Zillow says 78,000 renters had their payments reported to credit bureaus in July 2026 through its rent-reporting program, the highest monthly volume since the tool launched, as the company positions on-time rent as a credit-building asset most renters currently get no benefit from.
The figure is a 26 percent increase year over year and brings the cumulative total to 1.78 million on-time rent payments reported since the program began in 2024. The feature, called CreditClimb and powered by credit-data company Esusu, lets renters opt in at no cost to have their payment history sent to the major credit bureaus.
Why it matters
Insufficient credit history was the single largest reason cited in mortgage denials in 2025, appearing in 32.88 percent of rejected applications, according to Zillow. An analysis Zillow commissioned from VantageScore found that nearly 4 million renters could become mortgage-eligible if their rent-payment history were factored into their credit file, and Zillow says renters who consistently use Esusu-powered reporting programs see credit scores rise by an average of 53 points. “These programs are part of how Zillow supports people wherever they are, from finding a rental, to building credit, to eventually connecting them with a great agent,” said Michael Sherman, general manager and senior vice president of Zillow Rentals.
What it means for the finance leader
Rent reporting has existed as a standalone product category for years; what changes here is who is building it. A real estate marketplace turning renters into a mortgage-ready pipeline is a more direct embedded-finance play than most fintechs attempt, because Zillow already owns the next step in the funnel: the agent connection and the listing search. Credit and account-verification infrastructure is already consolidating around a handful of data players, and a distribution platform the size of Zillow choosing to run its own credit-building product rather than license a bank’s is a signal that vertical platforms increasingly want to own the financial data layer themselves, not just plug into someone else’s.
Source: Zillow
