05/20/2026
If you’re searching for homes in the Chicago area on Zillow right now, you may only be seeing a fraction of what’s actually for sale.
Reports are that Zillow is currently showing only about 1,808 homes in the Chicago market after MRED cut off Zillow’s IDX listing feed. In other words… buyers relying solely on Zillow may be missing a LOT of inventory.
For comparison, Homes.com is currently showing 4,702 Chicago homes for sale, and Redfin is showing 5,787.
Honestly, this situation highlights something many REALTORS® have been frustrated about for years.
Agents provide the photos, videos, descriptions, measurements, floorplans, and listing data — for FREE. Zillow built its platform using content created and paid for by real estate agents and brokerages. Then, after displaying our own listings, they turn around and charge agents for advertising placement next to those same listings… sometimes even promoting competing agents beside them.
And that “Contact Agent” button the public assumes connects them to the listing agent? Most of the time, it actually routes to an agent paying Zillow substantial referral fees or advertising dollars for those leads.
Now that the feed has been cut off, consumers are finally seeing how dependent Zillow is on MLS data and agent-generated content they don’t actually own.
This is why working directly with a local REALTOR® matters. The most accurate information still comes directly from the MLS and from agents actively working in the market every day.
Technology is a tool.
But Zillow was never “the market.” It was simply displaying it.
And now… it’s not displaying ALL of it.
