Real Estate Blog

(Red circle indicates Obama’s location at the Punahou Circle Apartments in Honolulu, HI)

President-elect Barack Obama claims Chicago, IL as his home (here’s more on Obama’s Chicago home), but he spent his formative years in Honolulu, HI, where he lived with his grandparents in the Punahou Circle Apartments at 1617 S Beretania St, Honolulu, HI (the Zestimate is for the entire apartment). His old neighborhood is referred to as the Makiki/Lower Punchbowl area where homes go from $100,000 all the way to millions.  This Honolulu Advertiser article has photos of Obama walking around his old hood when he visited his dying grandmother in October.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, a few weeks ago we fielded Zillow’s Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey in the midst of Wall Street’s most turbulent week – asking homeowners what they think has happened to the value of their own homes over the past year, and what they think will happen in the coming 6 months.

We were surprised to learn that a sizeable number of homeowners still think their own homes are isolated from home value declines – with 49% believing their own home’s value either increased or stayed the same over the past year (and thus 51% thinking their home’s value declined), despite actual year-over-year declines on three-quarters of U.S. homes.

Along with these questions, we also asked homeowners who they plan to vote for in the coming presidential election, and were able to analyze the results according to planned McCain voters and planned Obama voters. Here’s what we found:

• Half (50%) of McCain voters believe their own home’s value has decreased over the past year, 18% think the value has remained steady, and 32% think their home’s value has increased.
• More than half (56%) of Obama voters believe their own home’s value has decreased over the past year. 16% think the value has remained steady, and 28% think their home’s value has increased.

With 74% of U.S. homes showing year-over-year declines in Q3, McCain voters as a group appear to be slightly more optimistic (or less realistic) about their own homes in the current market. When we asked the question about the future, we found a similar difference:

• 22% of McCain voters believe their home’s value will increase in the coming 6 months, while 42% believe it will stay the same, and 44% believe their home’s value will decrease.
• Among planned Obama voters, 19% think their home’s value will increase, 42% think it will stay the same, and 44% think it will decrease.

Not sure what to m ake of this, but based on the conversation around my last post, I’m sure this community has some opinions…

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My Vote and the Value of My Home

Sorry to trot out another story about an Extreme Makeover owner who is financial trouble, but the Orlando Sentinel reports that Sadie Holmes of Altamonte Springs, FL is facing some money problems, including a $29,000 lien by the county against her house for code violations, $6,600 in property taxes, and $3,000 a month to rent a storage warehouse for her nonprofit business.

Holmes received her Extreme Home Makeover two years ago, turning her 900-square-foot home into a 7,000-square-foot home and office so she could continue her Sadie Holmes Help Services charity out of the home.  What Sadie is doing is heroic: She is a former drug addict who created a charity to give out food, clothing, furniture, and whatever people need — all this from her 900-sq-ft home. The Extreme Makeover folks were kind enough to build her a bigger home so she can do bigger things, but evidently, she can’t keep up with bills — especially the bill for the code violations. Mercedes Homes, the builder of Sadie’s Extreme home, is helping to collect funds on Sadie’s behalf.

We are all for the Extreme Makeover idea, as long as the replacement house is not such a huge burden on the family or the neighborhood. Sadie’s home now has a Zestimate of $587,500 (at this writing), while homes around hers are in the $110K-$185K range (see Zindex chart on right). Already one Extreme Makeover home is in foreclosure (that we know of), and you can be sure if the EMH team keeps building outsized homes that can’t be supported, we will see many more problems.

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Another Extreme Makeover House Owner in Financial Trouble

I was on Bloomberg television last week discussing house values. Here’s the video. Just a reminder, you can find oodles of data on home prices in our Real Estate Market Reports.

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Zillow on Bloomberg TV talking House Values

If you visit Zillow today using your iPhone Safari, Blackberry, Opera Mobile or other mobile browser, you will notice something different. The mobile homepage. That’s because we just launched a mobile browser version of our popular home search feature making it easier and faster to search properties from your hand held device.

Our goal: To speed things up and improve the mobile user experience. To make this all possible we put together a lightweight search interface that should be easy to use on mobile devices. Built by myself and designer Adam Ebel, we intentionally kept it simple. Just enter the address and press “GO”. If we find an exact match for your search, you’ll see a home details page which will tell you:

• Zestimate
• Number of beds
• Number of baths
• Square footage
• Sale price
• Homes for sale/Recently Sold/Make Me Move status
• Photos
• Seller and owner added facts
• Zestimate history graphs
• An inline static Google Map of the home’s location
• Links to view the home details page on Zillow (and for iPhone users, on the built-in Google Maps)

During your visit, you’ll be able to use links to switch between the mobile site and the main site, so virtually all of Zillow is viewable, and finding homes using the address search feature is a snap.

Feedback and requests for future versions are much appreciated. Feel free to e-mail me at davidgo@zillow.com.

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With the Fourth of July right around the corner, it’s a perfect time to unveil our brand-new list of America’s famous historic homes. These historical gems range from ornate mansions to mid-century modern icons. See the sweeping ocean views from the Astors’ Beechwood Mansion, which played host to New York society in the late 1800s. Check out the sprawling grounds of the Hearst Mansion, which was once owned by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies. (The same home that was on the market for a cool $165 million last summer!) And if you’re a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, don’t miss the bird’s-eye view of the famous Storer House in Los Angeles.

See what other historic homes we unearthed!

Proof That History Can Be Fun

This week, Zillow unleashed the new and improved Home Report email.  These monthly emails highlight the shifts—good or bad—in a home’s value over time.  The Zillow Home Report is an easy way for you to keep up with changes in the Zestimate® value of your home (or any other home you’re interested in) and track the real estate activity in the surrounding area.

Each e-mail includes a 5-year Home Value Index trend chart so you see exactly how the home’s value has fared over time, and how it compares to the median home value in the city and Zip code.  The new Home Report also shows current For Sale and Recently Sold homes in the area, and provides links to maps that are highlighted with this information so you can easily dive in further if desired.  You can see exactly how much that house down the street is going for and how much the one around the corner actually sold for.

In today’s ever-changing market, it’s wise to keep tabs on your important assets.  The Zillow Home Report makes it easy to do this, since it delivers a custom stock-like report to you every month for any home you choose.

To receive the new Home Report, just enter an address in the search box, then click “Go.”  Click the address link, then select “Get Home Report E-mail” under Tools.  You will get one e-mail for each home you select.

Click here to learn more and see a sample Home Report.

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New and Improved Home Report E-mail

I recently wrote a post about the average-sized U.S. home from our Q1 Home Value Reports. As I noted in that post, the “average” U.S. home is 1,500 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. With these dimensions in mind, I dove into Dueling Digs to look at average-sized homes, sorting through homes for each of the 6 categories (kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, living spaces, exteriors, and yards & gardens) that were between 1,201 and 1,900 square feet. What did I find? Very impressive homes that, although average in size, are far from average in appearance. Take a look:

Most popular average-sized exterior — Located at 1329 N Genesee Ave, Los Angeles, CA, this home has 1,680 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, fitting the bill for an average-sized home. But, recently sold for more than $1.3 million, it is significantly above the Zindex for the average home across the U.S., which is a mere $190,000.

Most popular average-sized living space — This home at 250 Geoffroy Dr, Santa Cruz, CA, comes in just under 1,900 square feet, which is a bit larger than the “average” home and the Zestimate reflects that, coming in at just $1.5 million.

Most popular average-sized kitchen — The kitchen in this home at 4307 Babcock Ave, Studio City, CA, seems everything but “average.” Check out the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and hardwood floors.

Most popular average-sized bedroom — This home at 883 Acapulco St, Laguna Beach, CA, recently sold for just under $1 million, again proving “average” is anything but.

Most popular average-sized bathroom — And who knew funky bathrooms were in? This Seattle powder room located at 1024 E Pike St, Seattle, WA, is in a condo building in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Most popular average-sized yard — And last but not least, the yard of this home, located at 6 Linda Vista Ave, Belvedere Tiburon, CA, is the kicker. Can you imagine if the “average” person was able to wake up to this Belvedere-Tiburon, CA, view every morning?

Don’t forget to check out Zillow’s ultimate Top 10’s (no size involved):

• Top 10 Most Popular Bedrooms
• Top 10 Most Popular Kitchens
• Top 10 Most Popular Bathrooms
• Top 10 Most Popular Yards & Gardens
• Top 10 Most Popular Exteriors
• Top 10 Most Popular Living Spaces

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Tough times call for drastic measures. A friend of mine in Bothell, WA is trying something new to build interest in his house. He is having an auction… sort of. The “Bothell Countdown” is the brainchild of Justin Wilcox and is something like a reverse auction where instead of the price going up over time, it goes down. He is starting the price around market value and will work the price down in $10k - $5k increments each week, building publicity around the house’s Web site and sending out email updates to prospective buyers along the way. Ultimately he plans to sell the house the same way anyone would (solicit bids, accept or reject them, etc.), the only difference being prospective buyers can pick the price they think the house is worth and wait until the price falls within that range. I have to give him credit for his ingenuity and balls of steel.

When I talked to Justin about his idea, he said he used Zillow and his Zestimate to help him pick the starting price. In fact, he even built a spreadsheet using the Zillow comparables data to get a better feel for the price per sqare foot averages in his neighborhood. I took a look at his calculations and am impressed that he is going to start at such a reasonable price when the auction has nowhere to go but down!

I will definitely be keeping my eye on the house… 19833 95th Ave NE, Bothell, WA 98011.

Good luck Justin!

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