Been brutal for real-estate stocks plunging from overhyped or meme-stock valuations amid thick losses, lots of debt, and a frozen housing market: Compass, Redfin, Anywhere Real Estate, eXp, and Douglas Elliman.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The stocks of residential real-estate brokerages imploded in recent years, amid thick losses, lots of debt, and a still frozen housing market, and those imploded shares got then bought out by other real-estate brokerages whose shares had also imploded, or, in the case of Redfin, by the largest mortgage lender, Rocket. Today there’s another announcement of a real-estate broker with an imploded stock getting bought out by a real-estate broker with an imploded stock.
The two companies, REMAX and Real Brokerage – ticker symbols RMAX and REAX – announced the deal jointly this morning: REMAX, whose shares had imploded by 90% from the peak in October 2017 through Thursday, before trading on deal rumors started, is being acquired by Real, whose shares had imploded by 60% through Thursday. Friday on deal rumors, and today on the announcement, shares of REMAX spiked, and shares of Real plunged further.
On Friday and today combined, REMAX soared by 51% to $9.94, which leaves the stock down by 85% from their all-time high. It has been in our pantheon of Imploded Stocks since late 2023, for which the minimum requirement is a drop of 70% from the all-time high.
Shares of Real Brokerage [REAX] plunged by 23% on Friday and today combined, to $2.02; the stock has now imploded by 70% from its all-time high in August 2024, and thereby made it into our pantheon of Imploded Stocks.
Real, a “technology-powered real estate brokerage” platform, had gone public in 2020 in Canada via merger with a blank-check company – a Capital Pool Company called up there, similar to a SPAC in the US. At first, the shares traded on the TSXV in Canada and over the counter in the US. In June 2021, the stock started trading on the Nasdaq.
Re/MAX Holdings franchises real-estate brokerages in 120 countries under the REMAX brand and mortgage brokerages in the US under the Motto Mortgage brand. REMAX was founded in 1973, and Motto Mortgage was launched in 2016.
Shareholders of Re/MAX Holdings can choose to get paid for each of their shares either $13.80 in cash, or 5.15 shares of the combined company, “Real REMAX Group.”
But, but, but… At today’s price of $9.94, RMAX traded at a big discount to the announced valuation of $13.80 because there’s a limitation to the cash price due there not being enough cash available. According to the deal announcement, the cash payment is “… subject to proration such that the aggregate cash proceeds to RE/MAX Holdings shareholders in the transaction will be no less than $60 million and no greater than $80 million.”
This $80 million cap – limited by available cash – means, if I understand this limitation correctly, that if all shareholders want cash, each one of them is only going to get about a quarter of their shares paid in cash, and the rest in shares of the combined company Real REMAX Group.
Imploded stocks of other real-estate brokerages:
Compass Inc. [COMP] acquired Anywhere Real Estate Inc. The acquisition closed in early 2026. Anywhere Real included the brands of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, CENTURY 21, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Corcoran, ERA, and Sotheby’s International Realty. It made Compass the largest brokerage in the US.
Compass went public in April 2021. On the first day of trading, shares closed at $20.15 and then plunged by 90% over the next 18 months to $2 a share.
Today, at $8.09, it is still down 60% from its all-time high:
eXp World Holdings [EXPI], which includes the brands of eXp Realty, a cloud-based residential real-estate brokerage; eXp Commercial, a cloud-based commercial real-estate brokerage; Zoocasa, a real estate brokerage and search platform; and some other brands, including brands unrelated to the brokerage business.
The stock had its own meme-stock moment in 2020 and 2021. Since that meme-stock peak in February 2021, shares have imploded by 92%:
Douglas Elliman Inc. [DOUG] was spun off by cigarette maker Vector Group in late 2021 and the shares then traded at around $10. Since then, they have plunged by 81%
Imploded stocks of real-estate brokerages that got bought out.
Redfin was acquired in 2025 by Rocket Companies the largest mortgage lender in the US. Redfin shares had peaked in 2021 at $98.44 a share. By 2022, it traded in below $4, having collapsed by about 95%. Rocket bought the company in a deal valued at $12.50 a share, paid in Rocket shares. By the time the deal closed, Redfin shares traded at around $11.
Anywhere Real Estate was acquired by Compass in early 2026, as noted above. It had rebranded in 2022, from its previous name Realogy, trying to stop the plunge. Its shares had peaked at $55 a share in April 2013, and then zigzagged lower. In February 2020, the stock hit $2.09. In 2025, before deal rumors began swirling, it was trading at around and sometimes below $3 a share, down by 95% from the peak. The deal with Compass was valued at about $13.00 a share.
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Nice to see Real Estate stocks coming back to quasi-reasonable levels.
Buy now or be priced out forever.
Billionaire who predicted 2008 financial crisis warns US faces ‘something worse than a recession’ as ‘worst of both worlds’ economy takes hold
The billionaire hedge fund manager who predicted the 2008 financial crisis is now warning that the US economy is facing a fate even worse than recession.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has a habit of saying provocative things on television.
Earlier this month, for instance, he said that the globe was sliding towards a world war, with full-blown conflict between major powers growing more likely.
Today, Dalio took to CNBC to say that the US economy has slipped into a ‘stagflationary environment.’
He’s been predicting all kinds of doom-and-gloom stuff over the years.
While you condemn Ray Dalio, investing in his ETF, ALLW available to all, is up 17.76% over the last 12 months Just like Bridgewater Associates.
Ray Dalio sold his remaining stake of Bridgewater Associates and left the board of directors by mid-2025, and had already stepped down as co-chief investment officer in 2022 and given up control at that time. Other people have been running the show. They guy is 76! Let him retire in peace!
Can I recommend the book “The Education of a Speculator” by Victor Niederhoffer? Mr. Niederhoffer discusses investment strategies of hedge funds. The key takeaway: don’t be stupid. People like Dalio are not running public service announcements. Instead, they’re trying to manipulate the investing public to act in a way that will profit him. My guess from his YT videos is he’s got a boatload of Chinese investments that he’s trying to dump that none of his hedge-fund buddies will buy at a a price he needs to stay solvent; thus, he’s hoping to get the retail investors to buy. It’s really just another version of the pump-and-dump strategy.
It is interesting that during a time of record equity/equity index valuations, some sectors still manage to implode (note: I very much understand the terrible macro trends in RE brokerage since unZIRP…
…I am just observing that enough *other* sectors have 40+ PEs – absurd in terms of implied future growth – to more than offset the imploding sectors.
Exaggerating just a bit, but it is like the mkt is comfortable rolling the dice on equities with 3 digit PEs (definitionally selling a merely *prospective* future) meanwhile annihilating the PE Gods of Yesteryear…without recognizing the irony.
It may mostly be the Mag 7 that is responsible for the levitating index trick, but I do think it is worthwhile to investigate other SP 500 members with PEs not long ago thought to be absurd (basically anything much above 20 to 25).
Understanding just how much of index performance is attributable to which stocks/sectors is a worthwhile exercise.
In my experience, real estate agents/brokers bring very little value to either side of a sale, but take a lot of $’s from it.
In my experiences with real estate folx going back into the fifties,,, ”competent” agents and brokers bring lots of value.
Finding the competent ones is the challenge far damn shore,, and I have certainly had some that were neither competent nor caring and ended up with no comish…
( Sure now it’s anecdotal information, but covers at least a hundred transactions that I can remember, though not always as buyer or seller, those only about half.)
Very true. IN this age of open information where we have every information available, I don’t see much value to pay $60K commission for a 1 million dollar home in so cal.
Real estate could not tell me anything new to me when buying/selling homes.
I hope with advancement in tech, these roles would be much more diminished.
Half the commission goes to the brokerage, half to the realtor.
Still, earning $60k requires a years worth of work in many other semi skilled occupations not requiring higher education degrees. There seems to be a disconnect somewhere, likely due to structural inefficiencies that stifle free market pricing.
Compass is leading the charge on rolling back the “age of information” with its private listings and “phased” (i.e. non public) marketing as well as single party representation. Hard to believe brokerages are able to undo the last 30 years, but in our current age of oligarchs, there’s no one to push back.
my agent fixed up my dated and deprecated home using her contractor, fronted the $54k cost. fashioning it for the young wealthy professional with full staging, we got $920k, 30k over ask. We paid $390k in 2002. She ripped out my recent improvements – shiny brass Schlage doorknobs ($500) gone, new kitchen floating floor, gone. Rich kids these days want black or brushed nickel, whatever. I paid 5.5% plus $500 fee and am happy. Her crew spent 2 months fixing up this DC swamp burbs home while I started retirement in TN 630 miles away. Very great experience overall. No inspection contingencies and closing three weeks after going on market.
Brass and gold is very 1990’s.
Once,seems like you had a good realtor,I guess they exist,especially where you wanted to relocate and forget DC(don’t blame you!),relocation people who are good still have a niche,the rest,I do not need them,sold 3 places(2 homes over a million decades back and a condo without a realtor.
Isn’t the real problem greedy sellers sitting on equity they never earned and expecting to offload their most important financial asset for free. Investment in marketing infrastructure and follow-up that brings multiple offers and experienced negotiatons can more than offset the relatively small fees. Research the difference that FSBO’s get compared to owners working with a competent agent.
If I ever sell my place I would definitely do it myself. Too much technology and listings site available to for private sellers to use. No point to pay an agent unless you have a really unique property or lack the selling and technology skills.
@Blam I am not a fan of Realtors, but I always use them knowing that top agents (the ~20% that sell ~80%) in most areas blacklist FSBO homes (I’ll try for 1% to the selling broker and 3% to the buyer broker).
@Idontneedmuch keep in mind that most (almost all) buyers use a broker and as Blam points out that the FSBO homes tend to sell for less (espicially if you are not paying a buyer fee since the realtors will make up lies about the house the entire time it is on the market roaches, sinkhole, haunted, etc.)
They just need to pivot to building AI data centers. Makes more sense than for a shoe company.
@Zoroto – The Allbirds strategy!
Wolf I want to thank you for not using AI to write your articles. Your tone is so distinct and half the reason I visit. Can’t stand the internet becoming an AI ghost town.
Thanks. I would rather shut this place down than publish AI-written articles.
AI attempts to proselytize using the conventional wisdom. This time is different.
🤣 that’s great – and scary. Proselytizing is a truly human trait.
This news means there’s never been a better time to buy.
And tomorrow looks to be an even better time to buy…
The housing market is clearly a mess. Zillow imploded once before is still down 65% after five years. Yet stocks keep chugging higher with the CAPE ratio hitting 40.7 yesterday. Those prognosticators claiming time is different (“new era” – Robert Shiller) are trading with animal spirits. I am just trying to remember patience is a virtue and slow and steady wins the race.
Remax is the property manager for the property next door to me. They are slum lord facilitators. I’ve spend over $15,000 to mitigate the damage this property manager have caused to me. (i.e rats, dead trees falling on my property, uncontrolled vegetation, trash etc) I’ve sued them 4 times in the last 4 years to collect damages. They are scum. When they go bankrupt I will celebrate at my favorite Irish pub.
@Swamp Creature RE/MAX is just a franchise so some offices are run by nice people and others (like the one manages the place next to you) are not doing a good job. Sad to say that if RE/MAX goes BK the guy managing the place next to you will probably just sign up with a new franchise company. Rather than living next to a slum and dealing with problems why don’t you look for a home in a nicer area?
Disagree. Fight the fight. Why do you assume this is not a nice area? My neighbor, turned the most beautiful 2 family home into a boarding house slum. I have engaged the City to enforce building codes, and fine him. A slow process, working, but the guy is just basically a slum lord. Fleeing, any bullying, leads to more bullying, maybe just not to you.
Interesting article enjoyed the tie-in with Canada. REMAX claims to be the largest in Canada. Guess the combined entity might be able to survive better through some cost cutting, leveraging the acquirer’s technology platform and acquiree’s history/staff/experience/reach … if it completes could be an interesting business to follow.
wolf,what is your view of the probability of a market wide implosion similar in magnitude to the dot com and gfc crashes? you noted recently that the s&p 500 and qqq have risen five or six times faster than gdp in recent years. somehow the s&p 500 is up almost 5% since the start of the war.
This is the craziest market I’ve ever seen, far worse than Dotcom. But people are loving it. And so be it.
The fact that Wolf thinks this is the craziest market ever is probably what concerns me the most. Every time the comments section is starting to get interesting, and we’re all amping each other up with news that the end is truly nigh this time, Wolf is the one who comes in and pours cold water on everyone with a bunch of charts showing roughly horizontal lines.
Exactly why we come here!
The graphs make it look like shorting RE brokerage stocks would have been a slam dunk at the end of 2021, but then, when looking at the timing of the individual stock peaks, it was NOT that simple, and you would probably lose your shirt.
Also, Cas127++.