HouseCanary files Chapter 11 over a $30 million loan while it waits to collect a $175 million-plus verdict from Rocket

HouseCanary, the property valuation and data company that powers Google's home listings pilot, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey, HousingWire reported. HouseCanary and five affiliates filed voluntary petitions on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, listing more than $50 million in assets and at least $50 million in liabilities.

The unusual part is why. The filings describe a lender trying to foreclose on one of the companies' assets "on an expedited basis." HouseCanary defaulted on a $30 million loan that came due in January, HousingWire said, citing the bankruptcy papers. The lender has not been named. At the same time, HouseCanary is waiting to collect a jury award from Rocket Companies' title business that is several times larger than that debt.

The verdict it is trying to protect

The dispute dates to 2015, when HouseCanary agreed to let Amrock, now called Rocket Close, use its home valuation software. HouseCanary said Amrock used the arrangement to take its models and data and build a competing product. Amrock said the products were unusable.

• 2018: a Texas jury found for HouseCanary and ordered Amrock to pay more than $706 million, later increased to $740 million.
• 2020: that verdict was thrown out on appeal and a new trial ordered.
• March 2026: a second jury again sided with HouseCanary, awarding $175 million in compensatory damages plus more than $201 million in punitive damages, according to HousingWire.

The court has not entered a final judgment. The parties are still arguing over attorneys' fees and costs, and the defendants have asked the court to limit the damages. That is why the figures in circulation differ: HousingWire describes the claim as $175 million or more, while Bloomberg's headline puts it at $260 million. None of those numbers is collectible until a judgment is entered, and any judgment can be appealed.

The number behind the number

For HouseCanary, the award is existential: a $30 million default could have handed the company to a lender before it saw a dollar of a nine-figure claim. For Rocket, the scale is different. Rocket Companies has a market value of about $33.8 billion, according to Nasdaq. On that basis:

Rocket shares were down 1.8% at $11.94 late Thursday and touched $11.48 during the day, below the $12.11 low of their 52-week range, Nasdaq data showed. Nothing we read ties that move to HouseCanary. Mortgage rates rising past 7% this week, which we covered here, bears more directly on a mortgage lender's business. Rocket did not give HousingWire a statement.

Who else it touches

HouseCanary's partnership with Google lets the search engine show home listings directly in results. Google expanded the pilot nationwide in June, according to HousingWire. HouseCanary's CEO, Chris Rediger, told HousingWire in July that progress would be slow because the company needs a separate agreement with each multiple listing service. In the filings, the company says its "remaining workforce" is focused on the restructuring, and it asked for more time to file its full list of assets and liabilities.

For brokerages and agents who have signed their listing feeds into that program, nothing in the filings says the service stops. Chapter 11 lets a company keep operating. A court hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. What to watch: its outcome, whether the lender is identified, whether HouseCanary gets bankruptcy financing, and when the Texas court enters its final judgment.

Sources: HousingWire; Bloomberg; Nasdaq. Percentages are Chronicle calculations. This is market information, not investment advice.