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How much is that house next door?

How much is that house next door?
Posted 5/25/2005 9:50 PM/Updated 5/26/2005 1:23 AM
By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY

It's not enough to keep up with the Joneses. Now, homeowners want to know how much their neighbors paid for their house and how much their own is worth — even if they have no intention of selling.

The home-buying boom has created legions of real estate voyeurs cruising free Web sites such as Domania, ForSaleByOwner.com and HomeRadar.com to find sales prices for homes in their neighborhoods.

Many who peruse these sites are people looking for an edge as they buy and sell homes. Others surf these sites to obsessively track what's increasingly their No. 1 investment — their house — much as they would check a stock's price. And then there are those who just enjoy anonymously spying on their neighbors.

"This is the new form of snooping in somebody else's medicine cabinet. In this case, the shelf won't fall down," says Mark Lesswing, technology guru for the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

As real estate becomes the national conversation, 21.6 million Web surfers, or 15% of the active Web population, visited a real estate or apartment site in April, up 26% from six months ago, Nielsen/NetRatings says. Traffic to the top 10 sites is up 54% that same period. The percentage of home shoppers who use the Internet in their search is now 74%, the NAR says.

Domania offers registered members actual sales prices of homes rather than listings. That helps prospective home buyers get a fix on prices on areas they're interested in. They can check how many times a home has turned over and at what price. Homeowners can track the appreciation of their home by comparing sales prices, or "comps," of similar homes.

Domania has registered nearly 1 million users in five years. It had 751,000 unique visitors in April, a 313% increase from six months earlier. Almost half of the visitors are "lookie-loos," says Ben Joslin, Domania's vice president of marketing, adding that the data can be an "irresistible draw" for consumers looking to snoop on their neighbors. "Even if you're not buying or selling your house, you want to know what houses are selling for in your neighborhood," Joslin says.

While information on these sites could raise privacy concerns, most of it is available publicly through county real estate assessment sites, townships, newspapers and consumer surveys, according to Colby Sambrotto, chief operating officer at ForSaleByOwner.com. The site has posted a 142% increase in unique visitors the past six months, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

One problem: Some public information can be old. So consumers should do their own homework with local real estate agents and county offices.

"This is similar to consumers going to (Kelley Blue Book) before they sell their cars," Lesswing says. "If this makes you a more informed consumer, then it's good for business."


LINK: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/housing/2005-05-25-real-voyeurs-usat_x.htm