Laid off from Zillow.

What Zillow layoffs have meant for employees

When Zillow closed a whole business, the people in it didn't all leave on the day it was announced. Zillow planned to keep buying the homes it had under contract and selling its inventory through 2022, its 8-K filing for Zillow Offers said, and GeekWire reported the layoffs, about 2,000 people by Zillow's November estimate, taking place over several quarters, with a subset made in late January 2022. Offers had made up more than 60% of Zillow's revenue in the third quarter of 2021, GeekWire noted. In 2023 the closing services unit, National Mortgage News reported, was to finish the title and closing orders already in its queue after it stopped taking new ones on June 27. If you're in a part of Zillow that's being wound down, the work still left to finish is worth watching alongside any date you've been given.

The August 2026 cut worked differently. If it reached you, your work and your pay didn't stop on the same day. People cut were put on administrative leave with base pay, target incentive pay where it applied, and benefits until a set termination date, according to the HR email HousingWire obtained, and Zillow kept the right to call them back to work during that leave, which left each separation open until its date. The same email said severance would go up for anyone who resigned before that date, which is worth knowing if another job comes through while you're still being paid. At least two of the people cut were on maternity leave at the time, HousingWire's sources said. An employee FAQ said selection rested on position elimination and/or work performance, so in that round a cut could come from the role being eliminated, from performance, or from both.

In Washington the cuts ran from software and quality engineers through senior product managers and UX researchers to directors in engineering and legal operations, by the titles in the state notice, and HousingWire counted 49 senior-level and six director-level roles among the state's affected employees. The list also takes in roles tied to agent software and advertising, ShowingTime, rentals and mortgages, and the notice ties some of the terminations to relocating or contracting out operations or positions. If you were in Washington and offered continued employment, accepting it before the termination date took you out of this round's terminations under the notice's own terms.

Under the 2026 formula HousingWire reported, three full years of service comes to nine weeks of base pay, four to 11 and nine to the 21-week top, and GeekWire separately reported at least 10 weeks of pay for laid-off Zillow Offers workers. The years that count run through the separation date, which for Washington employees the notice set at October 5 rather than August 4, the day they were told, so a work anniversary falling in between would count. The COBRA lump sum for primary insurance subscribers was figured on six months of coverage for them and any eligible dependents.

Zillow moved to a remote-first workforce during the pandemic while keeping a large footprint in downtown Seattle, Real Estate News noted in January 2026, and the Washington notice covered home-based employees there as well as those at headquarters. The rules for a Washington claim sit under Washington unemployment benefits, and Zillow's and Trulia's filings in other states can be found by name in our WARN tracker.

A sourced history of Zillow layoffs

• August 2026, restructuring of more than 500 jobs

  Zillow announced on August 4 that just over 500 employees would leave, about 7% of headcount by its second-quarter 10-Q, in changes CEO Jeremy Wacksman's August 4 post tied to a disciplined cost structure.

• January 2026, about 200 performance-related cuts

  Zillow let go of about 200 employees in what it called performance-related reductions from its annual review, unconnected to market conditions, a spokesperson told GeekWire in a story Real Estate News carried.

• June 2023, Zillow Closing Services shutdown begins

  About 80 positions went when Zillow began shutting its title and escrow unit, according to National Mortgage News, and the package HousingWire reported was eight weeks of pay plus one more per completed year, COBRA premiums and outplacement.

• October 2022, about 300 jobs across several units

  Zillow eliminated roughly 300 positions, RealTrends reported, among them Offers advisers, Premier Agent sales staff and back-end roles at Zillow Home Loans and Closing Services, and Zillow said the people let go would receive 11 weeks of full pay and six weeks of paid benefits.

• November 2021, Zillow Offers wind-down

  Zillow's board decided November 2 to wind down Zillow Offers, which its 8-K filing said would cut about 25% of the workforce. Laid-off Offers workers, GeekWire reported in January 2022, were getting 10 weeks of pay or more and six months of benefit costs.

• February 2015, Trulia integration cuts

  After buying Trulia, Zillow cut nearly 350 jobs, mostly overlapping sales and marketing roles at Trulia's Bellevue, Denver, New York and San Francisco offices, and its 2015 10-K lists severance, accelerated stock vesting and outplacement for those affected.

What to do if you're laid off from Zillow

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Zillow's biggest hubs: Washington. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Zillow's hub states run: Washington, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.