Real Estate Blog

What are you doing this Labor Day weekend? How about something that will leave your wallet a bit heavier this winter? Here’s the deal: We probably don’t have to remind you that Labor Day weekend is the unofficial last weekend of summer. That means cold weather is lurking right around the corner. (Or, if you live in Seattle, stormy weather is already here!) But there are some home improvement fixes that you can do now to ensure that high energy prices don’t bite you once winter rolls around.

According to the Energy Information Administration’s short-term outlook, heating oil prices during the upcoming heating season (usually October though March) are projected to average $4.34 per gallon, compared with $3.31 last season. That’s an increase of about 31 percent. Residential natural gas prices are also expected to rise significantly, from an average of $15.58 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) compared with $12.72 per Mcf during the last heating season — a 22 percent increase.

So, what can you do? This Marketwatch article (provided by building products company CertainTeed) offers advice on what you can do to reduce the impact of high heating costs in your home. Time to put those tools to good use!

• Seal: For a cheap and relatively easy fix, check your windows, doors, and other areas for drafts and seal them off with caulk, weather stripping, plastic sheeting, door sweeps, or draft stoppers.
• Insulate: Have poor insulation? Consider adding insulation, and you’ll no doubt make up for the cost in reduced heating bills.
• Replace filters: Increase the efficiency of your furnace by cleaning or replacing the filter often.
• Call in a pro: A thorough energy audit can help you identify other improvements to make your home more energy efficient. Or, conduct your own.

View original post here:
Home Improvement Fixes for Labor Day Weekend

A few weeks ago I blogged about the scary white dot that popped up on my lawn, indicating that some sort of municipal initiative was in the works in front of my Madison Park house.

My daughter and I then furiously scrubbed the sidewalk with graffiti remover and managed to get the markings out.

But alas, we were no match for the City of Seattle.

I came home yesterday to find similar markings, and although I have no idea what “R2(30)” means, I have a pretty good guess for what “LOCATE” means. It seems that they’re putting in a sign (25 MPH? School Zone? who knows!?) in front of my house.

On the one hand I’m pleased that this will likely slow down in front of my house, but I’m not so pleased that it will be right smack in front of my house.

Go here to see the original:
The Scary White Dot Returns

Here in the PR department at Zillow, we’re counting down the days until the new 90210 starts (five), at least partly for nostalgic reasons. Most of us were in junior high or high school in 1990, when the original series started. Personally, I tried and tried to make my hair look like Kelly Taylor’s, but was always foiled by the humidity in my hometown, Central Illinois.

Being real estate geeks as well as children of the 90’s, we started talking about the homes featured in the show, and some questions came up. Like, if the Walshes could afford that great house in Beverly Hills, what must their Minneapolis digs have been like?

I did a little digging on Zillow and the internet in general. First off, I found out that Jim and Cindy Walsh were smart to hold onto their house and let Brandon and friends live there while they went off to Japan. Home values in Beverly Hills keep going up, despite the major downturns in most areas of California. (Shameless plug: home values in the Hills have appreciated 10 percent over the last decade, according to the Q2 Zillow Real Estate Market Reports).

But I found out the house that posed as Brandon and Brenda’s is not, in fact, in the 90210 ZIP code. Scandalous. According to IMDB, it is actually in Altadena, Calif., about 25 miles to the east of Beverly Hills.

The house is actually located at 1675 E Altandena Dr, Altadena, CA 91001. It’s a four-bedroom, four-bath, built in 1928, with a Zestimate of $1.6 million. (Side note: I was surprised it had four bathrooms. Remember how Brandon and Brenda shared one? It was right between their bedrooms.)

Not too shabby, even if it’s not actually in 90210… But what if it was?

Well, it would probably be a tad more expensive. I searched for a similarly-sized home in Zillow’s for sale listings in the 90210 ZIP code. I found one on San Ysidro Drive that seems to be a bit smaller than the Walsh abode (three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths), but it’s a tad pricer, with a Zestimate of $4.1 million and an asking price of $2.8 million. I’m sure the Walshes would have been very happy there.

I know things are a bit more expensive than they were in 1990, but for the sake of comparison, let’s see what $2.8 million would get the Walsh family back in Minneapolis. I’m assuming Jim got a nice salary bump with the new job in LA, but I’m curious.

Wow. Six bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, 11,000-plus square feet. Nice place. “Minneapolis 55403” doesn’t quite have the same ring, though…

BTW, according to the Zillow Q2 Real Estate Market Reports, the Zillow Home Value Index in Minneapolis is $207,116. In the 90210 ZIP code, it’s $3.2 million.

Anyway, I’m hardly the first Kelly Taylor wanna-be to be curious about 90210 real estate. Check out this post from the Iamnotastalker blog. Lindsay, I’m a little jealous.

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After some funny sleuthing by our good friend, Candy, over at DallasDirt, it looks like Dallas quarterback Tony Romo is sticking around the Big D for a while as he just plunked down $670,000 for this place at 1608 Dowling Dr., Irving, TX. (See more homes for sale in Irving, TX).

Surprising that he doesn’t have a sprawling manse on lots ‘o land like some sports stars such as Vinny Testaverde’s Long Island home (which is for sale), or Chad Pennington’s Syosset home (for sale, too!) or Shaq’s Miami pad.

> See more celebrity homes

The rest is here:

They say that a picture’s worth a thousand words … but what about page-views? We have over three million for sale listings on Zillow but not all of them come with a beautiful photo gallery like this mansion in Seattle.  I’ve always wondered how much difference a photo makes when attracting eyeballs to a home’s for sale. It’s common advice that great photos sell a home online and thanks to research done by our wiz analyst Ji Chen, we’ve been able to quantify the impact of having photos on the popularity of homes for sale on Zillow. We discovered that over a seven-day period, listings with at least one photo were likely to be viewed 41% more times than listings with no photos. Wow! Even more dramatic, Ji also looked at the impact of disclosing vs. not disclosing the home’s address when posting it for sale and amazingly, providing a full address increases your listing’s traffic by 271%.

Adding a photo and address to your listing will get you a lot of extra traffic for very little effort. Taking a great picture is an art itself. For tips on home photos, read the real estate guide articles on Preparing your home for photos and the Photographing your house checklist. Who wouldn’t want to click on a photo like this one?

Read more from the original source:
Click Me! Click Me!

Republican presidential nominee John McCain took a lot of ribbing a week ago when he botched the question, “How many houses do you and Mrs. McCain have?” His answer landed somewhere between “I don’t know” and “I’ll have my staff get that for you.”

In his defense, McCain couldn’t give a straight answer because it’s complicated. One main reason is because his wife, Cindy Hensley McCain, the multi-millionaire beer distributor heiress (she’s a Budweiser gal), is the one with all the money and the houses (they are under holding companies or trusts controlled by Cindy). Also, they have purchased a couple of condos in the same buildings and in one case, combined them into one uber property, which also leads to the confusion. Even media sites and blogs are at odds:

New York Times: 11
Politico: 8
Politifact: 7 8
The Swamp: 8
Washington Post: 6

So, their real estate empire is a bit difficult to sort out. But, here’s an attempt to break it down, state-by-state:

ARIZONA
(3 properties):

2211 Camelback Rd., Phoenix, AZ
Unit 1105 and 1106
See more Phoenix, AZ real estate

Overview: This is a 12-story luxury condo complex with 90 units in the Biltmore area of Phoenix known as “The Residences at 2211 Camelback.” Self-described as “a sanctuary within the heart of the city’s preferred cultural district, teeming with couture boutique shopping, exquisite dining, world-class resorts and spas, championship golf, and a liberal array of fine and performing arts venues - heralds Phoenix’s newest landmark of sophisticated urban living.”

The Scoop: This 7,000-sq-ft home is considered to be the McCain’s primary residence. They purchased a high-floor apartment for $4.67 million in October 2006 and then, another unit was purchased for $830,000 in Aug. 2007 and the two units (1105 and 1106) were combined. This combination could add to the confusion as to how many homes the McCains own.

4326 N 25th St, Unit 102, Phoenix, AZ
See more Biltmore Lofts for sale

Overview: Known as the Biltmore Lofts, these are described as “ultra-modern architectural design.”

The Scoop: According to property records from Maricopa County, Arizona, the McCains purchased this loft (with cash) for $700,000 in June 2007 for their daughter, Meghan (who writes McCainBloggette.com) before they put it on the market for $730,000. It’s owned by Wild River LLC, and is listed as rental property on McCain’s 2008 Senate Financial Disclosure Report.

11455 E Hidden Valley Ranch Rd., Sedona, AZ
See more Sedona, AZ real estate

Overview: Regarded as McCain’s answer to W’s Crawford ranch, this retreat is where McCain likes to barbecue, ride ATVs, and generally spend time wining and dining guests.

The Scoop: The McCain ranch poses a dilemma to document since public records for Yavapai County, Arizona, show three adjacent parcels that belong to the “Cindy Hensley McCain Family Trust” including parcel 407-24-004P and 407-24-004H and 407-24-004L. While it is referred to as his ranch in Sedona, many dispute it by saying it’s actually located in Cornville, AZ, or Page Springs, AZ.

See more Cornville, AZ, real estate
See more Sedona, AZ real estate

CALIFORNIA
(3 properties):

8263 Camino Del Oro (Unit 379), La Jolla, CA 92037
See more La Jolla, CA real estate

Overview: This property is held in the Hensley Survivors Trust, according to public records.

The Scoop: This is the property where the McCains ran into tax trouble by failing to pay their tax bill for four years. Our Zestimate values it at $963,000 (as of Aug. 26). According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the 1,429-square-foot condo has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a two-car garage, and was built in 1972. County tax records indicate Cindy McCain’s parents, the Hensleys, bought it new. Also, the condo has an annual tax obligation of $1,574 because it is assessed at $140,855, a value kept low by tax-limiting Proposition 13.

1710 Avenida Del Mundo, Coronado, CA 92118
(Units #802 and #204 — for sale!)
See more Coronado, CA real estate

Overview: This monstrous complex, called the Coronado Shores Condominium Association, sits right on the beach and consists of 10 buildings, each 15 stories high with as many as 140 units in each structure.

The Scoop: According to PolitiFact.com and McCainvMinnesota.com, the McCains own two condominums in the complex under the name Dream Catcher Family LLC. One unit (#802) was purchased in 2004 for $2.6 million and the second unit (#204) was purchased in March 2008 for $2.1 million. What’s interesting is that unit 204 appears to be for sale, with the sale including unit 205, which is owned by the Stephen F. Kasbeer Trust, the same folks who sold unit 204 to the McCains. Here’s a Prudential, CA, video tour of the property. (Looks like Kasbeer and his wife donated some money to McCain in 2000).

VIRGINIA
(1 property):

1300 Crystal Dr (#1702S), Arlington, VA 22202
See condos for sale at 1300 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA
See more Arlington, VA real estate

Overview: Yes — yet another condo and one would imagine, the place where John McCain holes up when he’s in town doing his work on Capitol Hill as a U.S. Senator.

The Scoop: According to public records, this 2,089-sq-ft, three-bed, three-bath condo was purchased by the Cindy Hensley McCain Trust back in 1993 for $375,000. Our Zestimate is $883,000.

CINDY McCAIN’s CHILDHOOD HOME

7110 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85020

While the McCains no longer own this home, it is worth noting due to its celebrated history. According to an AZcentral.com article by Wall Street Journal’s Christina S.N. Lewis, this was Cindy McCain’s childhood home and the home the McCain family shared for 20 years. The McCains sold it in 2006 for $3.2 million to real estate investor Jane Popple. It is now listed for sale for $12 million. Yowza! Architectural Digest did a big photo spread of this McCain residence back in 2005. In the master bedroom, the initials “MC,” for “McCain,” were hand-carved into a mantelpiece, which was made in Guadalajara.

So, there you have it, 7 homes owned by the McCains — that we know of — with two for sale.

Fun stuff:

• Take a Flickr tour of John McCain’s Mansions
• Go on a Google Earth tour of McCain’s houses by Jed Report
• See Wonkette’s map of McCain properties

Comments, corrections, additions, and submissions are welcome. Please send to celebtips@zillow.com

Here is the original post:

Last week the Wall Street Journal raised an interesting question: Is it financially beneficial for parents to purchase off campus housing for their students during their college years instead of paying hefty dorm fees? As a recent college grad, this idea really got me thinking.

While the potential gains are tantalizing, there are some major red flags and risks involved with financing your child’s private study environment/animal house. To further tap into this concept, I read up on the Zillow blog about buying a house for college and raised this question on Zillow Discussions yesterday. “Mom & Dad: Should I live in the dorms or will you buy me a house?” Four hours and 45 comments later, I had my answer—-or at least a lot of new opinions.

Azrob: Do you really want an 18 year old to have the added responsibility of being a landlord/homeowner?

Chutta: I remember a home that I and 8 other friends rented in college. Stayed there for two years. When we did the walk through with Landlord’s daughter (he gave her the home) she cried.

Charlene Hanson: If you plan to buy an investment property anyway, it makes sense, but in today’s market, you’d probably have to hold it longer.

Brtlmj: I live in a college town. Yep, that’s what many parents do - or at least they used to. People who did it and sold a year ago or earlier got their kids educated for free.

My advise: Parents, make your kids live in the dorms. Dorm life builds character, strengthens your immune system, and is the heart of undergraduate college experience. Parents, college is your time to relax and enjoy an empty nest. Don’t stress yourself out by micromanaging your child’s college experience. Hat tip to everyone in Discussions for your great insight.

View post:
Live in the Dorm or Buy a House?

Photos courtesy of my brother, Joe Curnutte

My Hometown: Mahomet, Ill.
Median value in 1990: Approx. $83,000
My Home’s Zestimate today: $170,000

Before answering the call of Zillow and moving to Seattle about a month ago, I was fortunate to get a pretty diverse view of the U.S. I was born in Boston and lived in and around the city until I was 11, when my dad got a new job at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Ill. We moved to Mahomet, Ill. , a little town called of 6,000 about 10 miles from the university and stayed there until I went to college.

Even though I missed New England, there were perks of country life. The affordability of real estate in Mahomet got us a pool (huge bonus), a big backyard and a finished basement.

Mahomet is pretty much your classic Midwestern farm town, with the benefit of proximity to the cosmopolitan twin cities of Champaign-Urbana. My alma mater, the University of Illinois, straddles those two towns.

In Mahomet, high school football is king and you’re never far from a cornfield. But the town has changed a lot since I moved away more than a decade ago. New homes are always under construction, the citizens voted last year to lift the town-wide prohibition on alcohol, so new restaurants are opening downtown, and they got a few stoplights (seriously, when I was in high school there weren’t any). And after years of university-centrism that kept the downtowns of Champaign and Urbana pretty quiet, that is changing, too. Now when I go to visit my parents, there are wine bars, sushi restaurants and a completely revitalized campustown to keep me and my siblings entertained.

So it’s no surprise that homes in the Champaign area are still increasing in value, even as much of the rest of the country sees declines. Check out this graphic: No bubble whatsoever.

The area has seen steady appreciation for years, with an increase in value of more than 4 percent in the past five years.

As a recent college grad, I moved back to Boston, despite the fact that it has some of the most expensive real estate in the country. According to Zillow’s Second Quarter 2008 Real Estate Market Reports, the Zillow Home Value Index in the Boston area for Q2 was $357,022. In the Champaign, Ill. area, which includes Mahomet, it was $138,974.

By contrast, second quarter values in the Boston area fell almost 9 percent year-over-year, and saw 0 percent appreciation over the past five years (although homes have appreciated almost 7 percent in the past 10). Numbers aside, nothing can been the memories and hometown feeling of Mahomet, Illinois.

Read more from the original source:
My Hometown: Mahomet, Ill.

(Bottom photo courtesy Rochester, NY, Democrat and Chronicle)

From the comments generated by Extreme Makeover homes in foreclosure and Extreme Makeover homes on the market, this latest Extreme Makeover home at 148 William St., Geneva, NY, is sure to raise a few eyebrows. Here’s the story: The Hill Family of Geneva, NY, which is a suburb of Rochester, NY, won the opportunity to have their home redone by ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Usually, the family that “wins” has some compelling, down-and-out story, but for the Hills, they were awarded the makeover due to Tim Hill’s work as a boxing teacher for underprivileged youth.

According to our information on the home, the original home was 2,312 sq ft and sat on a double lot, off to the right. This makeover centers the home on the lot, plus gives them a 3,200-square-foot, two-story house and boxer training facility. Here’s where the controversy comes in. According to this Democrat and Chronicle article:

It’s not yet clear what sort of impact the show will have on the Hills’ future finances. Geneva City Assessor Pat Grimaldi said the property taxes for the new home could be twice what they had been paying.

Even if the new house costs as much as $500,000 to build, the assessment wouldn’t be that high because it has to be in line with its fair market value and it would never sell for that price, Grimaldi said.

Most homes in the Hill’s neighborhood are worth $40,000 to $149,000. “This house is probably going to end up valued in the ($225,000) range for that street,” Grimaldi estimated.

But, he added, it could have a ripple effect: “It’s definitely going to attract people to buy in the neighborhood, which could drive prices up.”

Our Zillow Home Value Index for this area is $99,000, so it will be interesting to see how the assessment is handed down next year. Stay tuned!

See more here:
New Extreme Makeover Home in Geneva, NY

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.

Read the original post:
Zillow on Bloomberg TV talking House Values

There are many different reasons to code with the Zillow API. However, Auston Bunsen, the programmer behind iZillow (here’s the FoREM writeup) stumbled on a reason I haven’t heard yet — getting mentioned in the New York Times! Auston wrote up the story of how he got a NYTimes mention out of the Zillow API on his blog this weekend.

So, if you’re a freelance developer with a cool idea, we encourage you to make that idea a reality, by using the API. Who knows, maybe you’ll even get mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Fortune, or another mainstream media outlet.

See more here:
One More Reason to Code with the Zillow API

Joe Biden’s House
1209 Barley Mill Rd, Wilmington, Del. 19807
See more Greenville, Delaware real estate

Barack Obama’s intent to unveil Joe Biden as his VP choice via text message was scooped by the MSM (ooh, take that, bloggers!) as the media descended on Biden’s house last Friday and chronicled his every move — from walking his mother to her carriage house at 11 p.m. to TV stations shining spotlights down his Wilmington, Delaware driveway at 5 a.m. early Saturday morning, his nomination day.

As I researched Joe Biden’s house, I realized he found his house like a lot of us find our homes: by driving around neighborhoods where we want to live. According to Noam Scheiber of The New Republic:

Joe found it one night, a couple of years after he became a Senator. He was driving around, like he did back then. He was snooping around Greenville, streets of his dreams, when he saw it, all overgrown, boarded up. Some developer was going to knock it down because the four and a half acres were worth more than the house.

Yes, Joe is just like us: He drives around neighborhoods, looking for deals and opportunities.

Since Biden has not claimed his home on Zillow and updated his home facts, his Zestimate is way off at $1,329,000. We show a mere 1,803 sq ft for his home while the county records show two parcels for a combined square footage of 8,750 sq ft. I was able create my own Zestimate according to what I know about his home, coming in at $2,856,950, which is probably much closer to its actual value.

For some more information about Biden’s home, check out this post by Chickaboomer, who documents the history of Biden’s “compound.”

Credit:

It seems so idyllic…looking past your backyard onto an expanse of beautifully-tended lawn that you didn’t mow. Perhaps the view even includes a little lake (water hazard). Or if you’re a golfer, you live there because after work, you can wander onto the course to play a few holes before darkness sets in. But buyers beware… there are some downsides to living on the links. A friend of mine lives on a course deep in the heart of Texas and on a recent visit, I saw it for myself.

Problem #1: Cursing. Those of you with young’un’s, there are probably certain words you were hoping your kids didn’t hear until at least junior high. Well, get ready for your kids to ask, “What does !@#$%^& mean?” After errant shots, some golfers aren’t as restrained as golf course etiquette might require. Be prepared for random streams of expletives that can drift over the back fence and into the ears of innocents.

Problem #2: Slices & Hooks. If you’re thinking about buying a home on the range, pay attention to where the nearest tee is. The windows of some homes are perfectly positioned exactly where a really bad slice or hook would go. My friend is on the slice zone from the 7th tee. Four of her windows have been broken by bad drives, with one ball hit so hard it went through both panes. Several other drives landed in the swimming pool (thankfully, the kids weren’t in it). While it is the golfer’s responsibility to fess up and pay for the broken windows, they haven’t all chosen the path of honor. Some have just dropped another ball and pretended the first wasn’t theirs. One golfer even had the agility to leap her fence to retrieve his ball. When shown the broken window, he argued it must have been someone else’s shot. Unfortunately for him, his monogrammed initials on the golf ball gave him away. At least he, grudgingly, paid for the damage.

Many birds fly over my house, so you can imagine what hits my windows. I guess I should be grateful.

See the original post here:
The Pros & Cons of Living on a Fairway

It seems so idyllic…looking past your backyard onto an expanse of beautifully-tended lawn that you didn’t mow. Perhaps the view even includes a little lake (water hazard). Or if you’re a golfer, you live there because after work, you can wander onto the course to play a few holes before darkness sets in. But buyers beware… there are some downsides to living on the links. A friend of mine lives on a course deep in the heart of Texas and on a recent visit, I saw it for myself.

Problem #1: Cursing. Those of you with young’un’s, there are probably certain words you were hoping your kids didn’t hear until at least junior high. Well, get ready for your kids to ask, “What does !@#$%^& mean?” After errant shots, some golfers aren’t as restrained as golf course etiquette might require. Be prepared for random streams of expletives that can drift over the back fence and into the ears of innocents.

Problem #2: Slices & Hooks. If you’re thinking about buying a home on the range, pay attention to where the nearest tee is. The windows of some homes are perfectly positioned exactly where a really bad slice or hook would go. My friend is on the slice zone from the 7th tee. Four of her windows have been broken by bad drives, with one ball hit so hard it went through both panes. Several other drives landed in the swimming pool (thankfully, the kids weren’t in it). While it is the golfer’s responsibility to fess up and pay for the broken windows, they haven’t all chosen the path of honor. Some have just dropped another ball and pretended the first wasn’t theirs. One golfer even had the agility to leap her fence to retrieve his ball. When shown the broken window, he argued it must have been someone else’s shot. Unfortunately for him, his monogrammed initials on the golf ball gave him away. At least he, grudgingly, paid for the damage.

Many birds fly over my house, so you can imagine what hits my windows. I guess I should be grateful.

Read the original post:
The Pros & Cons of Living on a Fairway

It seems so idyllic…looking past your backyard onto an expanse of beautifully-tended lawn that you didn’t mow. Perhaps the view even includes a little lake (water hazard). Or if you’re a golfer, you live there because after work, you can wander onto the course to play a few holes before darkness sets in. But buyers beware… there are some downsides to living on the links. A friend of mine lives on a course deep in the heart of Texas and on a recent visit, I saw it for myself.

Problem #1: Cursing. Those of you with young’un’s, there are probably certain words you were hoping your kids didn’t hear until at least junior high. Well, get ready for your kids to ask, “What does !@#$%^& mean?” After errant shots, some golfers aren’t as restrained as golf course etiquette might require. Be prepared for random streams of expletives that can drift over the back fence and into the ears of innocents.

Problem #2: Slices & Hooks. If you’re thinking about buying a home on the range, pay attention to where the nearest tee is. The windows of some homes are perfectly positioned exactly where a really bad slice or hook would go. My friend is on the slice zone from the 7th tee. Four of her windows have been broken by bad drives, with one ball hit so hard it went through both panes. Several other drives landed in the swimming pool (thankfully, the kids weren’t in it). While it is the golfer’s responsibility to fess up and pay for the broken windows, they haven’t all chosen the path of honor. Some have just dropped another ball and pretended the first wasn’t theirs. One golfer even had the agility to leap her fence to retrieve his ball. When shown the broken window, he argued it must have been someone else’s shot. Unfortunately for him, his monogrammed initials on the golf ball gave him away. At least he, grudgingly, paid for the damage.

Many birds fly over my house, so you can imagine what hits my windows. I guess I should be grateful.

Read more here:
The Pros & Cons of Living on a Fairway