Housing Market: Information Wants To Be Free

If there's an upside to the housing market sagging like Bea Arthur's bustline, it's that the desires of homeowners and buyers to be more informed, knowledgeable, and savvy about the ins and outs of real estate has led to an explosion of Web-based real estate information.

Inman, for instance, tells us that traffic to Web-based real estate sites has been skyrocketing of late. D.C. uber-blogger Rob Goodspeed has a great round up of District-based blogs and Web sites that cover real estate. And, of course, you have sites like Zillow, ZipRealty, Google Base, and Craigslist that provide the user with the tools they need to make the transaction themselves--with varying degrees of success.

I couldn't go without mentioning the many fantastic bloggers and writers who have blazed an incredible trail in providing (to coin our own blog's slogan) "news, analysis, and opinion" for millions of real estate-minded folks around the country, if not the world. Everyone from Bubble Meter to Ben Jones to Marinite has done their part (and then some) to bring the issue of overvalued housing and inflated markets to the public's attention. I'm humbled to be in their ranks, because they do amazing work (for little or no pay), and keep people informed in ways the traditional media just can't or won't.

This current bubble resembles the cycles of bubbles past, true, but it is different in a lot of ways as well. Not only due to the excessive flow of cheap money and bad loans onto the market :), but in the availability of information and knowledge that was never there before. Every state or region has at least one blogger or Web site covering the real estate market in gory detail. Even the realtors themselves are getting in on the action, from the Real Estate Bloggers to NAR's own increased usage of Web sites

Of course, all of these people will have divergent viewpoints, and that's the beauty of it! You can sift through the blogs, read what's being said, and (to coin another phrase) "make up your own damn mind" in a way you never could in previous cycles. No matter where the bubble actually leads--boom, bust, froth, crash, or moderate landing--the end result is that (hopefully) buyers and sellers are smarter and better informed now at any time in the past. And that, as they say, is a good thing.

(No, this isn't a "sign off" post, and I'm not going away. :) I'm just in a markedly optimistic mood, which is rare, giving the amount of depressing info I read about housing on a daily basis. :))

Posted at May 14, 2006 04:50 PM

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If there's an upside to the housing market sagging like Bea Arthur's bustline, it's that the desires of homeowners and buyers to be more informed, knowledgeable, and savvy about the ins and outs of real estate has led to an explosion of Web-based real estate information. Inman, for instance, tells us that traffic to Web-based real estate sites has been skyrocketing of late. D.C. uber-blogger Rob Goodspeed has a great round up of District-based blogs and Web sites that cover real estate. And, of course, you have sites like Zillow, ZipRealty, Google Base, and Craigslist that provide the user with the tools they need to make the transaction themselves--with varying degrees of success. I couldn't go without mentioning the many fantastic bloggers and writers who have blazed an incredible trail in providing (to coin our own blog's slogan) "news, analysis, and opinion" for millions of real estate-minded folks around the country, if not the world. Everyone from Bubble Meter to Ben Jones to Marinite has done their part (and then some) to bring the issue of overvalued housing and inflated markets to the public's attention. I'm humbled to be in their ranks, because they do amazing work (for little or no pay), and keep people informed in ways the traditional media just can't or won't. This current bubble resembles the cycles of bubbles past, true, but it is different in a lot of ways as well. Not only due to the excessive flow of cheap money and bad loans onto the market :), but in the availability of information and knowledge that was never there before. Every state or region has at least one blogger or Web site covering the real estate market in gory detail. Even the realtors themselves are getting in on the action, from the Real Estate Bloggers to NAR's own increased usage of Web sites Of course, all of these people will have divergent viewpoints, and that's the beauty of it! You can sift through the blogs, read what's being said, and (to coin another phrase) "make up your own damn mind" in a way you never could in previous cycles. No matter where the bubble actually leads--boom, bust, froth, crash, or moderate landing--the end result is that (hopefully) buyers and sellers are smarter and better informed now at any time in the past. And that, as they say, is a good thing. (No, this isn't a "sign off" post, and I'm not going away. :) I'm just in a markedly optimistic mood, which is rare, giving the amount of depressing info I read about housing on a daily basis. :))