Zillow Shuts Off Mortgage Rate API

Startup founders beware: Zillow decommissioned their Mortgage Rate Summary API. Building on top of a 3rd party free API is great, until it gets yanked from under you. (I had this same issue with Horizon when Facebook decommissioned/modified the APIs we built on).

I originally heard the news from a founder I recently spoke with, and found a discussion thread that validates the change here.

Looking at their widgets page, I don’t see any of the old mortgage widgets (such as the image seen to the right) there either. The only widgets currently available are their reviews widget and a basic real estate search box.

Strategically, especially given I ran the API program from 2007-2010, I’m incredibly curious what led to the decision to remove the mortgage API (& widgets). There are several options I can think of:

• Too much of a pain to continue to support all widgets given the rise of mobile (making widgets work across all devices/browsers is indeed a pain in the rear in the early days)
• The widgets and APIs weren’t being used
• View real time mortgage rates as a competitive advantage now in a way they didn’t previously
• A strategic business development deal requiring a stop in mortgage rate syndication
• Not a priority given present engineering resources

What other mortgage rate sources are out there?

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