Anywhere sees ‘units up, prices up’ in July as luxury sales surge

Operating EBITDA reached $133 million, while adjusted net income came in at $36 million, down $4 million from the prior year.

“As I told you last quarter, we see the opportunity to turn buyer agreements of perceived market risk into an opportunity, and have begun using this consumer interaction to integrate the marketing of both our title and our mortgage services,” said Anywhere President and CEO Ryan Schneider during the company’s second quarter earnings call. “While the title pilot results are still pending, our initial mortgage pilot showed an approximately two and a half percentage points increase in mortgage capture — the biggest increase that we’ve seen from any past initiative to drive this higher revenue per transaction.

“Second, we redesigned the consumer workflow to embed our warranty operating more seamlessly into the home sale transaction. Based on pilots in multiple markets, we’ve seen attach rates increase by approximately four percentage points. And with these exciting results, we plan to roll out both pilots nationally later this year.”

Anywhere said combined closed transaction volume remained flat compared to the second quarter of 2024, with a 4% decrease in transaction units offset by a 4% increase in average sale price.

The company reported stronger performance among its luxury brands — Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty — which saw a 3.5% year-over-year increase in closed transaction volume.

AI implementation

Schneider added that the company is driving transformation of the real estate industry by empowering agents and franchisees through advanced artificial intelligence (AI), digital innovation and the strategic scale of integrated businesses.

“Our open architecture approach lets us deploy best-in-class third-party, AI-driven products to agents through enterprise agreements like our just-announced Canva (partnership),” he said. “Finally, the future of real estate includes a truly end-to-end integrated transaction for the consumer. It means a seamless and connected homebuying and selling experience across not only the real estate brokerage, but across mortgage, title, home insurance and other home services.

“We have all of these transaction components in our unique collection of assets and continue to innovate and succeed on this rail that others are chasing.”

July increases, market outlook

As of July 21, the company reported mid-single-digit increases in closed transaction volume and a 9% rise in open volume — driven by higher prices and transaction sides. Advisor listings increased 11% year-over-year.

“It’s at least 50/50 — units up and price up,” said Schneider of July results. “And in luxury, it’s actually mostly units up. So in July, we’re seeing something happen where units seem to be having a little bit of a renaissance, which is awesome, because most of the gains this year so far have been price-driven.”

Anywhere also added 13 new U.S. franchisees and three international expansions to its franchise network during the quarter.

“When you look at the markets out there, there’s really very few where prices are actually dropping,” said Schneider. “And I think sometimes how the newspapers do comparisons is a problem, but we always look at year-over-year. When we look at our portfolio and you look at Q2, there were only two states where prices dropped at all. One was — or at least among the meaningfully sized ones — was Florida and the other was Colorado.

“In Florida, the units dropped more than the price did. So it’s not like price is going down and it’s spurring more units. In fact, in Florida, it was mostly a unit decline with a little bit of price decline.”

Stance in listings debate, full year projections

Schneider reaffirmed Anywhere’s stance on keeping listings public.

“We want to do what’s best for the consumer, and that’s typically getting as many people looking at your listing as you can,” he said. “While we sell 6% of our listings privately, we think the vast majority of people should have a broad distribution of listings. And that resonates with agents who want to do business that way, and it’s helping on recruiting.

“There is a little bit of disruption starting to happen. I think different policies and portals have been put into place that have started to bite a little bit, and you can see people getting kind of work worked up over that. But again, given our stance, it hasn’t really affected us, and we believe in our stance.”

The company reaffirmed its 2025 guidance, projecting full-year Operating EBITDA of approximately $350 million and adjusted free cash flow of about $70 million — excluding one-time items.

These items include a $41 million tax payment, an anticipated $20 million legal settlement related to TCPA litigation and a $54 million payment for antitrust litigation pending appeal.