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Shares of Zillow having a pretty good run this week after reporting second quarter earnings. So welcome sight as the company is having a tough year in a sluggish housing market. Zillow also announcing new CEO on the earnings call, that would be Jeremy Wacksman and he's joining us right now. Jeremy, it is good to see you and have you on the show. Listen, it's the first time we've gotten to check in since you did report those earnings. So let let's start there, Jeremy, um just talk to us about that report. What are you seeing in the business?

Yeah, we reported earnings this week. Uh Q2 was really strong, ahead of guidance on all measures. Revenue up 13% year over year and a lot of that flowed through the bottom line for in EBIDA as well. And that revenue growth was really across the business. Our residential revenue was up 8%, our mortgage revenue is up, and our rentals revenue, which is now 20% of our business, also growing sharply up 29% year over year. So, you know, despite uh a still challenged housing market, Zillow is outgrowing that market. This is now eight consecutive quarters of outperformance. Uh double-digit revenue growth in Q2 and we're guiding to do that again in Q3 with 10 to 13% revenue growth as our as our target.

And and Jeremy, in terms of looking under the hood here, it is still another unprofitable quarter for the company. What do you think is going to be the catalyst to turn that around?

Yeah, so we are investing pretty healthily in our housing Super App strategy. We've been doing that for a few years now. You're starting to see the results of those investments pay off, right? That's what's driving the out performance across the business. That's what's driving what's really our midterm target, which is to grow our share of transactions in the market. Despite having this huge audience, right? Hundreds of millions of people come to Zillow every month to dream and to shop. We only help a small fraction of them actually buy, finance, or sell their home. And that's really our goal to build the products and services to help more of those folks move. To help those folks tour homes, to help those finance those homes, and to work with our great agent partners to move. So those are the investments we've been making. That's what's driving our revenue growth. That's what's driving our EBITDA outperformance. And of course, our mid and long-term goal of net income GAAP profitability is one of our targets.

And Jeremy, just to broaden out a bit too. I am curious to get your take on on just the overall health of the housing market, Jeremy, where it is and where you see it headed.

Yeah, the housing market is challenged. It's low volumes and pretty high price increases. And what that means is really tough affordability for buyers, especially first-time home buyers. You put those two things with the high interest rates we have and it just makes it tough for home buyers. That's why you're seeing such low volume, right? Despite all that, we're able to grow our share and we're able to help more folks start that process when it works for them. But for sure, the last few years, you've seen really low transaction volumes while prices have increased.

Jeremy, I'm curious about what you saw in terms of activity over the course of this week, when we saw mortgages dipping to a 15-month low. Do you see that driving more activity on your platform?

You know, it's interesting, usually rate shocks and rate movements is what drives a pullback in activity, come in either direction. But I would say we've had so many of those in the last couple of years that buyers and sellers have kind of found this as the new normal. And the demand we have in the marketplace generally, we have a lot of pent-up demand from sellers who are stuck in their homes and stuck in, you know, locked in on a rate that they don't want to to move out from. And then we have that high rate really um squeezing buyers and squeezing their affordability. So, the demand coil has really been loaded on both sides. And so any movement you see in rates will help over time, but right now, we have a lot of folks waiting, I think, for that relief.

And Jeremy, I want to just loop back on rentals for for a minute because I think you said there it's about it represents about 20% of total revenue at this point. What are the trends you're seeing? What are you seeing the trends there, Jeremy?

Yeah, so many folks may not know, but we're actually the largest rentals marketplace in the country. Uh we have the most listings. So there is no national database of all listings out there. It's really tough for a renter, you have to shop around. And we've been trying to amass and build as much of the listing inventory as possible. We now have the most inventory, which has yielded the largest site for renters to come. So renters come to Zillow and they look for listings. And in many cases, they can actually book that listing uh on Zillow. They can apply for it, they can sign a lease, and they can even make payments to their landlord on the platform. And that's driven the growth we've seen in our marketplace. So our rentals revenue is up 29% year over year. Uh as I said, it's now about a fifth of our revenue and continues to grow really nicely. And what's really driving that growth is the multi-family segment. Our multi-family advertisers, the big buildings we all see uh downtown, they are really excited and leaning into the demand, the renters coming onto our platform to try and find more renters to fill their buildings.

Uh Jeremy, let's talk about the fact that you've got a new job. The uh co-founder Rich Barton stepping down as chief executive. You are coming into the top executive position. You've obviously been at the company for a while. Talk to me about why now for that shakeup.

Yeah. I mean, the answer to why now is really how well the business is going, right? I've been here for 15 years. I've worn many hats. I've spent a lot of time in product and marketing as well as leading a bunch of our business and operations. And obviously, Rich and Lloyd Frank, our co-founders, have been here the whole time and they aren't going anywhere. Uh they're still going to stay as executive co-chairman and help with strategy and help really support me and the leadership team. But why now is the business is doing so well. The quarter that we just reported, the guidance for the growth we have ahead, shows that our strategy is working. This idea that we want to move from an advertising business to a transaction business, that we want to take this huge amount of potential energy in our audience and help more of them actually turn into transactions and build the software and services to help them do that. That's what we've been investing in for the last few years and you're starting to see the results of that pay off. We have a lot of confidence in the road ahead and the ability for us to grow that share over time. So that's why we feel so comfortable making this transition now.

All right, Jeremy. Thanks so much for joining us. We do really appreciate it. That was Jeremy Wacksman, the latest CEO of Zillow.

Yeah.