As the real estate industry has spent the past year debating the merits of consolidation, phased marketing strategies and private listing networks, federal lawmakers have increasingly joined the conversation — raising antitrust concerns about market concentration, competition and who gets access to housing inventory.
Since last summer, members of Congress have questioned some of the industry’s biggest transactions and business strategies, from Rocket Companies’ acquisitions of Redfin and Mr. Cooper to Compass’ purchase of Anywhere Real Estate and its private listing network partnership with Midwest Real Estate Data.
The inquiries have varied in scope and come from lawmakers with different political leanings, but together they show a widening federal focus on how consolidation, vertical integration and private listing strategies could reshape competition in residential real estate.
That scrutiny has continued to intensify this summer, with Compass and Midwest Real Estate Data drawing separate inquiries over their private listing network partnership from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., chairman of a House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
Taken together with earlier congressional letters involving Rocket and Compass, the inquiries show how lawmakers’ concerns have evolved from vertical integration and steering to brokerage consolidation, control over listing inventory and, increasingly, questions about fair housing and potentially exclusionary competitive practices.
The congressional attention has increased alongside pressure from consumer watchdogs, including the Consumer Federation of America and Consumer Policy Center, which have also raised concerns about consolidation, private listings and other practices they argue could undermine competition or disadvantage consumers.
Here’s how Washington’s scrutiny of competition in residential real estate has grown since last summer.
June 3, 2025 — Senators question Rocket’s Redfin and Mr. Cooper deals
Warren and Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Tina Smith, D-Minn., wrote to leaders of the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in June 2025 questioning the government’s decision not to challenge Rocket’s $1.75 billion acquisition of Redfin.
The lawmakers also urged regulators to scrutinize Rocket’s planned $9.4 billion acquisition of mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper, arguing that the deals collectively had the potential to create what Rocket itself had described as a “hyper-scaled homeownership platform.”
At the center of their concern was the combination of businesses that previously occupied different parts of a transaction. Redfin brought a major home-search portal and real estate brokerage, while Rocket already operated one of the country’s largest mortgage businesses.
What lawmakers were worried about: The senators questioned whether a vertically integrated Rocket could steer Redfin users toward its own real estate agents and mortgage products, while the data generated across the combined businesses could create additional advantages over competitors. They also asked regulators to consider Rocket’s acquisitions as a whole rather than evaluating each transaction in isolation.
The Redfin acquisition ultimately closed July 1, 2025.
Dec. 16, 2025 — Warren and Wyden scrutinize Compass-Anywhere
Six months later, congressional scrutiny shifted from vertical integration to consolidation within the brokerage business itself.
Warren and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged federal antitrust regulators to closely review Compass’ proposed $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby’s International Realty, Corcoran and other major brands.
The transaction would combine the country’s two largest residential brokerages and give the resulting company a network of roughly 340,000 real estate professionals globally.
The senators characterized the antitrust implications of the deal as significant and raised concerns not only about Compass’ growing brokerage footprint, but also its push to market more listings privately before exposing them to the broader market. The Dec. 16 letter later became a key reference point in lawmakers’ continued scrutiny of the deal.
What lawmakers were worried about: Unlike the Rocket inquiry, the central issue highlighted in the December 2025 letter was horizontal consolidation — whether combining two enormous brokerage organizations could make it harder for smaller competitors to compete, contribute to persistently high commission costs or give one company outsized influence over housing inventory.
The letter also raised concerns about Compass’ growing scale alongside its private-listing strategy. Warren and Wyden questioned whether greater control over listings could make it harder for smaller brokerages to compete — an issue that would surface again in later congressional inquiries.
Feb. 19, 2026 — Lawmakers question DOJ’s Compass-Anywhere review
By February, the focus had expanded beyond the merger itself to the way the federal government had reviewed it.
Compass completed the Anywhere acquisition on Jan. 9, months earlier than the companies had initially projected. The deal made the combined company the largest residential brokerage organization by several measures.
On Feb. 19, Warren and 17 other Democratic members of Congress wrote to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking information about the Justice Department’s handling of the merger.
The letter followed reports that DOJ Antitrust Division leadership had sought additional review of the transaction before Compass and its representatives appealed the matter to higher-ranking Justice Department officials.
Rather than simply asking whether the merger presented competitive concerns, lawmakers also questioned how the review was handled inside the DOJ, including whether senior officials overrode Antitrust Division staff and whether outside advocates had been able to bypass normal review channels.
What lawmakers were worried about: The inquiry represented a distinct escalation. Lawmakers were no longer looking only at corporate consolidation, but were beginning to question the integrity of the antitrust-review process itself and asking whether normal enforcement procedures had been bypassed or overridden.
The group sought information about the concerns DOJ antitrust officials had identified, whether the government had contemplated issuing a more extensive request for information and communications involving outside advocates and senior Justice Department officials.
July 1, 2026 — Consumer advocates turn attention to Compass-MRED
The next phase of the debate centered less on mergers and more directly on listings.
In early July, consumer advocates, including the Consumer Federation of America, urged federal regulators to investigate Compass’ partnership with Midwest Real Estate Data and the expansion of MRED’s Private Listing Network.
Unlike the other events in this timeline, the request did not come from Congress. But it foreshadowed the questions lawmakers themselves would begin asking weeks later.
The debate also landed amid a broader industry fight over private listings involving Compass, Zillow, MLSs and other major players — one in which arguments about seller choice, open access, competition and control over listing data increasingly overlapped with antitrust concerns.
July 22, 2026 — House antitrust chairman targets Compass-MRED
On July 22, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., chairman of a House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, sent separate letters to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen seeking briefings on their private listing network partnership.
Fitzgerald said the subcommittee was examining allegations of anticompetitive practices in residential real estate and wanted to better understand how the Compass-MRED partnership could affect the information available to consumers. The companies were asked to provide briefings by Aug. 5 as part of the subcommittee’s oversight and consideration of possible legislative reforms.
Fitzgerald copied Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. — the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat — on the letters, but Fitzgerald alone signed them.
What lawmakers were worried about: The House inquiry zeroed in on the possibility that private listing networks could create closed pools of inventory, fragment the marketplace and weaken price competition.
The letters also raised questions about the incentives brokerages may have to keep transactions within their own ecosystems, including the potential for agents or companies to represent both sides of more deals.
The inquiry marked an important shift from the earlier merger letters. Rather than focusing primarily on the size of a company, lawmakers were increasingly examining whether private listing networks could affect how broadly housing inventory is distributed and who gets access to it.
Aug. 6, 2026 — Warren expands the Compass-MRED inquiry
Two weeks after Fitzgerald’s letters, Warren launched her own inquiry into Compass and MRED.
Her Aug. 6 letter sought considerably more granular information about their partnership, including whether the companies had performed antitrust analyses and how many listings were being marketed through traditional MLS channels, private networks and other forms of phased marketing.
Warren also sought information about transactions in which the same brokerage represented both parties and asked MRED about systems intended to address fair housing concerns. Compass and MRED were given until Aug. 21 to respond.
What lawmakers were worried about: Warren connected several of the issues that had appeared separately in earlier inquiries — consolidation, control over inventory, competition and consumer access — while adding concerns about whether private listing systems could exacerbate existing inequalities in housing.
Taken together, the Fitzgerald and Warren inquiries suggest that listing access has moved squarely into Washington’s broader antitrust discussion.
Listing access is becoming the next antitrust battleground
Since Compass introduced its 3-phased marketing strategy in November 2024, the company has argued that private and phased marketing expands seller choice and gives homeowners more control over how their properties are marketed. MRED has similarly pushed back against the premise that private listings represent the primary threat to an open marketplace.
In a blog post published Aug. 13, the Chicago-area MLS pointed instead to its ongoing dispute with Zillow and invoked the Justice Department’s 2008 settlement with the National Association of Realtors. MRED argued that allowing a large portal to receive an MLS feed while selectively excluding listings based on how they were previously marketed could itself undermine broker neutrality and fracture the cooperative marketplace.
The two sides have very different views of what threatens competition in the marketplace. Critics of private networks warn that withholding listings from the broadest possible marketplace can fragment inventory and limit competition. Compass and MRED argue that allowing platforms to dictate which otherwise compliant listings consumers may see can also distort competition and constrain seller choice.
The divide has also extended to the data that the competing factions have shared with the industry and consumers. Compass and Zillow have produced competing analyses that point in opposite directions on whether private or phased listings help sellers, in part because they measure different sets of transactions and define private listings differently.
The dispute is now moving beyond industry policy fights and courtrooms and into Washington, D.C., where lawmakers are beginning to ask whether access to listings should itself be viewed through an antitrust lens.
Compass declined to comment on the congressional inquiries or say whether it plans to respond to Warren by the Aug. 21 deadline. MRED and the offices of Sen. Warren and Rep. Fitzgerald did not respond to Inman’s requests for comment.
