Geeks and the Housing Market
By: Drew Meyers, Business Development Specialist | February 15, 2007
How "geeky" are Zillow users? Wired magazine recently identified the 10 Top Tech Towns — and it got us thinking. How do these towns relate to our user base? We took a look what percentage of homes have been viewed on Zillow in these areas to see if they matched up with what Wired had to say. Nationwide, just over 42% of the roughly 70 million homes in our database have been viewed at least once. A pretty significant number to say the least, but in some of these tech towns, this percentage is almost mind-boggling. It is pretty safe to say that if you live in one of these towns at least someone is checking out your home. Here’s what we found:
(Note: This analysis is at the county level for each hi-tech city).
- Seattle (83% viewed) - We share the Seattle tech scene with established giants like Microsoft, Expedia, and Amazon as well as other interesting startups like Farecast, Redfin and Jobster. Back in November, we reported that 80% of houses in King County had been viewed — I am pleased to say that number has increased to almost 83%.
- Boston (81% viewed) - In 1999, it ranked as the second largest high-tech center in the country and is home to ITA Software and TripAdvisor. With the 4th-highest Zindex on this list and the 2nd-highest percentage of homes viewed, it’s safe to say our data confirms Wired’s opinion that Boston has a thriving tech industry.
- San Francisco Bay Area (77.18% viewed) - This area is one of the most popular for Zillow. The Bay Area is home to tech giants such as Google and Yahoo!, as well as many up-and-comers including Yelp and Pandora.
- Los Angeles (76% viewed) - Though best known as home to the rich and famous, LA came in fourth place as a bustling tech town and is home to tech companies such as Business.com, Break.com and Lowermybills.com.
- New York (45%) - Though better known for Broadway and Wall Street, with over 8 million residents, New York City has a tech industry as well. Two notable companies are Del.icio.us and Etsy.
- Washington DC (41% viewed) - Apparently, DC has more postings on the Geek 2 Geek online dating service than any city on the list. If you thought only politicians and lobbyists lived here, note that as of 1999, it was the 3rd largest tech hub in the country. If you live in DC and are interested in technology — check out the DC Tech Council Web site.
- Pittsburgh (28% viewed) - Falling below the 42% nationwide number, Pittsburgh is either not as "geeky" as advertised or we need to increase word of mouth among Pittsburgh residents.
The other towns worth mentioning are Austin (42% viewed), Orlando (66% viewed), and Raleigh-Durham (46% viewed).
LA, Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco obviously fit the bill of being nerdy and as a result, a high percentage of residents seem to be coming to Zillow to research their homes. Of course there are other variables that come into play as well, but all in all, it seems that geeks view more houses on Zillow than non-geeks.
Somewhat related — according to FastCompany.com’s "Ten Hot Jobs for 2007" — Web designers are among the most sought-after positions to fill. So, if you are a Web developer, you are in luck in ‘07 (and please contact us if you’re looking for a job)!
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- Categories: Real Estate Industry, Zillow
Comments
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Reveal real estate on February 17, 2007 4:24 pm
We love zillow. BUT there is no zillow for central america much as we would like there to be. Also no MLS (Panama is trying and also some regional initiatives in Costa Rica). Our blog/website is trying to fill in some of the gaps - with as much data as possible. Would love to speak about getting more rigorus information for the region. Perhaps there is room for some sort of collaboration.
David G from Zillow.com on February 21, 2007 4:38 pm
REVEAL -
Thanks! It sounds like there’s LOTS of opportunity for innovation in Central America. We do get many requests to expand globally — most are from Canada. All I can tell you is that we are thinking about it but there’s still a lot we want to do with the US site.
Gary Brounchstein on February 24, 2007 10:38 pm
You just made it a lot harder for me to use Zillow by putting in a browser check that excludes older versions of Mozilla. I don’t know why — it worked ok until now (except for a few problems which I also encountered with current versions of Firefox). I am unable to install a newer browser on this computer, so unless you remove this arbitrary restriction, you’ll have that many fewer hits in my metro area.
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william sims on July 31, 2007 12:58 am
HELP me HELP some poor souls fight unfair tax increases, under Sec 41.43. PROTEST OF INEQUALITY OF APPRAISAL. how do i find lot information like house evaluation on zillow. the easiest way to prove Sec 41.43 Abuse is through lot appraisals, less room for expleted deleated. i am donating all time 400 hours, so far and $$$. need help…..thanks NEED LOT INFORMATION, NO IMPROVEMENTS. ps. we had a revolution for a tea tax, what would our forfathers done about PROPERTY AND INCOME TAX!!?
mike on March 2, 2008 10:02 am
Great post! I’ll have to try that. Let me know if you ever expand on your code