According to the U.S. Census, three-quarters of Americans own real estate, compared to only one-quarter who own stocks.  It’s so simple to track changes to a stock’s value, but it’s been nearly impossible to easily figure out the changing value of your largest asset – your home.
Starting today, Zillow is making this easier via […]

In the Blogosphere, a summary of many posts about one topic is called a Carnival. Bloggers get together and take turns at “hosting” the carnival on their blog. My favorite is the Carnival of the Capitalists; a weekly collection of posts about business & entrepreneurship (hosted this week at ProHipHop). Some other carnivals are listed […]

I’m usually a pretty optimistic guy, but I’ve started to see some scary things on the horizon. And I’ve gotta pass it on. Check this out: 9.4% of all mortgage borrowers now have no equity or negative equity in their home, and 29% of new mortgages last year had no equity. $800 billion worth of […]

The interesting thing about the topic of home values is that it’s always a bit ubiquitous… even when we’re watching TV.  Who hasn’t watched an episode of Friends and declared there’s no way Rachel and Monica could afford that apartment in New York… or wondered how Mike the single plumber on Desperate Housewives lives in […]

Last week, my wife and I lined up a babysitter and we went to a great bookstore a couple blocks from our office here in Seattle to hear Liz Gilbert do a reading from her latest book, "Eat, Pray, Love." Liz is friend of my brother, Pat.  It was great to see her, and to […]

I was in New York earlier this week speaking at two Wall Street conferences (the JP Morgan Internet Conference and the Stifel Nicholas Consumer Conference) and then in Bellevue, Washington, last night speaking at the MIT Enterprise Forum. I told the Zillow story and explained the background of the company and that in the beta […]

Zillow has a cool enhanced search feature that we’re hearing is a bit difficult to find. On Zillow’s home page, within the search box, is an “Advanced Search” link. It’s also located on the Maps & Search page — just to the right of the search box — as well as on any home details […]

Nine months ago, when I first interviewed at Zillow for a position on the design team, I was asked how to design a site so that it is lightweight and loved by search engines.  I remember getting on my miniature-sized, but sturdy, rock star pink soap box (which matched my hair) about the importance of […]

One of the great things about finally being “live” is that our phones have been ringing off the hook.  By and large, the reception has been fantastic – much better than I had anticipated. 
One thing is for sure, it’s been a number of years since I have traveled as much as I have over […]

Today we received an e-mail into the press inbox from a casting director with the A&E’s show “Flip this House.” They are on the hunt for a person or company that “flips” at least 10 residential properties a year… chosen company gets to host the show (and have their daily adventures chronicled for all […]

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