Update, 07/28: The rumors have been confirmed. Zillow announced Monday it is acquiring Trulia for $3.5 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Pete Flint will remain the CEO of Trulia, and will report to Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. Flint described the benefits of the merger in a statement by saying:

By working together, we will be able to create even more value for home buyers, sellers and renters, as well as create a robust marketing platform that will help our industry partners connect with potential clients and grow their businesses even more efficiently. Our two companies share complementary employee cultures with innovative, consumer-first philosophies and a deep commitment to create the best products and services for our industry partners.

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On Thursday, stocks of the two largest online real estate sites surged when rumors hit that Seattle-based Zillow may be looking to acquire its main competitor, San Francisco-based Trulia, for as much as $2 billion in cash and stock.

Both companies help renters and buyers find information on homes or apartments and generate revenue by charging realtors to host their listings on the site and by selling advertising space. Combined, Trulia and Zillow had more than 85 million unique visitors in June alone. ComScore, an online analytics company, reports that this accounts for 89 percent of all traffic to internet real estate sites.

Combined, the two sites could truly corner the market, making it hard for other online real estate sites to compete, Bloomberg reports.

Would this merger really overhaul the way we find places to live?

“Eighty-eight percent of renters start on CraigsList,” said Raleigh Werner, co-founder of Boston-based rental-market aide Jumpshell. “Even with the merger Zillow and Trulia are fighting very similar battles (against platforms like CraigsList).”

According to Bloomberg, a Zillow/Trulia union would “create a dominant search website for U.S. house hunters, reshaping an online industry the companies helped popularize.”

What would this reshaped industry mean for house hunters?

At the end of the day they’re both real estate market places that are going to consolidate, it’s a classic case of consolidation,” said Vineburgh. “I don’t really see it changing that much for the consumer,” said T Vineburgh, founding partner of Charlesgate Realty in Back Bay.

A Zillow/Trulia merger could actually go fairly unnoticed in terms of user experience,” Werner said. His startup books group tours of open rentals in Boston to make the horror that is house hunting more manageable.

The merger would, however, create changes for real estate agents, Werner said.

“A lot of real estate agents post ads to both sites, so if Zillow were to merge with Trulia it could expand its reach for ads being posted because it could incorporate the ads that an agency would post on Trulia. It would broaden the customer base for agents,” he said.

Neither company is commenting on the speculated potential merger, but Bloomberg reports that, while no agreement may be reached or deal made, talks between Zillow and Trulia are ongoing.

On Thursday, Zillow closed at $145.52, up just over 15 percent from the start of trade. By Friday’s close it had hit $158.86. Trulia closed at $53.74, up an enormous 32.43 percent. Trulia, too, continued to climb, Friday, reaching $56.35 by the closing bell. While both stocks closed Thursday lower than the spike they hit when news of Zillow’s potential acquisition of Trulia first broke, they both recovered that ground in Friday trading. Trulia sits at  a record high.

With almost $8 billion in market value between the two, both companies are doing extremely well on their own. Independently, Zillow’s revenue is expected to hit $311 million this year, a 58 percent increase from last year, and Trulia is expected to rise 76 percent to hit $253 million this year.

Long story short: Wall Street and real estate brokers may have a lot to get excited about in connection with Zillow’s possible acquisition of Trulia, but for you and me, and all the other poor schmucks trying to find a place to live in Boston, the rumors may not be worth the hype.