Hello Brick Brief readers, 

Thank you for your continued support! Today we’re seeing Compass make a billion-dollar acquisition to challenge Zillow, office return mandates losing steam, and smaller tenants fueling industrial leasing demand.

🏗️ Compass Gains Scale to Challenge Zillow
Compass will acquire Anywhere Real Estate for $1.6B and take on $2.8B in debt, creating a 330,000-agent network across Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, and Sotheby’s brands. The added listings and transaction volume give Compass leverage with MLS groups and a stronger position to compete with Zillow for consumer traffic and data dominance.

🏢 Return-to-Office Push Stalls
Despite stricter mandates from Microsoft, Paramount, and NBCUniversal, U.S. office attendance remains near 2023 levels. Weak enforcement and limited tracking of badge swipes or Wi-Fi data leave many mandates ineffective, slowing the office sector’s hoped-for recovery.

🏭 Smaller Tenants Drive Industrial Demand
Industrial leasing is normalizing as large occupiers stay cautious, but 50K–100K sq ft users are fueling steady absorption. Manufacturing leases are up 50% YoY, drawing investors toward tertiary markets where higher yields offset a slowdown among big logistics tenants.

30Y Mortgage: 6.35% 

10Y Treasury Yield: 4.15% (+2 bps)

WSJ Prime Rate: 7.50%

FTSE NAREIT Index: 770.30 (+0.21%) 

30-day SOFR Average: 4.36%

Lower borrowing costs could spark a rebound in CRE sales and refinancing, but Fed officials’ caution and persistent inflation may signal potential gradual rate cuts ahead.

Lower interest rates are set to boost commercial real estate – New easing cycle is expected to revive property sales, refinancing and construction after years of declining values and tight lending (WSJ)

Fed’s Bostic signals no near-term rate cuts – Cites persistent inflation and only one projected 2025 cut despite rising employment risks (WSJ)

Fed’s Hammack urges caution on rate cuts – Cleveland Fed president cites persistent inflation above 2% and sees job market near maximum employment (Reuters)

U.S. growth improved in August as production, orders, and employment firmed while consumption weakened – Chicago Fed’s CFNAI rose to –0.12 in August from –0.28 in July (ChicagoFed)

Hybrid work has become the default, and tenants now favor offices near housing and transit for convenience and time savings as long commutes and daily hassles deter full-time returns.

Compass will acquire Anywhere Real Estate in a $1.6 billion all-stock deal and assume $2.8 billion of debt. The combined company will represent about $414 billion in annual transaction volume and more than 330,000 agents across brands such as Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, and Sotheby’s International Realty.

🧱 Legal backdrop: Compass has an active lawsuit against Zillow over its 24-hour MLS posting rule, which Zillow uses to remove listings not entered into an MLS quickly. Compass argues the rule blocks its “Private Exclusives” model and violates antitrust law.

🧱 Compass vs. Zillow: Compass keeps certain listings within its own network before public marketing. Zillow depends on every listing appearing on its site and enforces the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires MLS upload for publicly marketed homes within a day.

🧱 Scale as strategy: By adding Anywhere’s 300,000 agents and its high-profile brands, Compass gains an enormous flow of listings and data. That volume gives Compass leverage to negotiate with MLS organizations and listing platforms, since losing access to that inventory would hurt those services’ market coverage.

🧱 Distribution leverage: A network of this size lets Compass create alternative listing channels that rival Zillow’s reach. With hundreds of thousands of agents feeding exclusive inventory, Compass can offer buyers and sellers a one-stop ecosystem, making it harder for Zillow to claim it has the most complete database of homes.

🧱 Competitive posture: Greater scale means more fees and data to fund technology, marketing, and agent tools that attract top producers. It also gives Compass bargaining power with regulators and industry groups, allowing it to resist policies like NAR’s Clear Cooperation rule and to push for rules that accommodate its private-listing strategy.

🧱 Competitive positioning: Before the Anywhere deal, Compass lacked the scale to seriously challenge Zillow’s dominance in home-listing visibility. The combined company now offers enough inventory, agents, and consumer reach to stand as a true alternative platform for buyers, sellers, and agents.

Takeaway: Absorbing Anywhere gives Compass the listings, agent network, and financial base to stand toe-to-toe with Zillow. The combined company can pressure MLSes, challenge NAR’s policies, and potentially draw consumers directly to Compass platforms, shifting the balance of power over who controls residential real estate visibility in the U.S.

Nevada reaches first settlement in RealPage rent-pricing probe – State accused the real estate software firm of enabling landlords to share nonpublic rental data and coordinate prices; RealPage will pay $200K and restrict data use (Reuters)

NYC FARE Act boosts renter leverage - Eliminating broker fees yields upfront savings despite +6% rents, renewals drop 10% to 69%, listings plunged ~75% at launch then doubled by July, and median days on market fell by 39 to 23 (GlobeSt)

A record summer buyer’s market and shrinking supply highlight weak home demand, while single-family rentals gain tenants and investor capital as buyers stay sidelined.

Summer 2025 posts strongest buyer’s market on record – August saw 1.94M sellers vs 1.44M buyers, a 35% gap and decade-low demand, with ~50K sellers exiting since May and Florida and Texas leading buyer markets (Redfin)

Housing supply drops most in 2 years – Active listings fell 1.4% MoM in August and new listings slipped 1.1% as weak demand spooked sellers, while mortgage rates near 6.26% haven’t yet boosted sales (Redfin)

Single-family rental sector strengthens – Arbor reports Q2 occupancy at 94.5% (+80 bps QoQ) with renewals above 82% and rents up 3.6% YoY, while CMBS issuance hits $4.2B YTD and cap rates climb to 7.1%, reflecting steady investor demand despite softening home prices (GlobeSt)

Class-action lawsuit accuses Zillow of deceptive steering – Suit claims the real estate portal directed buyers to its own agents and took hidden 40% commissions in violation of consumer and federal real estate laws (Reuters)

1,000 renters in PE firm Capital Realty’s 22,000-unit portfolio launch union drive – Tenants across five states seek repairs and collective bargaining to improve living conditions (Bloomberg)

U.S. return-to-office mandates face worker resistance – Office attendance remains near 2023 levels despite stricter policies from major employers like Microsoft, Paramount and NBCUniversal (WSJ)

Companies struggle to track attendance – Few employers match badge swipes, Wi-Fi data or schedules, making it hard to spot rule-breakers and leaving many return-to-office mandates unenforced (WSJ)

Insight: Long commutes and daily hassles make a full-time return to the office a hard sell after years of WFH. As we’ve covered before, that reality is locking in hybrid work and pushing demand toward offices closer to home and well-connected to transit for time savings and convenience.

CACI International signs 140K-sf office lease at Reston Commons in Reston, VA – Treeview Real Estate secures full six-floor building west of Washington, D.C. (CommercialObserver)

Industrial leasing driven by smaller tenants – 50K–100K sq ft users fuel demand as large occupiers stay cautious and overall leasing normalizes from 2021–22 highs (CBRE)

Manufacturing leasing surges 50% YoY – Investor activity rebounds post trade-policy pause with core capital targeting tertiary markets for higher returns (CBRE)

Large logistics tenants prioritize space optimization as demand shifts – Prolonged slowdown in industrial leasing threatens market recovery (CoStar)

Costco extends multi-year traffic growth – Visits rose 5.5% YoY in August 2025 and same-store visits climbed 4% as shoppers linger longer and spend more, aided by lower gas prices and easing grocery inflation (Placer.ai)

Nvidia to invest $100B in OpenAI data centers – Funding will build 10 GW of Nvidia systems to train next-gen AI models and advance OpenAI’s superintelligence push (WSJ)

Insight: OpenAI secures some of the capital it needs to fund its $300B Oracle cloud pact, $100B storage build, and other massive data-center commitments fueling the hyperscale expansion we discussed yesterday.

Kennedy Wilson provides $135M construction loan for 444-unit Lucy luxury multifamily tower in Jersey City, NJ – SJP Properties and Claremont partner with PCCP on 23-story project incorporating historic St. Lucy’s Church (CommercialObserver)

Peachtree Group provides $55M bridge financing to recapitalize the 132-key Hotel Amarano in Burbank, CA – Nimes Real Estate targets stabilization after pandemic and strike-related challenges (TheRealDeal)

New York Life supplies $130M refinance loan for 21-property industrial portfolio in California – Sukut Real Properties’ 1.1M-sf portfolio is 98% leased to automotive, biotech and logistics tenants (CommercialObserver)

Compass agrees to buy brokerage Anywhere Real Estate for $1.5B – All-stock deal gives Compass control of the company behind Coldwell Banker, Corcoran and Sotheby’s, expanding its U.S. residential market presence (Bloomberg)

Investment firm Atlas Holdings agreed to acquire ODP Corp, parent of Office Depot and OfficeMax, for $1B – Transaction takes the Boca Raton FL-based retailer private (Reuters)

Legacy Partners buys 320-unit multifamily complex in Azusa, CA for $91.8M – Azusa Pacific University sells vacant Citrus Place apartments with $68.5M Mesa West Capital acquisition loan (TheRealDeal)

Pinnacle Group’s NYC rent-stabilized buildings face bankruptcy auction – 5,100 units across four boroughs set for sale or refinancing after Chapter 11 and $564M Flagstar debt as violations climb (Bloomberg)

Flood insurer Neptune Insurance targets $2.8B valuation in U.S. IPO – St. Petersburg FL-based company offers nationwide residential and commercial flood coverage using AI-driven underwriting (Bloomberg)