URBALO

Being mobile=2007 year, being mobile=the opportunities are endless.

House hunting seems to me to be an inherently mobile activity but as yet all of the house hunting options we have require you to root yourself in front of the computer and therefore being less productive. This strikes me as a pretty large disconnect, especially as the mapping technology already exists and it has matured over the time. Just to mention two of the most popular ones: Google Maps and Microsoft’s Live Search

Some companies are already trying to enter this unexplored territory. Smarter Agent can already show you apartments for rent and recently sold homes and they promise to have homes for sale available this Spring.
It would also make sense for our local MLS to provide this, of course free of charge, or a small price that could be incorporated in the annual dues. It may even be a way to allow them to reclaim some of the ground they’ve lost to websites like Trulia, Housemap, or Yahoo Real Estate.

So is mobile house hunting even viable? What are your opinions on this?

As mortgage rates edged downward during the fourth quarter of 2006 and some real estate markets took price hits, affordability improved - albeit only marginally, according to a report released Thursday.

Some 41.6 percent of homes sold during the fourth quarter were affordable to Americans earning the median family income of $59,600, according to the Home Opportunity Index, constructed quarterly by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo.

Is it time to buy?

Indianapolis was, once again, the most affordable major housing market in the United States. The median home sold there, already low at $122,000 during the previous quarter, fell to $113,000 during the last three months of the year. With a median income of $65,000, 89 percent of the homes sold were affordable to the average family.

Other affordable major markets included: Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania.; Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York.

The Los Angeles metro area was again the nation’s least affordable market. Only 2 percent of the homes sold during the quarter there were affordable to those families bringing home the median earnings for the area, $56,200. The median sale price was $525,000.

Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, California; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, California; and New York-White Plains-Wayne, New Jersey joined Los Angeles near the top of the unaffordable list.

I just read this article on Money CNN, very very interesting approach. It’s a little long but worth reading it.

(Business 2.0 Magazine) — We’ve been promised many things in the world of Tomorrowland: jet packs, flying cars, picnics on the moon.

We remember those pledges, ruefully. But with all of our attention on the skies above, we tend to forget about the seas below and another once-popular 21st century prediction: that one day we’ll be living on and under the oceans.

The idea isn’t so far-fetched. As Earth gets increasingly crowded and polluted, some 225 million square miles of prime real estate representing 71 percent of the planet’s surface is largely unused. It’s remarkable considering the oceans promise plenty of living space, fresh seafood, entertainment, and desalinized water. Surely, technology can make this happen.
Read Full Article ->

Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week, driven by an increase in loan refinancing, an industry trade group said Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity rose 1.5 percent to 639.8 in the week ended Feb. 9.
The group’s seasonally adjusted refinancing index increased 4.5 percent to 2,031.7, overshadowing the 1 percent dip in the MBA’s seasonally adjusted purchase index to 400.7.

All three measures posted slim declines on a seasonally adjusted four-week moving average but were above year-ago levels.
Read Full Article ->

Google is makes a serious play to attract Real Estate professionals, launching a dedicated page outlining their Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals.

Reading from their blog:

Here’s why it pays to use Google to connect to home buyers and sellers:
Google can help generate real estate referrals and leads.

* Google has more real estate searches than all real estate specific web sites.
* Google is the most-used search engine for researching and purchasing real estate information and services.
* The Google Network drives more traffic to ColdwellBanker.com and Century21.com than all other search engines combined – more than 70% of each site’s traffic.
* The Google Network reaches over 80% of U.S. Internet users.
Read Full Article ->

Google introduces a new service: “Find and compare local businesses”. Local businesses and reviews are now getting prominent billing in Google’s search results.
Here is a search for “realtor chicago illinois”

Quoting google: “From now on, you’ll see this every time you search for a place, business, or other local information. In addition to providing the basic contact information and map locations for several choices at the top of the page, we also show ratings and provide one-click access to reviews on the search results page so that you can make more informed decisions about where you want to go.

Official Google Blog