shares of redfin corp sank into recordlow territory monday after oppenheimer’ jason helfstein recommended investors sell as he explained why he believed the real estate services company has a flawed business model the stock rdfn was down 62 in premarket trading putting it on track to open below the oct 20 2022 recordlow close of 393 it has already plunged 613 over the past three months through friday and 919 over the past 12 months and analyst helfstein’s new price target suggests it could lose another twothirds of its value “we believe redfin’s core business is fundamentally flawed with fixedcost model for agents versus 100 commission for industry” helfstein wrote in a note to clients helfstein cut his rating to underperform after being a perform from the past two years he established a stock price target of 130 which is 677 below friday’s closing price of 402 he explained that redfin’s business model prevents the company from optimizing margins when housing markets decline and prevents it from gaining market share when markets rebound that means the company lags the market by sixto12 months at a time when surging mortgage rates have led to steep declines in home sales fannie mae the governmentsponsored enterprise gse that guarantees mortgages said monday that its home purchase sentiment index fell for the eightstraight month in october to 567 the lowest reading since the inception of the index in 2011 “we estimate that it will take two years for housing demand to return to meaningful growth” helfstein wrote the stock has lost 895 this year while the sp 500 index spx has shed 209