Asleep at the Wheel

“If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” – Mary Engelbreit

Yesterday, Zillow.com, the new real estate site launched its beta-test version. It was down for most of the day but the NY Times Real Estate Blog caught it live for a few minutes and offered this review. I checked back several times throughout the day and wasn’t as lucky.

Zillow.com is the brainchild of Richard Barton, the founder of Expedia.com, the travel site that created havoc a decade ago for travel agent. According to the LA Times interview, “Barton is applying the same approach to real estate and is banking on equally dramatic results.”

“As Barton sees it, Zillow can be the real estate equivalent of the auto world’s Kelley Blue Book. By typing in an address, the user gets an instant valuation of one home or all the homes on a street or neighborhood.”

“The Seattle-based company’s objective is to create as complete a record as possible on individual properties. Providing a home’s history, including all past sales transaction, tax assessments and other details, should help buyers and sellers on better footing during a real estate transaction.”

Zillow stills seems to stacking zzz’s on the pillow and they apologize on its homepage that “a great site has stalled” and please come back later. If I were superstitious, I would wonder if their technical difficulties are indicative of things to come in an industry that has purred happily along on its “appreciation” ride.

People are finally beginning to talk about a slowdown. I have been open and honest about our inability to sell the house in Palm Springs at the price desired. There’s a glut of properties in the Coachella Valley and we’re taking creative steps to market it. More on that in another week or so.

But it’s not just my own personal experience. The other night as I was getting salon-highlights, the 23-year-old technician doing my partial weave talked about her mortgage-broker fiance and how he hasn’t closed on a loan in a couple of months. She’s young, cute, and full of hope from her recent engagement, so it was hard to look her in the eye and burst her bubble.

Yesterday, MSN Money report that “U.S. mortgage applications fell for a second consecutive week, led by a decline in home purchase loans, as interest rates hit their highest levels since early December”.

I can’t remember the source of a stat that linked 30 percent of the US workforce to the real estate industry. But stop and think about it… the number of mortgage brokers, real estate appraisers, home inspectors, contractors, as well as agents and brokers that have been on the receiving end of the housing bull. It’s scary to think that if all these professionals are not making the same income, then likely they will cut back on their consumer spending. That alone could change the course of the US economy.

Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in an interview on Wednesday, “The U.S. housing market will cool this year as rising mortgage rates dampen home buyers’ demand and lead to lower sales volume, smaller house price gains and a decline in construction.”

Economics… a boring topic but it hits home for most people.