CoStar Group hires Freddie Mac’s Christian Lown as CFO

Freddie Mac‘s chief financial officer, Christian Lown, will transition to the same position at CoStar Group on July 1, the company announced on Tuesday. 

Lown informed Freddie Mac of his resignation on June 5 after four years working for the enterprise. His exit will take effect on June 28. In the meantime, the enterprise has started the process to identify a successor. 

Before joining Freddie Mac, Lown was the chief financial officer of Navient Corp., a student loan servicer he joined in 2003. He was also a managing director for the financial institutions group at Morgan Stanley.

At CoStar, Lown will report directly to founder and CEO Andy Florance. He will be responsible for the company’s financial functions — including accounting, financial planning, internal controls, compliance, treasury, investor relations, tax and corporate facilities.

“He brings an unparalleled understanding of M&A, capital markets and corporate finance and, through his time at Freddie Mac, an intricate knowledge of the home buying market at a time when our Homes.com platform is experiencing exponential growth,” Florance said in a prepared statement.

Lown said in a statement that he has held CoStar Group in “high esteem” for its trajectory from “startup to market leader in commercial real estate data and online real estate marketplaces.”

Lown will join a company that reported strong revenues of $656 million in the first quarter of 2024, a 12% increase from the $584 million figure it posted in the first quarter of 2023. But the company posted a net profit of only $7 million, significantly less than in previous quarters. 

The profitability decline was attributed, among other things, to the acquisition of 3D scanning company Matterport and costs related to the Homes.com marketing campaign during February’s Super Bowl LVIII broadcast.

CoStar believes its business model will succeed, given the recent commission lawsuit settlement by the National Association of Realtors. Homes.com focuses on selling homes and building brands for agents and brokerage firms.