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Outlet profile

CoStar News

U.S. business/industry trade press (commercial real estate), corporate-owned

Owned byCoStar Group, Inc., a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: CSGP) founded by CEO Andy Florance. It also owns LoopNet, Apartments.com and Homes.com.
FundingFunded by its parent, CoStar Group, which earns most of its revenue from subscriptions to its property data and analytics and from marketplace advertising and listing fees. CoStar News is mainly a content arm of that business, and much of its output is reportedly available only to subscribers.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

CoStar Group was founded in 1987 in Arlington, Virginia, by Andy Florance, who remains CEO, and it grew into a leading provider of commercial real estate data. CoStar News is its news service, staffed by professional reporters and regional editors; for example, editor Tony Wilbert served as 2025 president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors. The parent has expanded through acquisitions, including Apartments.com and its 2021 purchase of Homes.com for $156 million in cash, and it has put heavy spending into making Homes.com a rival to Zillow. That makes CoStar a commercial player in the industry its news arm covers, which is a potential conflict of interest for coverage of CoStar's competitors, disputes and lawsuits. One reported example is a CoStar News piece on a lawyer in the Missouri buyer-commission litigation, which led Florance to send an email disputing statements he called false. In 2026 the company has faced investor pressure over Homes.com profitability, a board shake-up, and a reported departure of activist investor Third Point. Its news output is generally straight trade reporting, and the main slant risk is the owner's business interests rather than political ideology. I could not find independent media-bias ratings for CoStar News, so the political assessment rests on its trade focus and limited sampling.

Sources

  1. CoStar Group (Wikipedia)
  2. CoStar Group Closes Acquisition of Homes.com (Business Wire)
  3. CoStar cuts Homes.com sales team and rolls out premium ad tier (Inman)
  4. Third Point abandons CoStar investment in wake of squabble (Real Estate News)
  5. CoStar shakes up board, focuses on Homes.com profitability (HousingWire)
  6. CoStar CEO Sends Message to WSJ & Realtor.com (BAM)
  7. Association Headlines (NAREE)

Profile compiled 2026-10-12; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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