Buyers Get Web Tools, Sellers Try
New Strategies to Sell Homes

More online real-estate tools

For buyers and sellers looking for help in navigating the housing market, there is a host of relatively new Web sites available, according to articles posted on RealEstateJournal.com and the San Jose Mercury-News. Sellers can place their listings on ZipRealty.com for free -- securing a real-estate agent isn't necessary. (However, the Mercury-News notes, such for-sale-by-owner listings can only be accessed by site visitors via email.) The seller must pay the company a 2.5% commission if the site secures a buyer for the property. ZipRealty.com users can place reviews of homes or neighborhoods on the site, the Mercury-News reports. Reply.com offers aerial home photos, comparable sales data, property valuations and market-trend info, (as does Yahoo Real Estate), the Mercury-News says. On Trulia.com, potential home buyers can do online searches for homes for sale by school district, according to the Mercury-News. Sites like Zillow.comand RealEstateabc.com provide free home valuations, but these valuations can vary widely, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Online found.

Housing boom over in New York metro area

The residential real-estate boom enjoyed by the New York City region during the past five years has ended, reports The New York Times. Across the area, homes are taking longer to sell, forcing sellers to cut prices, the article reports. Sellers and buyers are jockeying for position, with homeowners trying to hold on to boom-time prices and sellers waiting for price cuts, the Web site says. Median prices continue to rise, the article notes, but at a slower pace than in previous years. In June, median home prices in Nassau County, N.Y., rose 6.3% from June 2005 to $500,000, and prices in Suffolk County, N.Y., went up 6.6% from June 2005 to $410,500, the Web site says. In New Jersey, the median price for a single-family home rose 3% to $470,000 in June 2006 from June 2005 in Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and Essex counties, the article says.

Want a car with that house?

In Chicago, inventories of homes for sale have "exploded" in all price ranges, says an article published by the Chicago Tribune, leading sellers to offer to pay buyers' closing costs and increase agents' commissions to help sell their properties. Hardest hit have been owners of more expensive houses, who are throwing in "exotic" enticements to lure buyers, the paper says. For example, one Naperville couple will include a 2006 Hummer H3 (with only 65 miles on the odometer) to a buyer who is willing to pay close to their $1.475 million asking price, and another homeowner -- a car dealer -- says he will give a Mini Cooper convertible to any real-estate agent who can sell his house, listed at $4.9 million, the article says. The Hummer owners face stiff competition to find a buyer -- Naperville has a 30.2-month supply of properties on the market. (In a balanced market, the inventory of homes available is usually between five and six months, says RealEstateJournal.com columnist June Fletcher.)

'Starter homes' a rare find in Atlanta

In the past, first-time home buyers looking for a home in Atlanta could consider several city neighborhoods, perhaps purchasing a $400,000 bungalow in Morningside or a modest house in Peachtree Hills, according to an article published by the Journal-Constitution. But as in-city neighborhoods become more in demand, and buyers increasingly move from the suburbs, such properties are harder to come by, the paper says. Across the city, older houses are being torn down and being replaced by new homes costing more than $1 million, the Journal-Constitution says. Buyers priced out of a starter house aren't likely to have much luck in the condo market either, the paper says, as many new units are being priced in the seven figures.

Vacation-home sales slide in the Hamptons

The Hamptons, the ritzy New York beach area where movie director Steven Spielberg and investor Ron Perelman own second homes, saw home sales drop 18% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2005, according to Bloomberg.com. The drop in sales is more than four times greater than the nationwide decline of 4.3%. Blamed for the fall in demand is a lowered confidence in the housing market, the article says. Despite lower buyer interest overall, waterfront mansions on the extreme high end continue to sell, Bloomberg.com says. "The $20 million Hamptons houses are still selling because those buyers are immune to interest rates," the Web site quotes one local real-estate broker as saying.

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