The late Diane Keaton left an interesting asset in her name: Her Los Angeles home, which she called “The House That Pinterest Built.”
The actress coined the name for her Sullivan Canyon estate in a 2017 book documenting how she used the platform to plan a years-long renovation. The house sold this month for $18 million, and the story behind it points to something real estate professionals have been slow to act on: People use Pinterest to plan their next home years before they buy or sell one.
The data supports the anecdote. Pinterest reaches 40 percent of U.S. households earning more than $150,000 a year, according to the company, and 96 percent of searches on the platform are unbranded, meaning users are searching for ideas rather than a specific company or listing.
Among weekly users, 85 percent have made a purchase after seeing it in a Pin, according to Sprout Social’s research, yet real estate professionals continue to prioritize Instagram and TikTok over Pinterest, despite that kind of purchase intent.
Zillow’s recent move backs up the case. The company extended its Elevate advertising product onto Pinterest for the first time this month, letting brands target its housing-intent data inside Pinterest’s own ad platform.
That a company with access to enormous amounts of consumer housing data chose Pinterest as its first expansion beyond its own platforms suggests there’s real value in reaching Pinterest’s planning-stage audience before buyers or sellers ever open a portal search.
Pinterest’s advertising business, seasonal guidance, catalog data and search trends all point toward the same conclusion. The platform is built for the kind of long-horizon, high-intent planning that real estate runs on.
Zillow brings homeshopper data to Pinterest
Zillow recently announced that it’s extending its advertising business beyond its own platforms for the first time, partnering with Pinterest to let brands target its homeshopper audience data through Pinterest’s Media Network Connect, an Ads Manager feature that lets outside media networks share first-party audience segments with advertisers, according to Social Media Today.
The partnership, called Zillow Elevate, gives advertisers access to 34 consumer segments, including buyers, renters, sellers and specialty groups, like fixer-upper shoppers, drawing on more than 200 housing-related signals collected from Zillow users’ behavior, according to the company.
Kohler was the first brand to pilot the partnership, targeting Zillow’s fixer-upper and recent homeowner segments for a brand awareness campaign. The pilot delivered an 82 percent increase in incremental reach and a 23.54 percent engagement rate on video ads compared with Pinterest’s standard interest-based targeting, according to Zillow.
Zillow plans to expand the partnership to more brands and audience segments, with its on-site Elevate Audiences product set to launch in September.
What this means for real estate professionals
This deal targets brand advertisers rather than individual agents, but it signals how Zillow is positioning its housing-intent data as a standalone product. Agents running their own social ads can apply the same logic on a smaller scale, targeting audiences by behavior and intent, such as saved listings or renovation searches, rather than broad demographics alone.
Pinterest posts record user growth in Q2
Pinterest added 9 million monthly active users quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 640 million users globally and marking its 12th consecutive quarter of record user growth, according to the company’s earnings report. Revenue climbed 18 percent year-over-year to $1.18 billion, driven by AI-powered ad tools and a 16 percent increase in advertising impressions.
The quarterly picture was more mixed than the year-over-year numbers suggest. Pinterest lost 2 million users in Europe during the quarter even as year-over-year European growth held at 8 percent, and its U.S. and Canada user base was flat quarter-over-quarter despite modest annual growth, according to Social Media Today’s analysis of the company’s disclosures.
Nearly all of the quarter’s net user growth came from the “Rest of World” segment, which brings in far less revenue per user than the U.S. and Canada market.
What this means for real estate professionals
Pinterest’s core U.S. audience isn’t shrinking, but it isn’t expanding either right now. Agents relying on Pinterest for lead generation shouldn’t expect a bigger built-in audience this year. The real opportunity is in Pinterest’s continued AI investment, which is making saved pins and boards more actionable, and is worth watching as those tools roll out.
Pinterest urges brands to launch holiday campaigns in September
Pinterest is advising marketers to start their holiday campaigns as early as September, pointing to data showing that “festive activity spikes” that early in the year, according to the company. The platform, where it says shopping is the top reason users show up, is positioning itself as a place where holiday planning happens well ahead of the traditional Black Friday push.
Pinterest is recommending a full-funnel strategy that stays active through the season, citing its AI-powered Performance+ tool, which the company says has improved return on ad spend by 28 percent for small and midsize advertisers.
The platform is also encouraging brands to keep campaigns running into the new year, noting that 55 percent of users continue shopping after Christmas.
What this means for real estate professionals
For agents marketing “coming soon” listings, open houses, or seasonal moving campaigns, this is a signal to build out Pinterest boards and pins well before the season they’re targeting, not the week of. Pinterest rewards early planning content, so a board built in September has more time to gain saves and search visibility before year-end buyer traffic picks up.
Pinterest tells brands to clean up their product catalogs
Pinterest published a tip sheet for brands looking to improve how their content surfaces in the app’s shopping features, telling advertisers that accurate pricing, complete product descriptions and stronger titles directly affect discovery, according to the company.
The guidance is aimed at brands using Pinterest’s catalog and shopping tools as the platform continues to position itself as a product discovery channel, one it says now reaches more than 630 million shopping-focused active users.
What this means for real estate professionals
Listings aren’t products in Pinterest’s shopping sense, but the underlying principle applies directly to pin descriptions and alt text. Specific, complete copy, the neighborhood name, price point, key features, rather than vague captions, is more likely to surface when a Pinner is actively searching, not just scrolling.
Pinterest’s weekly trend data shows a full-speed pivot to fall
Pinterest’s Business Community published its weekly trend roundup on Aug. 14, flagging a sharp rise in fall-themed searches even as the season hasn’t technically started, according to the company. Searches for “Halloween porch ideas” are up 10 percent, while “end of summer outfits” and “football season nails” have each risen 200 percent, part of what Pinterest is calling a “Ready for the Fall” search pattern.
The seasonal shift toward home and exterior content builds on findings from Pinterest’s 2026 Spring Trend Report, which found that users are drawn to personalized, characterful spaces over neutral, showroom-style interiors this year, based on an analysis of search behavior from more than 600 million monthly active users, according to Pinterest.
Searches for bold kitchen colors like “aubergine kitchen” rose 495 percent, and “my room, my rules” content — broadly, personalized design choices over rigid style rules — rose 415 percent, suggesting the same appetite for individuality carrying into how users are approaching fall home content now.
What this means for real estate professionals
Porch and curb-appeal searches climbing in mid-August is a signal to get seasonal listing photos and staging content live now, not in October.
Agents should also carry the “personalization over perfection” theme from spring into fall boards: A colorful front door or a distinctive porch display is likely to outperform a generic, neutral seasonal look based on where search interest has been trending all year.
TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read)
- Zillow’s homeshopper data is now targetable on Pinterest through a new Elevate partnership.
- Pinterest hit 640 million users in Q2, but nearly all the growth came from outside the U.S.
- Pinterest wants brands (and agents) building holiday content in September, not November.
- Clean, specific pin copy is what actually surfaces in Pinterest’s shopping searches.
- Fall search trends are already spiking, and personalization is still beating perfection.
Real estate has always been an industry of moodboards, long before anyone called them that. Buyers keep folders of listing photos. Sellers tear pages out of design magazines before they ever call an agent. Pinterest simply built a platform around that instinct and started collecting the data behind it.
The agents willing to treat it as a search engine, rather than a place to post a listing photo and move on, are the ones positioned to catch buyers and sellers while they’re still dreaming, long before a portal search or a phone call gives them away.
Each week on Trending, Inman’s Jessi Healey dives into what’s buzzing in social media and why it matters for real estate professionals. From viral trends to platform changes, she’ll break it all down so you know what’s worth your time — and what’s not.
