Thousands of Chicago home listings vanished from Zillow as of Wednesday, leaving sellers and buyers scrambling. The missing listings come from the local real-estate database Midwest Real Estate Data, or MRED, which pulled its content amid a bitter industry dispute. Home sellers in the area are now stuck without visibility on one of the most trafficked real-estate platforms in the country.

The withdrawal is part of an escalating feud between Compass and Zillow. That tension has spilled over into how local listing data gets distributed online. MRED apparently chose sides, removing its feed from Zillow rather than wait out the conflict. For Chicago sellers, the practical result is fewer eyeballs on their properties during what is already a competitive market.

Buyers searching Zillow for Chicago homes will find gaps in availability that weren't there days ago. The dispute exposes how dependent local real-estate markets are on data-sharing agreements between listing services and regional databases.