News Corp. Begins Employee Layoffs At Realtor.com In Preparation For A Downturn In The Market 

News Corp’s Realtor.com has become the latest real estate company to downsize. 

A Realtor.com spokesperson declined to share specifics of the layoffs. They also refused to say how many employees and contractors were impacted.

However, the company said they are offering a severance package. The package includes COBRA healthcare coverage and outplacement services.

Realtor.com said the layoffs are in response to market headwinds that could impact their bottom line.

Realtor.com’s parent company, Move uses a fiscal year from July 1st to July 1st. Therefore, it counts as the three months ending on June 30 as it fourth quarter. Move experienced only single-digit growth. The company’s overall revenues only increased 4% to $193 million. The company’s real estate revenues that represent 84% of its overall revenues only increased 3%.

Realtor.com also claims that the company still maintained a solid referrals business despite lower transaction volume. However, revenues from its lead generation platform saw volume decline 39% from the previous year. The portal’s web and mobile traffic also continued to decline. The average monthly unique visitors declined 13% year over year to 93 million.

Despite a slower Q4, News Corp said Move still managed to increase its fiscal year 2022 revenues 11% to $712 million.

News of the layoffs has yet to make its way to social media, with a sweep of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook on Thursday morning yielding no posts from impacted employees.

A growing number of real estate companies have streamlined due to rising interest rates and declining mortgage demand. Everyone in real estate and mortgage lending is bracing for a pending recession.

Fellow portal giant Redfin was the first to slim its workforce in June as a 17 percent decline in demand meant “there wasn’t enough work” for its agents, engineers, recruiters, trainers and other support staff.

Also, This Article Originally Appeared On Lender Meltdown.

Check out more stories about imploding mortgage lenders on MFI-Miami.