Zillow Employees Another Victim Of Real Estate Implosion

Count Zillow as yet another company impacted by the massive downturn in the real estate industry.

Last week Zillow founder and CEO Rich Barton announced via the company blogsite that they were laying off 25 percent of their staff, effective immediately.

Despite 5.4 million unique visitors to Zillow.com in September, a 42 percent increase from September 2007, "revenues do not yet cover our expenses" according to Barton. While Zillow has 'sizeable cash reserves', Bartonfound it necessary to reduce expenses. In a previous interview Barton had told a reporter for the New York Times that Zillow did not expect to turn a profit this year or even next year.

Barton attributes the increase of visitors to Zillow on 'fear, value-shopping and curiosity', and not actual home buyers, which are the ideal target of advertisers. Source Zillow.com and New York Times.