDT / 6:00 a.m. PDT. The live webcast of the conference call will be available on the investor relations section of Zillow, Inc.'s website at <a href="http://investors.zillow.com/" target="_blank" data-rapid_p="10">http://investors.zillow.com/</a>, or on the investor relations section of Trulia, Inc's website at <a href="http://ir.trulia.com/" target="_blank" data-rapid_p="11">http://ir.trulia.com/</a>. For those without access to the Internet, the call may be accessed toll-free via phone at 877-643-7152 with conference ID#80954780. Callers outside the United States may dial 443-863-7921 with conference ID#80954780. Following completion of the call, a recorded replay of the webcast and a copy of the prepared remarks will be available on the investor relations section of Zillow, Inc.'s and Trulia.com's websites for one year.
Company Conference Calls for Quarterly Earnings
The companies will host separate conference calls to discuss each company's second quarter results. The calls will be held on the following dates:
<ul style="padding-left: 30px;" type="disc">
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Trulia: July 31, 2014, at 5 p.m. EDT / 2 p.m. PDT. The call details will be available announced separately, and will be available on Trulia's investor relations website at ir.trulia.com.</li>
<li style="padding-left: 30px;">Zillow: August 5, 2014 at 5 p.m. EDT / 2 p.m. PDT. The call details will be announced separately, and will available on Zillow's investor relations website at investors.zillow.com.</li>
</ul>
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, statements regarding Zillow's proposed acquisition of Trulia and the expected benefits of the transaction; operational and organizational details of the combined company; the way in which the transaction will impact consumers, real estate professionals, and industry partners; the ability of the combined company to innovate; our ability to realize opportunities of scale; the migration of advertising dollars in the real estate sector to online and mobile; the growth rate of Zillow and Trulia; and our ability to deliver greater return on investment to our advertisers. Statements containing words such as "may," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "will," "projections," "estimate," or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the risk that expected cost savings or other synergies from the transaction may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected; the risk that the businesses may not be combined successfully or in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the possibility that the transaction will not close, including, but not limited to, due to the failure to obtain shareholder approval or the failure to obtain governmental approval; and the risk that business disruption relating to the merger may be greater than expected. The foregoing list of risks and uncertainties is illustrative, but is not exhaustive. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements can be found under the caption "Risk Factors" in Zillow's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, Trulia's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2014, and in Zillow's and Trulia's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as may be required by law, neither Zillow nor Trulia intend, nor undertake any duty, to update this information to reflect future events or circumstances.
Additional Information and Where to Find It
In connection with the proposed transaction, Zillow and Trulia will file a joint proxy statement/prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the new holding company will file a Registration Statement on Form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. INVESTORS AND SECURITYHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) REGARDING THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the registration statement and joint proxy statement/prospectus (when they become available) and other documents filed by Zillow and Trulia at the Securities and Exchange Commission's web site at <a href="http://www.sec.gov/" data-rapid_p="12">www.sec.gov</a>. Copies of the registration statement and joint proxy statement/prospectus (when they become available) and the filings that will be incorporated by reference therein may also be obtained, without charge, from Zillow's website, <a href="http://www.zillow.com/" data-rapid_p="13">www.zillow.com</a>, under the heading "Investors" in the "About" tab or by contacting Zillow Investor Relations at (206) 470-7137. These documents may also be obtained, without charge, from Trulia's website,<a href="http://www.trulia.com/" data-rapid_p="14">www.trulia.com</a>, under the tab "Investor Relations" or by contacting Trulia Investor Relations at (415) 400-7238.
Participants in Solicitation
The respective directors and executive officers of Zillow and Trulia and other persons may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed transaction. Information regarding Zillow's directors and executive officers is available in its proxy statement filed with the SEC by Zillow on April 17, 2014, and information regarding Trulia's directors and executive officers is available in its proxy statement filed with the SEC by Trulia on April 22, 2014. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC (when they become available). These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above.
About Zillow, Inc. Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ:Z) operates the leading real estate and home-related information marketplaces on mobile and the Web, with a complementary portfolio of brands and products that help people find vital information about homes, and connect with the best local professionals. Zillow's brands serve the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home: buying, selling, renting, financing, remodeling and more. In addition, Zillow offers a suite of tools and services to help local real estate, mortgage, rental and home improvement professionals manage and market their businesses. Welcoming 83 million unique users in June 2014, the Zillow, Inc. portfolio includes Zillow.com®, Zillow Mobile, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Rentals, Zillow Digs®, Postlets®, Diverse Solutions®, Agentfolio®, Mortech®, HotPads™, StreetEasy® and Retsly™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.
Zillow.com, Zillow, Postlets, Mortech, Diverse Solutions, StreetEasy, Agentfolio and Digs are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. HotPads and Retsly are trademarks of Zillow, Inc.
About Trulia, Inc. Trulia (<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=trla" data-rapid_p="15">TRLA</a>) gives home buyers, sellers, renters and real estate professionals all the tools and valuable information they need to be successful in the home search process. Through its innovative mobile and web products, Trulia provides engaged home buyers and sellers essential information about the house, the neighborhood and the process while connecting them with the right agents. For agents, Trulia, together with its MarketLeader subsidiary, provides an end-to-end technology platform that enables them to find and serve clients, create lasting relationships and build their business. Founded in 2005, Trulia is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Denver and Seattle. Trulia and the Trulia marker logo are registered trademarks of Trulia, Inc.
(ZFIN)

[i] Source: Borrell Associates Real Estate Advertising 2013 Outlook, reflecting combined advertising spent by real estate agents, home builders, and rental property managers.
[ii] Zillow measures unique users with Google Analytics.
[iii] Source: Omniture, Google Analytics, June 2014
[iv] Source: comScore Multiplatform Cross-Visiting, June 2014
[v] Upon closing, shares of Zillow, Inc. and Trulia, Inc. common stock will be exchanged for common stock of a newly formed holding company.

ZILLOW BUYS TRULIA FOR $3.5 BILLION

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Courtesy of ZillowZillow CEO Spencer Rascoff.</div></div></div>A week before trial was set to begin, Zillow has reached a $130 million settlement with News Corp's Move Inc. and the National Association of Realtors. The deal brings about an end to a two-year long legal battle over trade secrets that could have cost Zillow as much as $1.8 billion in damages, <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/zillow-settles-suit-by-rival-for-130-million/">according to The Seattle Times</a>.The lawsuit centers around two former Move executives, Errol Samuelson and Curt Beardsley, who were hired by Zillow in what Move called a <a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2016/zillow-realtor-com-operator-move-move-reach/">"very regrettable act of executive poaching."</a> Move alleged that Samuelson and Beardsley stole trade secrets and attempted to destroy the evidence after the fact, and that Zillow's acquisition of Trulia, another online residential real estate site, in February 2015 <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2015/04/zillow-ceo-no-rupert-murdoch-move-com-exec-did-not.html">was Samuelson's idea</a>. Move's Realtor.com is a competitor of Zillow's, and the Trulia acquisition <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/zillow-settles-suit-by-rival-for-130-million/">"created a giant"</a> in the industry. <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1617640/000119312516614149/d208399d8k.htm">In the filing</a>, Zillow agreed to pay Move $130 million but did not admit to any "liability, wrongdoing, or responsibility."Zillow shares were up 9 percent in after-hours trading Monday and were still up <a href="https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:Z">more than 7 percent</a> when the markets opened Tuesday. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robot-hand-learns-on-its-own-2016-5">Researchers built a robot hand that mimics human dexterity and learns on its own</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="dnbzFrMzE6o_gBmbxv2Tt8RNo97fnEg2" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Zillow shares jump 7% following $130 million settlement over trade secrets

Zillow, a $4.5 billion dollar real estate database business, is under fire as a new lawsuit has been filed accusing the company of building a company culture that is like an "adult frat house" where female employees are "constantly solicited for sex by co-workers, ranked on their breast size, <a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/zillow-accused-of-subjecting-female-employees-to-sexua-1665833391">and fired if they refuse to play along,"</a> reports Valleywag.
The suit was <a href="http://www.therecorder.com/id=1202677779767/Zillow-Sued-for-Shocking-Sexual-Harassment?cmp=share_twitter&amp;slreturn=20141103143259">first reported by The Recorder.</a>
From the lawsuit:
Plaintiff Rachel Kremer began her employment enthusiastically with Defendant Zillow, Inc. ("Zillow") on June 25, 2012 as an Inside Sales Consultant. Ms. Kremer quickly learned that Zillow had a pervasive culture of degrading women. Ms. Kremer's male supervisors ranked her according to her breast size, sent pictures of their penis to her, and demanded sexual gratification and obedience by Ms. Kremer to continue her employment. Ms. Kremer's experience was not limited to one supervisor, but instead, was pervasive throughout Zillow's leadership. Privately, Zillow executives bragged that the office culture led to more sexual encounters than Match.com and referred to the internal office directory as "Zinder," named after the dating application Tinder. Sadly, for Ms. Kremer, by not participating in this culture, she felt she would be outcast, and terminated. Eventually, after experiencing the most heinous acts of sexual harassment imaginable, Ms. Kremer was terminated. Zillow attempted to cover up their conduct by having Ms. Kremer sign a confidentiality agreement and release. Ms. Kremer brings this action based on the sexual torture she endured, and for the other women who have been silenced at Zillow, and remain exposed to horrific and unthinkable acts. 
Also within the suit are sexually explicit texts sent to Kremer from Zillow employees (some are coworkers and others are managers, the suit states.)
Kremer's lawyers say that Kremer reported the instances of harassment, but Zillow took no action. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div> 
There were other texts as well, including NSFW imagery of a colleague texting a photo of his penis to Kremer. 
Kremer says she was fired for rejecting sexual advances from male managers, <a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/zillow-accused-of-subjecting-female-employees-to-sexua-1665833391">according to Valleywag,</a> 
The company told her she was terminated "due to her failure to meet her sales goals for the two preceding months." However, she was given no advance warning about her performance, and the suit claims her performance was "nearly identical" to another employee hired around the same time. Kremer believes her opposition to her harassment was the real reason she was cut.
In the below case, she says she told her supervisor Gabe Schmidt about a coworker who was watching explicit videos at work. She alleges that while Schmidt did advise her to report the coworker in question, he also said the coworker "wouldn't be fired." Then Schmidt insinuated that the coworker may masturbate to Kremer's Salesforce photo, according to Kremer.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div> 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div> 
In a statement to Business Insider, Zillow responded to the allegations:
Zillow takes any allegations about our work environment very seriously. When this allegation was first made, we immediately investigated these claims and as a result took quick action and terminated a sales employee in our Irvine office. The allegations in the complaint do not reflect Zillow's culture or workplace and are completely inconsistent with our values. We don't tolerate harassment of any kind.
 It's incredibly important to us to create and maintain a work environment that is safe, comfortable and inclusive for everyone. Our people are our greatest asset as a company, and we take great pride in our strong culture and reputation as a best place to work.
<a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/zillow-accused-of-subjecting-female-employees-to-sexua-1665833391">You can read the entire suit below:</a>

Lawsuit Against Zillow Accuses Company Of 'Sexual Torture' Of Female Employees

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Courtesy of Zillow</div></div></div>Zillow <a href="http://investors.zillow.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=864442">reported a second quarter</a> loss per share of $0.05, $0.01 more than the $0.04 expected by analysts.
Revenue for the quarter came in at $78.7 million, better than the $76.6 that was expected. 
Zilllow also raised its full-year revenue outlook to $321-$323 million, up from a prior view of $304-$308 million. 
Additionally, Zillow raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook to $52-$54 million from $48-$50 million. 
In after hours trade following the deal, Zillow shares were down about 3%.
This is Zillow's first quarterly report since announced a $3.5 billion deal to acquire rival Trulia. 
Here's the full release from Zillow:
<h2>Zillow, Inc. Reports Record Second Quarter 2014 Results, Raises Full Year Outlook</h2>
<ul>
<li>Record quarterly Revenue of $78.7 million, up 68% over second quarter 2013.</li>
<li>Record quarterly and all-time traffic, with a new monthly record in July 2014 of nearly 89 million unique users on mobile and Web.</li>
<li>Record Premier Agent Revenue up 82% and bookings up 101% year over year.</li>
<li>Full-year revenue outlook raised to a range of $321.0 million to $323.0 million.</li>
<li>Full-year Adjusted EBITDA outlook raised to range of $52.0 million to $54.0 million.</li>
</ul>
SEATTLE, Aug. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zillow, Inc. (Nasdaq:Z), the leading real estate and home-related marketplace, today announced record financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.
"We had our strongest quarter yet with record consumer traffic and record revenue and bookings by Premier Agent advertisers," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow CEO. "Our deliberate focus on high-performing agents and their teams drove the significant increase in orders, and has prompted us to increase our full-year outlook. Advertisers are clearly following audience, and we're continuing to reinvest in the business to get the flywheel to spin even faster.
"Additionally, last week we announced our entry into an agreement to acquire Trulia, a move that we believe will allow us to combine our resources and achieve even more impressive innovation for consumers and advertisers."
Second Quarter 2014 Financial Highlights
<ul>
<li>Revenue increased 68% to a record $78.7 million from $46.9 million in the second quarter of 2013. 
<ul>
<li>Marketplace Revenue increased 72% to a record $62.6 million from $36.5 million in the second quarter of 2013. 
<ul>
<li>Real Estate Revenue grew 83% to a record $56.1 million from $30.6 million in the second quarter of 2013. Premier Agent advertisers spent 82% more in the quarter compared to one year ago, and 21% more compared to the first quarter of 2014.</li>
<li>Mortgages Revenue grew 13% to $6.6 million from $5.8 million in the second quarter of 2013.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Display Revenue increased 53% to a record $16.1 million from $10.5 million in the second quarter of 2013.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Basic and diluted GAAP net loss per share was $0.26 in the second quarter of 2014 compared to basic and diluted GAAP net loss per share of $0.30 in the same period last year. As a result of the record-high Premier Agent bookings during the quarter, which were driven by an increase in impressions available to sell, sales commissions were $0.9 million higher than projected. The higher-than-expected sales commissions increased basic and diluted GAAP net loss per share in the second quarter by $0.02; however, the related revenue will be recognized primarily in future periods.</li>
<li>Basic and diluted non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.05 in the second quarter of 2014 compared to basic and diluted non-GAAP net income per share of $0.01 in the same period last year, which excludes share-based compensation expense. The $0.9 million higher-than-expected sales commissions increased basic and diluted non-GAAP net loss per share in the second quarter by $0.02. </li>
<li>Adjusted EBITDA was $6.2 million in the second quarter of 2014, or 8% of revenue, which was an increase from $5.3 million in the second quarter of 2013, or 11% of revenue. The higher-than-expected sales commissions decreased Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter by $0.9 million. The year-over-year decrease in Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue was driven by previously announced plans to invest heavily in advertising to grow brand awareness.</li>
</ul>
Operating and Business Highlights
<ul>
<li>Zillow continues to grow its audience with a record 81.1 million average monthly unique users during the second quarter of 2014, up 49% year-over-year. In July, traffic broke an all-time record with nearly 89 million monthly unique users, an increase of 45% year-over-year.</li>
<li>During the second quarter of 2014, visits to Zillow via a mobile device nearly doubled year-over-year, and in July 2014, more than 568 million homes were viewed on Zillow via a mobile device, which equates to 212 homes per second. In June, Zillow was a featured launch partner on the Kindle Fire phone, and the Zillow app was demonstrated by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during the unveiling.</li>
<li>Premier Agent advertisers spent a record amount with Zillow in the second quarter of 2014. Zillow added 3,850 Premier Agent advertisers in the second quarter for a total of 56,818, with average revenue per agent reaching a record $320, up from $266 in the same period last year. Premier Agent advertisers who have been on the platform more than 12 months spent 62% more in the second quarter this year than they did a year ago.</li>
<li>Last week, Zillow announced its plans to acquire Trulia in a stock-for-stock transaction. The combined company will maintain both the Zillow and Trulia consumer brands, offering buyers, sellers, homeowners and renters access to vital information about homes and real estate for free, and providing advertising and software solutions that help real estate professionals grow their business. The acquisition is expected to close in 2015.</li>
<li>In June, Zillow announced it was beginning to power the real estate search for MSN Real Estate, one of the largest websites in the category. Zillow also powers Yahoo! Homes, AOL and HGTV's <a href="http://frontdoor.com/">Frontdoor.com</a>.</li>
<li>Zillow recently announced a number of new partnerships with real estate brokers, multiple listing services, and industry technology partners: 
<ul>
<li>In June, Zillow announced a strategic marketing partnership with Douglas Elliman, New York City's largest residential brokerage and one of the largest real estate brokerages in the nation.</li>
<li>In June, MLSListings Inc. of Northern California joined the Zillow Partnership Platform, which sends MLS data directly to Zillow as often as every 15 minutes, ensuring that current, active listings are up to date, correct and in sync with the MLS data. In July, the Northwest Minnesota Association of Realtors also joined the program.</li>
<li>In July, the Zillow Tech Connect program, which allows technology companies to seamlessly connect their preferred CRM systems with Zillow, surpassed 25 partners. Since the launch of Zillow Tech Connect in November 2013, more than 100,000 contacts have passed through the program directly into the agents' chosen platform.</li>
<li>In July, Zillow announced that the Zillow Pro for Brokers program has enrolled nearly 2,000 partners nationwide, nearly doubling the program's size since May of this year.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>In July, Zillow announced the acquisition of Vancouver, BC -based Retsly™, a software company that normalizes real estate data from multiple listing services so developers can build data-driven mobile- and web-based products for the real estate industry. The acquisition is an extension of Zillow's efforts to provide innovative software and productivity tools to help brokers, agents, franchisors and MLSs be more successful.</li>
<li>In June, Zillow won a 2014 Effie Award for its "Find Your Way Home" brand advertising campaign. The award honors the most effective marketing communication campaigns in North America.</li>
<li>Zillow Mortgage Marketplace continued its growth in the quarter, even as the mortgage market as a whole contracted. Consumers submitted nearly 5.5 million loan requests in the second quarter, up 3% year-over-year, while overall loan originations in the United States were down 50% versus the same period last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Zillow now has corporate relationships with several large national lenders that quote live rates in the marketplace. Zillow's new pre-approval product is steadily growing, and pre-approval functionality is being added to all Zillow iOS apps, providing incremental contact volume to lenders in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.</li>
<li>In the quarter, Zillow launched Zillow Rent Connect, a partnership program that provides high-quality, certified contacts to multi-family property managers through the Zillow Rental Network, the largest rental network on the Web1. The Zillow Rent Connect contact generation process is SOC 3SM-certified by Ernst &amp; Young, an independent certified public accounting firm, which means that the technology provides multifamily property management marketers with only high-quality contacts, saving time and money. In July,Zillow announced MyNewPlace, RealPage's rental website, will join the Zillow Rental Network. Under the agreement, multifamily rental companies that market their listings on Zillow will have the option to have their listings appear on MyNewPlace.</li>
</ul>
Business Outlook - Third Quarter and Full Year 2014
In the third quarter of 2014, Zillow expects revenue to be in the range of $87.0 million to $88.0 million, which represents a 64% increase over third quarter of 2013 revenue at the midpoint of the range.
Zillow expects Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $14.0 million to $15.0 million, which represents a $10.4 million increase over third quarter of 2013 Adjusted EBITDA at the midpoint of the range. This outlook excludes anticipated transaction-related costs resulting from our planned acquisition of Trulia, which are estimated to be $7.0 million to $10.0 million in the period. Estimated reconciling adjustment ranges for Adjusted EBITDA are $9.0 million to $10.0 million for depreciation and amortization and $7.0 million to $8.0 million for share-based compensation expense.
For full year 2014, Zillow is increasing its outlook for revenue to a range of $321.0 million to $323.0 million, up from a range of $304.0 millionto $308.0 million, which represents a year-over-year increase of $124.5 million, or 63%, at the midpoint of the range.
Zillow is raising its outlook for Adjusted EBITDA to a range of $52.0 million to $54.0 million, up from the previous range of $48.0 million to$50.0 million for the full year. This represents a year-over-year increase of 78% at the midpoint of the range. Estimated reconciling adjustment ranges for Adjusted EBITDA are $35.0 million to $38.0 million for depreciation and amortization and $32.0 million to $34.0 millionfor share-based compensation expense.

Zillow Q2 Earnings Per Share Miss, Revenue Beats Expectations

Buying a home has never been simple. Sites like Zillow and Trulia can make it easier to search for houses online, but even if you find the right home, that's just the start. To get an offer together, you'll want to consult an agent, apply for a mortgage, and try to figure out how much you can reasonably stretch your budget. Even after making the financial pitch, you'll find a crowd of middlemen waiting with outstretched hands: brokers, inspectors, appraisers, loan processors, credit companies, and surveyors. That all sound overwhelming? Well, you're not done yet. Depending on where you live and who you work with, you may need a real-estate attorney, a title agent, an escrow agent, or some combination of the three. As one consumer advocate told me, "You almost have to get a license to understand the process."Decades of mounting regulations, an influx of new players in the industry, and the fallout from the housing market's collapse in 2008 have made real-estate transactions increasingly bloated with paperwork and intermediaries. Companies have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/proptech-real-estate-startups-let-down-investors-customers-employees-2023-1">raised billions of dollars</a> by promising to make the thornier parts of the homebuying process smoother. But after years of trying, the basic structure of buying and selling a home remains pretty much the same. In fact, with so many startups trying to update various parts of the transaction for the digital age, buying a home has actually gotten more complicated. Today's house hunters don't just face an <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/us-housing-market-inventory-shortage-high-mortgage-rates-slowdown-prices-2023-6">inventory shortage</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-are-happy-interest-rates-home-prices-2023-9">rising mortgage rates</a> — they're also up against information overload."I want to be able to tell you, 'Yes, technology is really changing it, and it's helped here, and it's improved that,'" Mike DelPrete, a scholar-in-residence at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies the intersection of tech and real estate, told me. "It just has not at all."But a better way is possible. Companies are racing to develop platforms that guide users seamlessly from beginning to end of a home purchase. Other changes, like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bad-real-estate-agents-realtors-homebuyers-sellers-housing-market-2023-7">higher standards for real-estate agents</a> and more transparent agent commissions, could make things simpler for homebuyers who are currently faced with a complex, overwhelming, and oftentimes frustrating process."As a general rule, the idea is, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,'" Rob Hahn, an entrepreneur and longtime consultant to local Realtor associations, told me. "I'm like, 'Well, I think it is kind of broken.' And I think the pandemic really showed us how broken it is."<h2>Why buying a house is so complicated</h2>At the most basic level, home sales are complicated because people are complicated. Buying a house is often the largest purchase someone will make in their lifetime. Each buyer comes to this monumental transaction with their own search criteria and financial history, making it hard to take a one-size-fits-all approach. "Buying and selling a home is fundamentally different than every other transaction," DelPrete told me. "Full stop."The sheer financial scale of homebuying is a good reason to make it more complex than, say, buying a gallon of milk or a car. Even if you accept a bit of intricacy, real estate remains a stodgy industry — and regulation is at the core of that resistance to change. Property sales, especially after the global financial crisis, are enmeshed in a dense web of national and state laws. Many of these rules are necessary to protect consumers from getting ripped off, but in some cases they can also overcomplicate the process. It might seem more efficient if the company helping you find a home could also hook you up with a mortgage and home insurance and handle your appraisal and inspection. But that kind of setup could leave consumers vulnerable to being overcharged and underserved. There are strict rules to limit kickbacks between agents, mortgage lenders, and title companies, for example, so that buyers aren't aggressively steered toward certain firms just because money is being exchanged behind their backs. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.Or take the home-appraisal process. Mortgage lenders used to hire an appraiser directly to value the house and help determine how much money they'd be willing to loan for it. But lenders ended up abusing this power, putting pressure on appraisers to value properties higher to drive up prices. Regulations required a separation between the lenders and appraisers, giving rise to a new class of independent middlemen: appraisal-management companies. These firms are hired by a lender to find an appraiser to do the job, pocketing a cut of the money for their services. Does this ward off bad behavior? In some cases. But it also adds time and costs to the process, an extra step that most buyers probably don't even know about. It's clear that these rules are weighing on potential buyers. A 2022 <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2023-home-buyers-and-sellers-generational-trends-report-03-28-2023.pdf">survey</a> of homebuyers conducted by the National Association of Realtors found that 30% of respondents between the ages 24 and 32 — the cohort most likely to include first-time buyers — said understanding the process was the most difficult part of the purchase. In another <a href="https://www.zillow.com/agent-resources/agent-toolkit/first-time-home-buyers-checklist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> by Zillow, 24% of buyers said they didn't completely understand everything they signed when buying a home. The various hoops buyers have to jump through also add to the cost of a purchase: Last year, the typical homebuyer with a mortgage spent a little over $4,000, or 1% of the average sale price, on closing costs like the appraisal, title insurance, and recording fees, said ClosingCorp, a provider of real-estate closing-cost data. Taxes, which are usually paid by the seller, added another $3,200.Then there's the challenge of digitizing an old-school process. People may like to rent a movie or buy a pizza with the click of a button, but that doesn't mean they want the same experience for a home purchase, DelPrete told me. Sure, people can tour homes with a virtual-reality headset, but buyers still want to walk around in a house before they make an offer. And once they start to envision themselves welcoming guests into the living room or watching their kids play in the backyard, they're practically guaranteed to act irrationally. That's when it's helpful to have a living, breathing person there to offer a levelheaded perspective. Despite the best efforts of would-be disruptors to cut out this middleman, 88% of buyers this year enlisted a real-estate agent, a Zillow survey found. That figure is even higher than it was prior to the pandemic, in 2019, when 82% of buyers used an agent. Even some of the more minor attempts to update the process have been met with much hand-wringing. Take, for instance, the various laws around electronic signatures. The COVID-19 pandemic hastened the adoption of remote online notarization, which allows buyers and sellers to close a deal without having to go to an office and sign paperwork. But Washington, DC, and seven states, including California and Georgia, still don't allow fully remote closings because of legal hiccups or fraud concerns — an indication of just how fragmented the industry is and how slowly it can move when it comes to adopting new technology. "People are talking about launching manned missions to Mars, but we're actually still in the Stone Ages here," DelPrete told me. "We're in the caves, trying to create fire and get everybody to do electronic signatures."In many ways, tech has made the process of buying a home in 2023 harder than it was in 2003, "despite a lot of smart people with a lot of money spending two decades trying to make it easier," John Berkowitz, the CEO of Ojo, which owns the home-search and guidance site Movoto, told me. Consumers today are flooded with options thanks to the many startups that have jumped in to help buyers do things like get a mortgage online or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/all-cash-offer-win-home-bidding-war-startups-mortgage-2022-3">buy a home with a cash-backed offer</a>. In theory, more options should be a good thing, but that hasn't been the case in real estate."If you have no idea what you're doing, and you don't know who to trust, more choice is just overwhelming," Berkowitz said. And because all these companies are spending on marketing and referral fees to acquire customers, those costs end up being funneled down to buyers and sellers. "They're actually — not because of bad intentions — making it harder," he added.<h2>How things change</h2>Industry players have tried plenty of strategies to bring homebuying out of the dark ages, but any changes that occur won't involve cutting corners. All the paperwork, while a headache, is designed to make sure inexperienced buyers and sellers are aware of the costs involved and aren't being screwed over by much more sophisticated, nefarious players. Twenty years after the advent of online home searches, the next step in innovation, Berkowitz told me, will be focused on assembling all the pieces of the real-estate transaction in one place — a one-stop shop where customers can enter their information and then find the best providers to work with at each step in the journey. The secret sauce that companies are chasing would involve matching someone with the right agent, the right lender, and then all the other parties along the way. Bobby Bryant, the founder and CEO of the real-estate tech firm Doss Group Inc., envisions an app in which everything — search, mortgage, insurance — is available as a seamless experience for consumers. He compared it to calling an Uber: It may feel quick and easy for a consumer, but the company controlling the app still has to deal with the old-school components of a physical driver getting from point A to point B while obeying traffic rules along the way. "How does one create the Amazon of real estate?" Bryant said. "You have to almost do it by way of creating a super app that brings it together, streamline the process, and make it more economical, easier for everybody involved."Zillow, which has already helped make the initial search for a home easier, is trying to make this dream a reality. The company has spent the past couple of years teasing what it calls a "housing super app," but so far, we don't have many details on what it would actually look like. In a recent earnings call with analysts, Zillow CEO Rich Barton described it as a way to provide customers with "a much more digital, convenient, and integrated housing transaction." The idea sounds enticing, but a real-estate super app is still a long way from going mainstream. And not everyone is convinced that such a development would be a boon for regular homebuyers. Wendy Gilch, a consumer advocate, podcast host, and the founder of Selling Later Search, said she worried that a streamlined process could mean less choice for consumers. The idea of capturing all parts of the transaction might make for a great pitch to investors, but consumers could be wary of handing all that power to one company. "If you're going to one place for everything, are you going to be getting the best?" Gilch said. Short of a tech-enabled homebuying nirvana, there are some other changes that could make the process easier for consumers. Universal adoption of e-signatures, for instance, could cut down on the hassle at closing. And title insurance, while necessary, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/title-insurance-scam-mortgage-homebuying-2022-2">is an oligopoly</a> that could be made much cheaper and more transparent for consumers.On a larger scale, state regulators could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bad-real-estate-agents-realtors-homebuyers-sellers-housing-market-2023-7">raise the barriers to entry</a> for real-estate agents to reflect the seriousness of their role in one of life's biggest decisions. Today, state requirements to get a real-estate license can be as little as two weeks' worth of online classes and a passing grade on a multiple-choice test. Raising the bar to make sure agents know their stuff would help ensure buyers understand the process from beginning to end. And, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-agents-lawsuits-buy-sell-homes-forever-housing-market-2023-6">as I've written about before</a>, two ongoing class-action lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and several of the country's largest brokerages could radically alter the way agents are paid, potentially making transactions simpler and more transparent. Saul Klein, an early internet evangelist in the real-estate industry, told me he sees an approaching "paradigm shift." Between the litigation over agent commissions and the ongoing quest to streamline homebuying, there are "major, major changes" on the horizon, Klein said. "The technology is there to make it easier, less expensive, faster," Klein told me. "It just hasn't all been integrated from start to finish."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/james-rodriguez" rel="">James Rodriguez</a> is a senior reporter on Insider's Discourse team.

The race to create the 'Amazon of real estate' could change home buying forever

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Reuters/Jason Lee</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Investors who are buying the stock market's biggest winners and selling the losers are seeing this strategy pay off significantly. </li><li>However, quantitative strategists at Nomura have observed that so-called momentum factor investing is moving in lockstep with widespread risk aversion. </li><li>This concurrent move is rare and connected to past periods of turmoil in markets, they observed. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>A trading tactic that profits from the stock market's biggest winners has been on fire lately.But after quantitative strategists at Nomura peeked beneath its surface, they concluded that investor fears about risks - not their bullishness - explains the outperformance. The strategy in question is none other than momentum factor investing, which involves buying stocks that have recently outperformed and selling the stragglers. The sector-neutral momentum factor with <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/russell_1000">Russell 1000</a> stocks has returned nearly 23% since May 1 versus 4.5% for the index, according to Joseph Mezrich, the head of quant strategy at Nomura.What is unusual about this is that investors' anxieties about the future have not historically driven high-momentum stocks. For a sense of how significant this trend is, Mezrich pointed out its two prior instances took place amid the technology crisis in September 2002 and the financial crisis in 2008. To understand how risk aversion is driving momentum's success, Mezrich distinguished between the basket of stocks that investors are buying (the high-momentum side) and the basket they're betting against (the low-momentum faction). He found that the excess returns of both baskets were similar until May.Since then, there's been a definitive split: the high-momentum basket with the winning stocks is surging and the low-momentum basket with the losing stocks is rolling over. The gulf between both is almost mathematically symmetrical as they've returned 6.5% and -7.4% respectively. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-stock-market-crash-hedge-fund-risks-from-crowding-recession-2019-8" data-analytics-position="1">GOLDMAN SACHS: Recession fever has put hedge funds' most beloved stock trades in the crosshairs of disaster. Here's how to safeguard yourself from big losses.</a><h2>The real driver of high momentum is risk</h2>This is where the split gets even more interesting. Mezrich didn't stop at observing the departure between these two baskets, but showed how both sides of momentum are moving with investors' perceptions of risk.When markets are going haywire and investors have a laundry list of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-recession-risks-higher-harder-to-fight-bank-of-america-2019-8">reasons to be worried</a> - like they do now - low-volatility stocks become even more alluring. Mezrich found that this cohort is outperforming almost in lockstep with the high-momentum stocks that investors have come to love."While there has been a consistent connection between high-volatility stocks and past losers (i.e., low-momentum stocks), it's relatively rare to see the connection between low-volatility stocks and past winners (i.e., high-momentum stocks)," Mezrich said in a recent note.In other words, the desire for high-momentum stocks has become synonymous with a disdain for risky stocks, in Mezrich's view. And when investors previously traded on these two sentiments at the same time, the markets were in the thick of crises. These days, the trade war is slowing growth in the world's largest economies and the bond market is flashing trusted <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-recession-risks-higher-harder-to-fight-bank-of-america-2019-8">warning signs of a recession</a>. Whether these risks and others lead to another full-blown crisis is still up in the air. For now, investors are finding shelter wherever they can, be it in recent stock-market winners, low-volatility equities, or over in the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/recession-signal-bond-fund-inflows-hit-3-month-record-slowdown-2019-8-1028469954">bond market</a>.Mezrich also noted that the market's performance after past instances of the high-momentum/low-volatility pair trade has been mixed but decisive: stocks bottomed shortly after September 2002, but crashed after June 2008.For investors worried about yet another awry outcome, Goldman Sachs recommends its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-stock-market-crash-hedge-fund-risks-from-crowding-recession-2019-8">basket of stocks</a> most that hedge funds love the most.According to Ben Snider, an equity strategist at the firm, hedge funds that have piled into the momentum trade face the risk of crowding into similar names. Goldman's basket, which only includes fundamentally driven funds and screens out quant funds, exhibits a lower beta to the S&amp;P 500 during rallies than it does during sell-offs, Snider said in a recent note. That means it could help investors hedge against the ongoing rush for strong performers.<div><div id="piano-inline-content-wrapper" data-piano-inline-content-wrapper="">The newest constituents of the so-called VIP basket include <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/agn-stock">Allergan</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/mu-stock">Micron Technology</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/z-stock">Zillow</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/spgi-stock">S&amp;P Global</a>.</div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robot-made-burger-creator-restaurant-san-francisco-2018-8">Robots make burgers at this San Francisco start-up backed by Alphabet Inc.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The stock market is experiencing a rare trend that was connected to the last two market meltdowns. Here's why it's ominous for investors, and what they can do about it.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Westend61/Getty ImagesAre millennials wiping out the starter home?</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/millennial-trends" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Millennials</a> are making three key decisions that are cumulatively wiping out the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starter-homes-havent-cost-this-much-in-over-a-decade-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">starter home</a>.</li><li>The typical <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/millennials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">millennial</a> is renting longer and buying later, surpassing the need for the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-you-should-not-buy-a-starter-home-2016-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">starter home</a>. </li><li>A delay in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yourmoney" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homeownership</a> gives millennials more time to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/building-wealth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">build wealth</a> - which means that for some, their first home is a million-dollar <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/luxury-homes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">luxury home</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/rich-millennials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Some rich urban millennials</a> prefer to rent in the city and buy a vacation home instead of a primary residence.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Millennials are known for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list-2017-8#the-concept-of-starter-homes-theyre-renting-longer-and-buying-expensive-houses-later-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wiping out industries</a> - and the starter home may be next.First-time homebuyers needed 23% of their income to afford an entry-level home in the second quarter of 2018, an increase of 2% compared to the previous year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starter-homes-havent-cost-this-much-in-over-a-decade-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to The Real Deal</a>. The median price of previously owned homes was $264,800 - the most expensive it's been in a decade.For millennials across all income levels, a more expensive <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/real-estate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real-estate market</a> is at the root of how they're wiping out the starter home - and it's unfolding in three key ways.<h2>1. They're renting longer and buying later.</h2>Millennials are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-you-have-to-save-buy-a-house-us-cities-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">waiting longer than ever to buy homes</a>."The whole real-estate industry now is characterized by extreme scarcity and inventory," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-dont-buy-starter-homes-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spencer Rascoff, Zillow's CEO, told Alyson Shontell</a>, Business Insider's US editor-in-chief, during a 2017 episode of "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-ceo-spencer-rascoff-success-how-i-did-it-2017-10">Success! How I Did It</a>."Two years later and it's still a seller's market, <a href="https://www.mashvisor.com/blog/2019-us-housing-market-sellers-market-buyers-market/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Zillow</a>. This causes home prices to shoot up, leaving minimal inventory at the middle- and low-end of the housing market, Rascoff said: "As a result of limited starter-home inventory, [millennials] are renting longer."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-cost-of-living-compared-to-gen-x-baby-boomers-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Homes are 39% more expensive</a> than they were nearly 40 years ago, <a href="https://studentloanhero.com/featured/millennials-have-better-worse-than-generations-past/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Student Loan Hero</a>. A <a href="https://smartasset.com/mortgage/years-of-work-to-afford-a-down-payment-2018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report by SmartAsset</a> revealed that, in some cities, the average home outweighs the average income by so much that it can take nearly a decade to save for a 20% down payment.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Glenn Hunt/Stringer GettyMillennials are taking more time to save for a down payment.</div></div></div>Fewer 25-to-34-year-olds are also living with a spouse or partner, Business Insider's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-homeownership-lower-2017-6">Akin Oyedele reported</a>, citing Census Bureau data. That suggests milestones like marriage, which often precipitate buying a home, are happening later.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-is-college-so-expensive-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Student debt has also hit an all-time high</a>, making it harder to take out a mortgage.By the time many millennials do buy homes, they're older and less likely to move around as they settle down. They've also had more time to build wealth, which means they might be able to afford higher-end homes.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-you-have-to-save-buy-a-house-us-cities-2018-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Millennials are waiting longer than ever to buy homes - here's how many years it takes to save for a down payment in 25 major US cities</a><h2>2. When they do buy, they have their eye on luxury homes.</h2>"When [millennials] buy their first home, they're buying a much nicer home than a prior generation," Rascoff said.He added: "I mean, many people are basically skipping starter homes; they're renting until their 30s, and that first house they buy is a million dollars, and they just are not even buying the $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 home, which is a total mind shift as compared with previous generations. So they're still buying homes - they're just buying them later and buying them bigger."Toll Brothers Inc., the largest US luxury-home builder, said that nearly a quarter of its 2017 sales were to those aged 35 or younger, reported Prashant Gopal of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-22/forget-starter-houses-u-s-millennials-are-buying-luxury-homes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a>.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">alexandre zveiger/ShutterstockBecause they're waiting longer to buy, millennials have time to build enough wealth to make their first home a luxury home.</div></div></div>"These people, who may each have 10 years of work under their belts, can afford a first home that is more luxurious than what one thinks of as the typical starter home," Fred Cooper, senior vice president of investor relations at Toll, told Gopal.Megan McGrath, analyst at MKM Holdings, said these buyers are the oldest of millennials, but more will come, Gopal wrote."Part of it is generational - millennials didn't feel the need to buy a starter home, and maybe couldn't and they waited until they were in their 30s," she said. "Maybe now they're just skipping over the starter home and buying a higher-priced alternative."Source: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-dont-buy-starter-homes-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Millennials aren't buying starter homes - they're splurging on million-dollar places instead</a><h2>3. They're buying vacation homes instead.</h2>Then, there are wealthy, city-dwelling millennials to consider, some of whom buy vacation homes before, or in lieu of, a permanent homeThey're renting in the cities, but buying country houses, reported <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/story/13099629/1/millennials-are-renting-in-cities-but-buying-country-houses.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Farran Powell of The Street</a>.Carl Shepard, cofounder of HomeAway, told Powell there's a big increase in millennials entering the vacation home market. Those in their late 20s and 30s are buying vacation homes to build wealth, he said - they rent them out part-time when not residing in them.Shepard encourages his 25- and 30-year-old kids who live in San Francisco to buy a vacation home instead of a primary residence, according to Powell."San Francisco is so out of reach for the average person, but Big Sur isn't and certain parts of Sonoma [aren't]," Shepard said. "The notion of buying your second home first is a wealth building activity."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Evgeniia Trushkova/ShutterstockSome rich urban millennials rent in the city and buy a vacation home in the country.</div></div></div>It's an investment move in costly cities like San Francisco - where median-priced homes sold for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-expensive-tech-workers-cant-buy-homes-2018-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1.6 million</a> in 2018 - and New York City.In 2015, New York started to see a swing in urbanites seeking vacation homes in the Hudson Valley, due to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/manhattan-rent-by-neighborhood-ranked-from-lowest-to-highest-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rising rents</a> that make it hard for working young people to save a substantial down payment for, reported <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/realestate/buying-a-second-home-first.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michelle Higgins for The New York Times</a>."For less than $350,000 - an amount that barely buys a studio in brownstone Brooklyn these days - they are finding that they can afford homes with three bedrooms or more on several acres of land, sometimes on lakefront property, or with a pool," Higgins wrote.As first-time homebuyers consider second homes, they're bypassing the starter home in the process. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-parks-disneyland-world-expensive-exclusive-resort-walt-cinderella-2019-4">9 of the most exclusive Disney spots to visit, including the invite-only suite where Tom Cruise and Mariah Carey have stayed</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Millennials are making 3 key decisions that are wiping out the starter home - and it's changing what homeownership in America looks like

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Getty</div></div></div><ul><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/snap-stock">Snap</a> shares have staged a 100% rally this year after hitting a record low in late 2018.</li><li>The surge can be attributed in part to investors' increasingly optimistic view of Snap's sizeable user base relative to other social-media platforms - even as its growth slows.</li><li>Snap's improved advertising monetization has played a part in boosting investor sentiment, according to analysts.</li><li>Still, the stock is well off its highs, never having recaptured its $17 initial-public-offering price.</li><li>One fund manager who recently opened a short Snap position told Markets Insider that the app TikTok is a viable threat.</li><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/">Watch Snap trade live</a>.</li></ul>Last December, during the depths of the stock market's sell-off, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/snap-stock">Snap</a> shares hit rock bottom.They fell to a record low, slicing beneath $5 a share - a devastating drop from its $17 initial-public-offering price. Valued at $33 billion at its 2017 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-snapchat-ipo-2017-3">IPO</a>, Snap had dwindled to a sub-$5 billion company by the end of 2018.But that was then.Over the last six months, Snap shares have booked a 111% rally, trading at just over $11 apiece. The huge gains come even with Snap's global daily-active-user growth flatlining - and dipping in North America - over the past year.Analysts say the rally has been fueled by a mix of investors' increasingly positive view on the Snapchat parent's user-base size relative to Twitter, along with its young demographic that advertisers prize.Snap said that as of last quarter, 190 million users flock to its platform each day. By comparison, Twitter reported a global daily user base of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-q1-2019-earnings-2019-4">134 million</a> (Twitter has bemoaned <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-daily-user-count-less-than-snap-2019-2">comparing</a> the metric across platforms in the past)."Monetization is really starting to hit its stride," John Egbert, an analyst at Stifel, told Markets Insider this week. "It takes time for advertisers to get comfortable." Investors have "realized the user base is big enough to support a higher level of monetization," he said. While the app's average revenue per user <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-q1-earnings-2019-4">declined</a> quarter-over-quarter, it has grown across regions in the last year.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Snap Inc.Snap's average revenue per user, according to its most recent earnings report.</div></div></div>An increasingly positive tone around the company has taken hold in recent months, said Brian Wieser, the global president of business intelligence at GroupM, the parent of advertising behemoth WPP's media agencies.Sentiment "bottomed out" late last year, Wieser, who formerly who covered the stock as an equity analyst, told Markets Insider. The company's substantial <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-the-20-execs-who-left-after-its-ipo-2019-1">executive turnover</a> and the broader stock market's gyrations slammed shares. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/snap-most-important-new-top-executives-who-work-at-snapchat-2019-4">Snap's New Guard: Meet the 26 new power players who help CEO Evan Spiegel run Snap Inc.</a>"They're a niche platform, and they seem to be stabilizing on other levels," Wieser said. "When you're a niche platform, it's about your monetization," and not necessarily about the user base, he added.Though even with their recent surge, shares have yet to recapture their record high of $29.44 two years ago, just after its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/snap-ipo-demand-idUSL1N1G90U8">much-hyped</a> IPO. And, to be fair, outsized moves like its recent run are more likely to hit tiny stocks like Snap's relative to giants like <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/fb-stock">Facebook</a>.The stock's poor performance since going public isn't the only thing keeping some investors on the sidelines.Tobias Carlisle, the founder and managing director of the Los Angeles-based investment advisor Acquirers Funds, opened a short position in Snap earlier this month in a long/short equity exchange-traded fund he manages.Carlisle is a value investor, and says he's short other internet-focused companies like <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/zg-stock">Zillow</a> and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/dbx-stock">Dropbox</a> that have multiples too rich for the kind of value he goes after - just like Snap's. He's also concerned about stagnant daily-active-user growth.Carlisle said he sees TikTok, the fast-growing social-video app, as a significant <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/01/tiktok-climbs-the-download-charts-challenging-snapchat-and-twitter.html">threat</a> to Snap. TikTok was the No. 4 non-game app worldwide last year for both iOS and Android devices, per a Business Insider Intelligence <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-video-report-2019-3">analysis</a> of Sensor Tower data.Meanwhile, the vast majority of equity analysts covering the stock are neutral, with 26 of the 40 names who cover the stock rating it a "hold." Some of those firms, like SunTrust, worry about a clear pathway to profitability. While Wall Street isn't expecting the company to turn a quarterly profit this year, it sees Snap losses narrowing from adjusted $0.10 a share in the first quarter to an adjusted $0.03 a share in Q4.Others, like Jefferies and Canaccord Genuity, believe the company's expansion is already reflected in the stock's price, suggesting there's very limited upside.Read more: <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/should-i-buy-snap-stock-snapchat-parent-2019-4-1028128946#deutsche-bank-we-are-bullish-on-snap-for-the-quarter-1">Snap's 110% moonshot this year still isn't enough to get Wall Street rooting for it</a>"While Snap's revenue performance is encouraging and we are taking a modestly more constructive view on users, we think both of these dynamics are already reflected in the stock price," Maria Ripps, an analyst Canaccord Genuity, said in a report to clients following Snap's first-quarter earnings last month.In her report, Ripps highlighted one point from Snap's quarterly results she deemed critical to its allure: Snapchat now reaches three-quarters of the 13-to-34 age group in the US, up from "over 70%" the quarter prior. That's a wider reach than Instagram, she said, noting that's "a key selling point for advertisers looking to attract this desirable demographic." A bonus just for you: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/try-prime?ms" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/try-prime?ms&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1558530494012000&amp;usg=AFQjCNETCjxKL0gIl0wzy9xjK8po3_3gyg">Click here to claim 30 days of access to Business Insider PRIME</a><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/snap-stock"></a>Markets InsiderSnap shares.</div></div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/allison-mack-nxivm-alleged-sex-slave-ring-keith-raniere-seagrams-heiress-2019-4">Nxivm founder Keith Raniere began his trial. Here's what happened inside the alleged sex-slave ring that recruited actresses and two billionaire heiresses.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Snap has surged more than 100% since hitting rock bottom months ago, but its gains will be limited as 2 key threats loom

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Brian Ach/Getty Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital.</div></div></div><ul><li>Tech venture capitalist Bill Gurley thinks Silicon Valley 'unicorns' are growing up and realizing they need to be profitable.</li><li>But he also said that recent tech IPOs like Snap Inc.'s will lead private unicorns to possibly delay going public out of fear.</li></ul> Silicon Valley's most valuable startups are realizing that they need to "grow up," according to longtime tech VC Bill Gurley."As many of the unicorns mature in age, many are coming to the recognition that they need to grow up, get profitable, go public, or do something along those lines," Gurley said during an interview on CNBC on Friday, referring to the 'unicorn' startups that are valued by private investors at $1 billion or more."This silly notion of we're going to stay private forever is not going to play out in a positive way," he warned.Gurley's perspective has some bias. As a venture capitalist who invests in startups, he needs those startups to IPO (or get acquired) so that he can reap his returns. But as the tech IPO market regains momentum <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2017-is-going-to-witness-a-rebound-in-the-ipo-market-2017-2">after a slow 2016</a>, and in the wake of a few <a href="http://nordic.businessinsider.com/startups-that-raised-148-billion-have-shut-down-or-may-soon-2017-7/">high-profile tech flameouts this year</a>, Gurley's words come at an important time for startups considering their next steps.Gurley's venture capital firm, Benchmark, is best known for its early investments in companies like Uber, Snap, Twitter, and eBay. Gurley was a member of Uber's board until Benchmark helped force the removal of ex-CEO Travis Kalanick earlier this year."2017 has been a very difficult year," Gurley said on CNBC when asked about Uber. "And it's been one where we've been working quite diligently behind the scenes to try to move things forward for the company." Benchmark <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-travis-kalanick-sued-for-alleged-fraud-by-benchmark-capital-2017-8">sued Kalanick in August</a> amidst a power grab for Uber's board seats that ultimately led to the hiring of now-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.<h2>Afraid to play in the public markets</h2>Since Khosrowshahi came on board, Uber has publicly committed to aim for a 2019 IPO.The fate of tech companies entering the public markets this year has been mixed. Video streaming company Roku has seen its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roku-stock-tripled-since-ipo-short-sellers-getting-crushed-2017-11">stock more than double since going public </a>in September. And enterprise tech company's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sendgrid-ipo-founders-arent-the-big-financial-winners-2017-11">SendGrid jumped 14% on its</a> IPO this week. But the most high profile IPO of the year has not fared so well. Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-reports-q3-earnings-2017-11">gotten crushed</a> and is trading well below its $17 IPO price.When asked about the dismal debut of Snap, one of Benchmark's investments, on Wall Street earlier this year, Gurley said the event could cause other unicorns to be afraid of going public - a move he compared to graduating from college to professional sports."I think you're going to see a large number of unicorns who were afraid to play on Sunday, afraid to play in the public markets, that didn't get their act together in time," he said. "Didn't get profitable. Didn't understand unit economics and hurt the value of the equity as a result."You can watch Gurley's <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/17/bill-gurley-unicorns-need-to-grow-up.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain">full interview on CNBC's website</a>. Visit <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/">Markets Insider</a> for constantly updated market quotes for individual stocks, ETFs, indices, commodities and currencies traded around the world. <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/">Go Now!</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zillow-founder-spencer-rascoff-led-startups-through-crises-to-profits-2017-10">Zillow and Hotwire founder Spencer Rascoff led his startups through major crises to massive profits</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Former Uber board member and VC Bill Gurley says it's time for Silicon Valley's unicorns to 'grow up' and get profitable

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/249-E-118th-St-APT-9A-New-York-NY-10035/97544750_zpid/">Courtesy of Zillow</a></div></div>It's no surprise that <keyword id="6361997" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rent">rent</keyword> in <keyword id="72226" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="New-York-City">New York City</keyword> is insanely high, and there are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-8-reasons-why-new-york-rents-are-so-ridiculously-high-2013-7">plenty of reasons why</a>.
According to a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324507404578593753687795388.html">report in The Wall Street Journal</a>, new research from Reis Inc. says that the average NYC monthly rent has officially climbed to $3,017 (Reis defines the city as Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, excluding Staten Island).
To put that in perspective, the average rent in the rest of America is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cheap-nice-rental-apartments-in-the-us-2013-5">just over $1,000 per month</a>.
We asked <a href="http://www.zillow.com/">Zillow</a>, a U.S. home and real estate marketplace, to help us find New York apartments currently renting for $3,000-a-month to see what tenants are really getting.
From Manhattan to Queens, here are NYC's "average"-priced apartments.

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