COMPASS announced its strongest quarterly results in ever for Q2 2025 last week! Across 10 key business metrics—including market share, revenue, and free cash flow—COMPASS agents and employees delivered record-breaking performance, continuing to outpace the broader real estate market.

A huge congratulations to our entire COMPASS community!

Here's the breakdown:

Revenue: Up 21.1% YoY, hitting $2.06 billion (a company record).

GAAP Net Income: Rose 90.3% YoY to $39.4 million.

Adjusted EBITDA: Surged to $125.9 million, a 63% YoY increase.

Free Cash Flow / Operating Cash Flow: $68 million free cash flow and $72.8 million in operating cash flow—both all‑time highs.

Market Share: Reached a record 6.09%, up 96 basis points year-over-year.

Transactions Closed: COMPASS Agents completed 73,025 transactions, up 20.9% YoY, while the broader market declined 0.9%.

Principal Agent Count: 20,965 by quarter-end, a 23.3% increase YoY, the highest such quarterly growth in company history. Agent retention remained strong at 97.5%

In a widely expected move, the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady this week, keeping the benchmark rate at a 23-year high. It’s the seventh consecutive meeting without a hike, signaling that while inflation has cooled, the Fed isn’t quite ready to declare victory.

The big takeaway? They're watching the data and waiting. While rate cuts are still possible later this year, the timeline may be stretching a bit further out.

The price index for domestic purchases rose 1.9% in the quarter, a drop from the 3.4% increase in the first. The personal consumption expenditures index excluding food and energy—the inflation measure watched most closely by the Federal Reserve—rose 2.5% versus 3.5% in the first quarter, so much closer to the 2% target. (WSJ)

US GDP jumped 3% for the second quarter, better than the 2.3% estimate and reversing a 0.5% decline in the prior period.

Consumer spending rose 1.4% in the second quarter, better than the 0.5% in the prior period.

Exports declined 1.8% during the period, and imports fell 30.3%, reversing a 37.9% surge in Q1 where many accelerated imports to stock up before tariffs hit.

For Real Estate: this pause brings continued stability in borrowing costs and mortgage rates. While we’re not seeing dramatic shifts just yet, confidence is growing regarding upcoming rate cuts and that matters.

But then there are the jobs numbers! (See graph below)

“Employers are becoming more cautious, especially in trade-exposed sectors, where inventory overhang and tariff uncertainty have led to a sharp pullback.” — The Guardian, August 1, 2025

According to The Guardian, the July jobs shortfall may be tied in part to the lagging effects of new tariffs, as businesses that front-loaded imports in Q1 are now slowing hiring and drawing down inventories.

Back in Q1, many companies accelerated imports ahead of newly announced tariffs—especially in retail, manufacturing, and logistics. That created an artificial boost in activity earlier this year.

And now they’re drawing down inventory, slowing new orders, and holding off on hiring.

Analysts note that this kind of lagging effect is typical: the economic drag from tariffs often shows up several months after implementation: first in trade, then in hiring and investment decisions. We may now be seeing that ripple.

July’s jobs report turned unexpectedly political: just 73,000 jobs were added with major downward revisions to earlier months. This was well below expectations and on Friday President Trump abruptly removed Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her (without evidence) of manipulating the numbers.

I was lucky to be invited by a dear friend to a private tour of Rashid Johnson’s current exhibit at the Guggenheim. The show is exquisite—provocative, layered, and deeply personal. If you have the chance, I highly recommend seeing it in person.

Titled Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, this is Johnson’s first solo exhibition at the museum and his largest to date. It runs till January 18, 2026. Filling the Guggenheim’s spiral rotunda, there are more than 90 works, ranging from early photography and video to recent black‑soap paintings, sculptural installations, and large‑scale pieces.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about Johnson before this. But as I walked through the exhibit, I found myself drawn in. Johnson is considered one of the most important contemporary artists working today. Born in Chicago in 1977, he came of age in the post–Civil Rights era, and his work has a multidisciplinary approach, rooted in art history, Black popular culture, intellectual inquiry, and personal narratives. His work explores themes of race, identity, belonging.

What struck me most is how he blends the personal and the political, the historical and the present, the academic and the everyday. His work pulls from art history, literature, music, and pop culture.

This was part of a writeup by the museum curators on a work titled: "(Ir)reverence"

"The majority of Johnson's work is organized in series, through which he works on a single prompt or idea across several objects. In his earliest series, he energetically and slyly makes reference to other artists, art-historical artworks, events, prominent figures, musical lyrics, and works of literature. The quotes he utilizes from these sources are evidence of his active intellect and, like many of the hip-hop generation, his ability to remix and repurpose those objects and gestures into altogether new forms. For instance, Signed Angela Davis "Civil Rights All Stars" Throwback Dashiki Jersey pays tribute to the venerable educator and organizer but recasts her as a sports star, likening politics to game theory."

And while we’re on the subject of the Guggenheim, I couldn’t resist sharing this incredible photo of the museum under construction. It's a reminder of just how bold and visionary this building was from the very beginning.

After more than a year of construction, Wagner Park is officially back—reopening this week with a bold new look and a powerful mission: protect Lower Manhattan from future coastal flooding.

Tucked along the Hudson in Battery Park City, this 3.5-acre green space has been entirely reimagined as part of the $296M South Battery Park City Resiliency Project. While the Pavilion won’t be fully complete until 2026, the newly reopened park already blends architecture, ecology, and climate tech in visionary ways.

Highlights include:

The project was led by the Battery Park City Authority with design by Thomas Phifer and Partners and engineering by AECOM. A future rooftop dining venue and classroom are also in the works, with harbor views built in.

This is just one piece of the city’s larger resilience strategy. Up next? A new phase beginning later this year to protect the rest of Battery Park City and western Tribeca.

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