Zillow, the ubiquitous real estate information company that has been providing online estimates on property values – and an ever-widening array of other real estate related services – has filed for initial public offering[1]. This puts it on track to become a publicly traded stock in the coming months. The data provider maintains information on more than 100 million U.S. homes and was used by 19.4 million unique users in March of this year alone. Interestingly, however, the Wall Street Journal reports that “the company, which was incorporated in 2004, has never been profitable.” In the past twelve months, though, it has shown year-over-year growth of more than 90 percent.

According to the company, it hopes to raise around $51.8 million to use for “general corporate purposes, including a possible acquisition.” Some experts believe that even though this move has been “widely anticipated,” a “still-weak housing recovery makes for potentially bad timing”[2]. According to Scott Sweet, IPOBoutique.com’s senior managing partner, another real estate related software company that recently went public was hurt by the recent housing downturn and Zillow could potentially experience the same issues. As yet, though, Zillow has not set a target price for shares nor announced when the offering will take place.

Would you invest in Zillow?

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[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110418-713601.html

[2] http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13403628