Real estate technology and AI news: proptech tools, AI in home search and listings, and how new technology is changing the way agents and buyers work.
The New York company said Sept. 22 it acquired Zuma, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed maker of AI agents that apartment operators use to capture leads, book tours and collect rent, as Venn approaches one million units under management.
NAR’s 2026 Realtors Technology Report, released Sept. 22, found 23% of agents use AI daily and 25% weekly, while the share ruling it out fell to 12% from the 32% who had not tried it a year earlier.
Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt all data center permits on Sept. 21, and told every state agency to hold regulatory approvals until grid and water audits are complete.
The mapping platform’s new tool assembles public records and licensed data for an address, then uses AI to explain what matters and map it. The announcement does not say how the answers are tested.
Data Center Watch counted at least 45 U.S. data center projects worth nearly $68 billion blocked or delayed between April and June, keeping 2026 far ahead of last year’s pace even after state legislative sessions ended.
Gov. Joe Lombardo’s Executive Order 2026-005 bars data center abatement applications from reaching Nevada’s economic development board unless developers pay the Local School Support Tax in full and sign a binding water, ratepayer and grid commitment.
The Denver developer behind the Abilene, Texas, AI campus closed an initial $3.9 billion Series F and added Digital Realty’s former chief executive to its board.
Bilt bought Livly’s property operations platform and signed a separate deal to run resident experience across Collective Residential’s communities. Terms were not disclosed.
Scaffold raised $15 million led by Navitas Capital, with D.R. Horton, Pulte Homes and Builders FirstSource investing in an AI layer that connects the systems 29 of the top 30 builders already run.
The construction intelligence firm said Sept. 14 it raised $130 million led by O.G. Venture Partners, bringing total funding to $297 million, as owners including Intel and Digital Realty push schedule-critical data center projects.
An NBC News Decision Desk Poll released Sept. 6 found 69% of Americans oppose AI data center construction in their local area β including 57% of Republicans β as entitlement risk becomes the binding constraint on the largest growth category in U.S. nonresidential construction.
Cushman & Wakefield’s 2026 Data Center Development Cost Guide puts all-in greenfield cost at $17.6 million per megawatt in the U.S. and Canada, up 21% since late 2024, with power infrastructure the largest single line item and powered land up 51% year over year.
The Blackstone-backed developer has 4 gigawatts of leased capacity operating and more than 15 gigawatts of powered land in the pipeline β the scarce commodity in the AI buildout.
A stipulated order filed the morning trial was set to open requires Redfin to rebuild the rental advertising business it exited in 2025, and strips the restrictions the FTC said Zillow’s $100 million payment bought.
Zurich-based Lookthrough and Berlin-based BuildingMinds are combining to build an AI decision-intelligence platform covering more than 100,000 buildings across 64 countries.
RealReports’ redesigned Business Momentum Engine expands its Aiden AI assistant to proactively surface prospecting and past-client opportunities as existing-home sales sit near a 30-year low.
California Regional MLS launched REcore Workspace, a customizable hub replacing its static dashboard for more than 100,000 subscribers across Matrix, Paragon and Flexmls.
The Data Center Coalition agreed to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s five development standards, and at least one operator ended a Texas project rather than meet them, as ERCOT works through a 474-gigawatt interconnection queue.
Unframe says Cushman & Wakefield reduced lease abstraction from as long as three days to minutes and has expanded to more than 15 active AI projects. Cushman & Wakefield has not issued its own announcement.
RentCafe launched Ren, a conversational AI apartment search agent available nationwide, letting renters describe what they want instead of setting filters. The site says it serves more than 40 million renters.
Austin-based Boom raised a $15 million Series A led by S3 Ventures and launched BoomCRM, an AI leasing platform built on its applicant screening data. The company says it screens for more than 400 operators covering over 500,000 units.
A federal bench trial over the FTC’s claim that Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to quit the rental advertising market begins Aug. 24 before Judge Anthony J. Trenga in Alexandria, Va.
Google confirmed it is the end user of a 506-acre data center campus under construction near Owasso in Tulsa County, Okla., developed under the code name Project Clydesdale.
NVIDIA has made a minority investment in Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a developer of powered, shovel-ready data center sites, targeting the power and land bottleneck constraining AI buildout.
Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers now supports a one-year statewide moratorium on new data centers, reversing his July position as opposition to AI infrastructure crosses party lines.
The Southern Environmental Law Center asked a South Carolina court to stop construction of a $2.8 billion, 457-megawatt data center in Spartanburg County, saying the project improperly skipped planning commission review.
Indianapolis has finalized a moratorium halting new data center development through the end of 2027, adding Indiana’s largest city to a fast-growing list of communities restricting the industry.
reAlpha Tech Corp. has closed its roughly $8.5 million acquisition of InstaMortgage, bringing in-house mortgage origination, underwriting and funding to the AI-powered brokerage platform across 38 states and Washington, D.C.
CoStar Group has closed its $800 million all-cash purchase of homebuilding data provider Zonda, pushing the commercial real estate data giant deeper into the $400 billion new-home construction market.
Bedrock Robotics said it has begun running fully autonomous, operator-less excavators on live U.S. construction sites β a first for the machines β as the AI startup pushes to ease a persistent shortage of skilled equipment operators.
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