Tag Archives: real estate

Family, Lifestyle, Random

Two free real estate tools dish the data

If you’re looking to buy a house, rent in a new area or just want to know more about a neighborhood, I’ve found two online tools that provide a wealth of data for free: waslkscore.com and redfin.com

At walkscore.com, you input a US address, and their alogrithm calculates how walkable it is on a scale from 1 to 100, where 1 is out in the middle of nowhere and 100 is mid-town Manhattan. The site takes into account proximity to public transportation, grocery stores, parks, schools, churches, bars and even fitness clubs, and returns a score accordingly. I entered my new address, and my current neighborhood scored a solid walkscore of 78, which just about matches the amount of walking I do for my day-to-day activities.

My second new favorite real estate tool is the MLS powerhouse site redfin.com . It provides all the information a real estate agent should provide a prospective buyer and more. After signing up for a free account, you can browse listings by MLS number, address, neighborhood, or city. You can refine a search by a dozen or more parameters, such as price, number of bedrooms or even year built. Search results return photos, maps, descriptions and comps. It’s even possible to compare neighborhoods side by side on this site, useful for instance, if you’re relocating to a new area and want to see how it compares to your current one.

For example, I compared my former zip code with my new one. They are very similar, perhaps not so surprising, in terms of safety and demographics. The main differences are density, age and wealth. My new area is 100 times more dense, slightly older, much whiter, and more affluent than my former area, according to redfin.com. The catch to use redfin.com is that the site makes money when you to use their real estate agents, who’s services are available for a discounted fee. But so far there are no limits on browsing.

Finance, News, Politics

Congress should renew the $8k cash back for home buyers program

The latest data on home sales in the US from Realtor.org show that the Stimulus money aimed at getting Americans to start buying houses again is working. Sales of existing homes nationwide rose 7.2% in July 2009, compared to July 2008. Condo sales have also increased. In the West sales rose  16.3% over last July.

The picture is Hawaii is not as rosy. The market continues to decline, despite an increase in sales pace reported by Prudential. Let’s consider Maui as an example. At the peak of the housing bubble in 2006, single family homes on Maui were some of the most expensive in the state, with a median value of $625,000. In Prudiential’s mid-2009 report, the median price is $499,053, down 14.7% and sales volume dropped 32.5% from the same period in 2008. 

However, there is a 3-month lag in reporting so any new trends in Hawaii’s housing market won’t appear until the next report due out in December 2009.

Experts credit the slight pulse in the housing market to a Stimulus package program, which gives buyers $8,000 cash back for a purchase in 2009. This program seems to be working, at least in the short term, and Congress should renew or extend it when they resume session in September. Another popular Stimulus program was Cash for Clunkers, which was extended once doubling the federal money allocated to it from $1 billion to $2 billion dollars. If a carrot works, use it.

But prices of homes are still down, a trend that likely won’t reverse until excess inventory sells. In most markets, including Hawaii, the prices appear to be either flat or inching up. James J. Cramer penned an article in September 2008 for the New York magazine predicting the bottom of the housing market as June 30, 2009. It appears that he was correct.