Homethinking, Trulia, Zillow & More
There’s lots going on in the real estate vertical. Here’s a roundup of some of the latest news over the past couple of days:
Homethinking has introduced a new mortgage center that provides interesting data and heatmaps on lending patterns through the US. Founded by former Jupiter analyst Niki Scevak, the site is cash flow positive without a dime of VC money. Impressive.
Here’s his post explaining the details of the new section.
Homethinking offers for sale home listings through a marketing partnership with Trulia, which is putting out data today about consumer attitudes toward foreclosures. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive. Findings include the following:
- Almost 20% of men aged 18-34 don’t know what a foreclosure is Nearly 20% of single people don’t know what a foreclosure is More than 50% surveyed would consider purchasing a foreclosed home
- 70% of U.S. adults feel that there are negative aspects to purchasing a foreclosure
- Almost 50% of respondents cited hidden costs as a negative aspect to purchasing a foreclosed home
- 24% mentioned the possibility of the home losing value 23% considered the prospect risky
- 20% of U.S. adults said that having a personal connection with someone who lost their home to foreclosure is a negative aspect of purchasing a foreclosed home
Zillow also released data that showed the depressing state of home valuations in the US:
Not surprisingly, homeowners who purchased during a market peak are at most risk of being underwater on their mortgages. Of homeowners nationwide who purchased when U.S. home values peaked in 2006, one out of every two (51.6%) now owes more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. For those who purchased in 2005 and 2007, the situation is only modestly better with nearly 42 percent and 45 percent, respectively, facing negative equity. By comparison, 16 percent of those who purchased in 2004 have negative equity, as do 7 percent of those who purchased in 2003.
This depreciation trend is driving lots of nasty behavior on the part of banks, which are freezing or reducing equity lines without much notice to consumers.
DotHomes, which launched in the US in January, says it passed the “2 million listings” mark. It crawls as its primary method of obtaining listings data. And real-estate site “beatyouthere” launched. While it claims to be differentiated on the basis of social media/community tools and capabilities there’s no there there, yet.
Finally, European real estate search engine Properazzi launched in the US.
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I neglected to mention a slew of sites that have been around for awhile, started by Xooglers, that seek to address the rental market:
