Real estate, mortgage, and personal finance firm Rocket Companies said it would buy online brokerage Redfin in a $1.75 billion deal, the latest consolidation in the residential real estate business amid one of the slowest periods for home sales in three decades.
The deal would combine Rocket, a major mortgage provider, with Redfin’s online home listings business and brokerage of more than 2,200 agents. House hunters searching Redfin’s database or working with a Redfin agent could ultimately be referred to Rocket for a mortgage or title services.
“Rocket and Redfin have a unified vision of a better way to buy and sell homes,” Varun Krishna, chief executive officer of Rocket, said in a statement. “Together, we will improve the experience by connecting traditionally disparate steps of the search and financing process with leading technology that removes friction, reduces costs and increases value to American homebuyers.”
Detroit-based Rocket’s all-stock offer values Redfin shares at $12.50, more than double their Friday closing price of $5.82. Redfin shareholders can swap each of their shares for 0.7926 shares of Rocket stock. The deal is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2025.
Redfin (RDFN) stock surged 76% to $10.30 on Monday after the deal was announced. Rocket (RKT) shares fell more than 14% to $13.50.
Rocket grew its revenue in 2024 by 34% to $5.1 billion, but it still trails the company’s boom years. In 2020, Rocket had revenue of over $15.7 billion.
Read more: Rocket Mortgage review 2025
Redfin, based in Seattle, was founded in 2004 in the early days of online real estate listings and went public in 2017. Its shares surged during the pandemic homebuying spree of 2020 and 2021, but it has struggled since mortgage rates spiked in 2022 and home sales fell to some of the lowest levels in decades. Prior to the deal with Rocket, its stock had lost more than 90% of its value from its 2021 peak.
Mortgage lenders, brokers, and other housing-focused companies have been combining or, in some cases, shutting down entirely in recent years amid a prolonged slump in home sales stemming from high rates and near-record prices. Brokerage Compass agreed to buy Christie’s International Real Estate in a $444 million deal last year.
Publicly traded Guild Mortgage acquired six lenders between 2021 and 2024, while Columbus, Ohio-based Go Mortgage completed a combination with Portland, Ore.’s Pacific Residential Mortgage in January.
EasyKnock, a company that offered to buy homes and lease them back to their former owners, shut down in December.
Claire Boston is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance