Warren Probes Compass-MRED Partnership Over Private Real Estate Listings That Could Create Anticompetitive, Two-Tiered Housing Market

Warren Probes Compass-MRED Partnership Over Private Real Estate Listings That Could Create Anticompetitive, Two-Tiered Housing Market

"I am concerned that this (partnership) will increase industry consolidation and harm consumers by driving up housing costs and worsening inequalities in the housing market."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, wrote to Robert Reffkin, Founder and CEO at Compass, Inc., and Rebecca Jensen, President and CEO of Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC (MRED), raising concerns and requesting information regarding the companies' private listing network (PLN) partnership through MRED's Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This year, Compass and MRED announced a partnership to expand the use of PLNs through MRED's MLS, a centralized, regional database where dues-paying real estate agents or brokers share active property listings in those regions. Only registered agents and brokers have direct access to each MLS.

The Ranking Member wrote: "Your partnership threatens to create a two-tiered housing market where insiders pay for exclusive access to housing inventory and market data, while everyone else is shut out. I am concerned that this move will increase industry consolidation and harm consumers by driving up housing costs and worsening inequalities in the housing market."

"Your PLN partnership is especially concerning given your companies' outsized role in the real estate market: Compass is the largest brokerage firm and MRED is among the largest MLS in the country…Compass has also tried to expand its market power by leading efforts to influence MLS policies that benefit its business-potentially unfairly expanding the number of listings under its control and that are then hidden from other industry actors and consumers alike at a time when for-sale housing stock is already constrained, unaffordable, and out of reach," wrote Ranking Member Warren.

The Ranking Member detailed the impacts on the larger housing market: "Hiding this data could destabilize the broader housing market. The mortgage market, for example, relies on complete and accurate housing data (including days on market and price history) to inform appraisals and other aspects of the home purchase process."

The Ranking Member also raised the partnership's threats to fair housing protections: "I am particularly concerned that the non-public, exclusive nature of private listings may perpetuate housing discrimination through residential steering that is prohibited under the (Fair Housing Act of 1968) and other civil rights laws, also making potential discrimination harder to detect."

Ranking Member Warren requested data and responses from Compass and MRED on their partnership by August 21, 2026.

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