By Issi Romem, BuildZoom Chief Economist *** Note (October 6, 2015): an earlier version of this blog post reported figures obtained by comparing search results on Zillow.com and on Realtor.com within the core cities of the 51 largest metros. However, because the geographic boundaries associated with each city differ on the two websites, sometimes substantially, we have revised … [Read more...]

On April 7th, the freshly minted Zillow Group lost its single-most important source of home sale listings when ListHub terminated its agreements with both Zillow and Trulia, raising concerns that their joint coverage would be devastated. The termination of the agreements marks the latest skirmish in the war between Zillow Group and Move.com, which owns both Realtor.com and … [Read more...]

Residential remodeling activity is not distributed equally, and some parts of town receive more than their fair share. Of course, homes in more intensively remodeled neighborhoods tend to be in better shape and to tout the most upgrades both inside and out. As a result, players in the know - buyers, sellers, renters and landlords - all set their expectations for properties … [Read more...]

[box]Whereas San Francisco’s homeowners have increased their home improvement efforts when home values have risen, the city’s landlords appear to have done the opposite during the recent increase in rents. A likely explanation is that as competition over rentals intensifies, landlords face shorter periods of vacancy in which to renovate as well as a diminished incentive to do … [Read more...]