Online Real Estate Lists Grow To Consumer Delight

New York Times:

AS if home buyers do not have it good enough already, finding a house for sale on the Web is becoming easier.

The triple threat of a weak market, legal pressure and increasing competition has compelled real estate professionals to offer their information more freely online, putting cracks in a walled garden of data that stood strong while the industry enjoyed its breakaway growth. It also presages an end to the days when sellers must list their homes with a broker so buyers can see them.

The trend revolves around the nation's roughly 900 multiple listing services, or M.L.S.'s, where local brokers post information about homes they are selling. In years past, these services were highly restrictive about where and how that information could be distributed -- for instance, frequently not permitting Web sites to display M.L.S. listings alongside for-sale-by-owner homes, bank foreclosures or other properties not represented by real estate agents.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[JoeBlough]

Now that housing prices are coming down to equal value, all of Clinton's hard-working whites will finally be able to buy a house. None of my friends have been able to buy a house for the last five years. Finally, they are getting excited over the prospect of buying. This so called "housing collapse" is the best thing to happen to people who live within their means.