CoStar Group reports company developments across online real estate marketplaces, property information, analytics, and 3D digital twin technology. News commonly covers market data and forecasts from CoStar and Apartments.com, including multifamily rent trends, office leasing, retail and industrial vacancy, hotel performance, and regional investment activity in the property markets.
Company updates also include quarterly operating results, bookings trends, marketplace traffic, acquisitions, and corporate governance developments. CoStar Group serves commercial and residential real estate customers through information products and marketplace brands used for property discovery, advertising, research, and market intelligence.
CoStar Group (CSGP) subsidiary Homes.com published its analysis of August's highest publicly marketed home sales across major U.S. markets on September 23.
The highest sale in the roundup was a newly built waterfront estate on Miami-Dade County's Hibiscus Island at $51.5 million; Cleveland's top sale was $2.8 million. Across nearly two dozen markets, top transactions averaged 6%, or $905,660, below their original asking prices. Each of the five leading sales in Tampa, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, Boston and Miami closed below asking. San Francisco was the only market analyzed with an average premium: its five priciest sales averaged 26.8%, or nearly $1.4 million, above original asking prices.
The analysis uses Multiple Listing Service data, which often excludes private and off-market sales. Homes.com evaluated Houston and Dallas properties by listing price because Texas is a nondisclosure state.
CoStar Group (CSGP), via its Homes.com marketplace, reported that the U.S. housing market saw the national median sale price reach $395,000 in August 2026, a 2.1% increase versus August 2025, despite slower activity and more homes for sale.
Home sales declined 4.3% year over year while overall inventory rose 5.4%. Among the 40 largest markets, 28 recorded annual median price gains, with Pittsburgh and Cleveland highlighted for strong performance, and Austin and Raleigh seeing price declines under supply pressure. By property type, single-family median prices grew 1.3% to $400,000, condominiums rose 1.9% to $349,087, and townhomes were flat at $360,000, while sales fell across all categories and inventory increased.
Homes.com describes the market as broadly balanced, with buyers more selective yet still supporting modest price appreciation. The platform reports 83 million average monthly unique visitors*, 115% year-over-year growth in organic search traffic, over 36,000 Member Agents, and an average additional $36,400 in first-year commissions for Member Agents**.
CoStar Group (CSGP) forecasts that Canada’s industrial vacancy rate will decline below 4% by the end of 2027, supporting a return to positive rent growth by late 2027.
The national industrial vacancy rate rose from 1.5% in 2022 to 4.75% in 2025 during a construction surge and weaker absorption, but has eased to 4.5%. The updated outlook calls for vacancy to fall to 3.25% by the end of 2028, versus a prior forecast of 3.5%. Net absorption, which was negative in early 2025, has averaged about 5 million sq. ft. per quarter since early 2026 and is projected to reach 7.5 million sq. ft. per quarter from Q3 2026 through 2027 before normalizing to about 5 million sq. ft. per quarter from 2028.
CoStar Group (CSGP) appointed portal veteran Felix Kusch as President of Homes.com, with Homes.com's leadership team reporting to him and Kusch reporting to Founder and CEO Andy Florance.
Kusch previously led Immoweb, Belgium’s number one real estate portal, and Immowelt, Germany’s number two portal, and has extensive M&A and board experience across European real estate marketplaces. The business model of the portals he has run aligns with Homes.com’s “Your Listing, Your Lead” approach, which the company says helps agents using Homes.com win 50% more listings by promoting properties rather than selling agent leads.
Kusch joins as CoStar’s residential segment posted its first profitable quarter, with second-quarter 2026 adjusted EBITDA of $12 million, a $41 million increase from the prior quarter. Homes.com revenue grew 66% year over year to $28.5 million, and CoStar’s network, including Homes.com and U.K. portal OnTheMarket, attracted 118 million average monthly unique visitors.
CoStar Group (CSGP) released an updated forecast indicating Canada’s overall office vacancy rate is expected to decline from 9.8% in the second quarter of 2026 to 9.3% by the end of 2027 and 8.7% by the end of 2028.
The vacancy rate had previously peaked at 10.4% in the second quarter of 2025. The new outlook is an improvement over CoStar’s prior forecast of 10% vacancy in 2027 and 9.4% in 2028, driven mainly by a thin construction pipeline rather than a demand surge. Net absorption is projected to average 1 million square feet per quarter in 2027 and 1.75 million in 2028, while net deliveries are expected to fall to 200,000 square feet by the end of 2027. Higher-end office assets are forecast to continue outperforming, with 4% rent growth versus about 2% for other assets.
CoStar Group (CSGP), through its Homes.com marketplace, released a New Construction Market Landscape Study outlining how new-home buyers in 2026 prioritize space, financial confidence and functional features.
The survey of over 3,000 U.S. adults aged 25+ with new-home budgets or purchase prices of at least $250,000, run at a 95% confidence level, found 51% used AI tools and 62% used them three or more times a week, while videos (42%), interactive floor plans (36%) and site plans (29%) guided virtual search. Larger homes or more space motivated 35% of buyers, and 64% work remotely at least one day weekly, with 74% rating a home office important and 49% wanting a second office. Seventy percent expect full structural and aesthetic customization. Builder choice hinged on material quality (57%) and experience (54%), ahead of financial incentives (30%). Buyers favored private backyards (51%), security features (47%) and flexible spaces (36) over purely aesthetic upgrades.
CoStar Group (CSGP) released a new forecast on Canada’s retail property market following the 2025 closure of Hudson’s Bay stores.
The forecast projects the overall retail vacancy rate will remain near 2.5% over the next year, after rising from 1.8% when the Bay closures pushed mall vacancy from 3% to 8% and net absorption to negative 5 million square feet in the second quarter of 2025. Retail construction is described as the weakest in a decade, with starts below 1 million square feet per quarter since the third quarter of 2025 and only about 5 million square feet under construction in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest level since the pandemic.
Rent growth has slowed from about 4% in the first quarter of 2025 to just above 2% in the second quarter of 2026 and is expected to bottom around 0% by the second quarter of 2027 before recovering to about 3% by the end of 2028.
CoStar Group (CSGP) announced expanded capabilities and visibility for its Apartments.com app within ChatGPT as OpenAI launches its new GPT-6 Astra model for complex computer use and professional tasks.
Renters can invoke @Apartments.com in ChatGPT, describe their housing needs in natural language, and receive options based on live Apartments.com data, including unit-level availability, current pricing, fees, floor plans, photos, videos and Matterport 3D Tours. Users can compare communities, message property managers and request or book tours without leaving ChatGPT. The company reports that referral traffic from ChatGPT to Apartments.com has increased nearly 40% since the app launched in early August. OpenAI featured Apartments.com in an apartment-hunting demo for GPT-6 Astra, and Apartments.com expects to further expand the app with additional proprietary data, design improvements and new capabilities.
Apartments.com (CoStar Group, CSGP) reports that U.S. multifamily rents were essentially flat in August 2026, with the national average edging down 0.03% to $1,751, ending eight consecutive months of positive monthly gains.
Despite the slight monthly dip, annual rent growth improved to 1.3%, up from a revised 1.1% in July and 1.1% a year earlier. Regional results were mixed: the Pacific led monthly growth at +0.1%, while the South and Mountain regions each declined 0.2%. Year over year, the Pacific and Midwest rose 2.2%, the Northeast 2.0%, while the South and Mountain fell 0.1% and 0.5%, respectively.
Among major metros, Orange County led August with +0.6% monthly growth and San Francisco led annually at +11.9%, while supply-heavy markets such as San Antonio (-2.2%) and Denver (-1.9%) saw annual declines.
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) released a new forecast on Canada's multifamily market, projecting that national vacancy rates will start trending down in the second half of 2027 as net absorption outpaces moderating new deliveries. According to CoStar Group, national multifamily vacancy has risen from about 2% in 2022 to 4.75% today, driven by net deliveries averaging 8,000 units per quarter since 2023. The firm highlights a split market: vacancy is about 3% for low-end units versus roughly 15% for high-end units, up from about 7% in 2022. CoStar Group expects net absorption to begin rising at the end of 2026, while warning that trade and tariff uncertainty, higher fuel costs and a declining population could weigh on outcomes, with longer-term equilibrium depending on immigration targets.