The online real estate giant said it’ll stop flipping houses for the remainder of 2021.

Zillow flips houses? While it’s best known as the platform for browsing home listings in Bozeman you can't afford, Zillow has also bought and sold houses for the past three years in an automated process known as iBuying. In iBuying, a seller will input information about their property online, then a company’s algorithm will sort through the data and spit out an offer in as little as 24 hours.

But it’s not a fully automated process, and that’s where Zillow is in a pickle. The company that’s doing the iBuying sends a representative to inspect the property and do a gut check on the offer. But Zillow says it doesn’t have enough of those people (given the historic labor shortage and whatnot) and therefore can’t add any new houses on top of its current backlog.

• It’s a big deal—Zillow’s stock fell 9.4%, its biggest drop in months, in response to the news.

That’s because Zillow’s house-flipping unit, called Zillow Offers, is a big deal, accounting for more than 50% of the company’s revenue last year. And it’s growing: Zillow bought 3,805 homes in Q2, more than it had in any other quarter by far.

Rivals see an opening

Opendoor is grinning like a sprinter whose opponent just went down with a cramp. Following the Zillow news, the iBuying startup boasted it was “open for business.”

• Opendoor was already a busier house-flipper than Zillow, more than doubling Zillow’s home-buying total in Q2 with 8,494 purchases.
• Another startup brimming with schadenfreude: Offerpad, which recently went public and manages to squeeze more profits out of each home flip than Opendoor or Zillow.

Bottom line: Zillow’s flip-flop comes amid signs that the moonbound housing market might finally be parachuting back to Earth. The median home sale price increased 14% annually in September, its lowest growth rate since last December, per Redfin.—NF

In a long-awaited report on the meme stock trading frenzy this winter, the SEC concluded that the entire episode showed that US financial markets generally work as they’re supposed to.

Quick recap: Shares in the struggling video game retailer GameStop erupted 2,700% in value from January 8 to January 28, a rally that appeared to begin as a coordinated effort by individual investors to fleece hedge funds who were shorting the stock.

So what did the SEC find?

• That “short squeeze” wasn’t a big factor in the rally. The SEC said that investors trying to profit from short-sellers’ collapse was a “small fraction of overall buy volume,” and they attributed the majority of GameStop’s skyrocketing share price to “positive sentiment.”
• No proof Robinhood did anything shady. Robinhood halted trading for certain meme stocks at the height of the frenzy, citing liquidity issues. While conspiracies swirled that it did so for nefarious reasons, the SEC couldn’t find any evidence to support that rumor.

Looking ahead...the SEC said it’ll use the GameStop saga as an “opportunity to reflect” on the ways financial markets function, but other than that—keep calm and trade on, folks.—NF

Amazon heard the Great Resignation news and said, “more for us.” It’s planning to hire 150,000 seasonal workers for this year’s holiday season. To attract notoriously picky workers in 2021, it’s dangling signing bonuses of up to $3,000 and recently bumped average starting pay to $18/hr.

• For comparison, the “oh frick, I need a picture frame by TOMORROW” retailer hired 100k seasonal staff last year to keep up with the pandemic-induced online shopping boom.

But that’s not all Andy Jassy is prepping for. Five members of the House Judiciary Committee sent the Amazon CEO a letter Sunday saying the company has one more chance to “correct the record” on previous testimonies or a criminal investigation may be on the horizon.

• After articles from The Markup and Reuters last week accused the company of using data from third-party sellers to inform the creation of its own products, the committee said that completely contradicts what Amazon execs, including former CEO Jeff Bezos, told Congress in the past.

Bottom line: Amazon is no stranger to government threats, but a criminal investigation could dampen its big holiday plans.—MM

Stat: New Jersey became the first state to record more than $1 billion worth of sports bets in a single month in September. After winning bets and other expenses were paid out, casinos and racetracks took home $82 million.

Quote: “If you really want an offensive slogan on your car, then you can use a bumper sticker.”

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows defended the state’s new law that bans profanities on license plates. Today we’re summoning the energy of the Maine driver whose license plate just reads, “F---—YoU,” but actually spelled out.

Read: Can MasterClass teach you everything? (The New Yorker)

Apple hosted its second hardware event of the fall yesterday and still no new iPod Touch. Instead, the company announced third-generation AirPods, improved M1 chips, and powerful new MacBook Pros.

Starting with the AirPods: They got a new design featuring shorter stems. AirPods 3 (unofficial name) will retail for $179, have an improved listening time of six hours, and support spatial audio—essentially mobile surround sound. They’ll also be water and sweat resistant. You can find them in stores on October 26, and lost in your couch cushions or maybe somewhere in the car sometime after that.

The Pros: Apple unveiled two new MacBook Pros, a 14-inch starting at $1,999, and a 16-inch starting at $2,499. Missing from both: the Touch Bar. Included in both: Apple’s new chips, either the M1 Pro or the M1 Max—four-wheel drive versions of the M1 chip Apple debuted last fall as part of its mission to rid itself of its Intel dependency. Also returning: an HDMI port and an SD card slot.

Honorable mentions:

• New colors of the HomePod Mini
• A $4.99 Apple Music plan

—MK

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Here’s a noise generator that has some pretty unique sounds to mask distractions while you work.

Super cook: If you’re not feeling a trip to the grocery store, this website will take what you have at home and generate a list of recipes.

Work can be ghoulish: Ahead of Halloween, we’re collecting readers’ work horror stories to compile and share with everyone. Whether it was a Zoom wardrobe malfunction or a presentation gone horribly wrong, we want to hear it.

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Brew Mini: Fans of a certain Netflix show might see a familiar name in this week's puzzle. Play it here.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears

There are six professional sports teams in the major North American leagues (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) that share the same name. Can you identify them?