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Trulia hits the streets with new imagery

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Real estate search and marketing company Trulia has taken to the streets.

Trulia.com has integrated Google's Street View imagery tools, which allow users to view street-level digital images of homes for about 30 metro areas across the nation.

Trulia users can also view property locations on an illustrated map, a satellite image, or a hybrid satellite image with labeled streets. The new imagery tools launched Tuesday.  more...

Move Inc. grows home and garden content

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Realtor.com operator Move Inc. is ramping up its online home and garden content with the addition of new videos and articles from sources including BeJane, This Old House and Elle Decor, among others.

The additions, which more than double the existing content at the site, are part of a re-launch of Move.com's Home & Garden section to make it more accessible to consumers, said Patty Mitchell, senior vice president of consumer media at Move Inc.  more...

Foreclosure widget connects agents with bargain hunters Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Data aggregator ForeclosureRadar on Tuesday made available a widget that allows real estate brokers and agents to provide information on foreclosed and bank-owned properties through their Web sites -- and keep the leads the search tool generates for themselves.  more...

Relief in mortgage forgiveness, PMI deduction

By Tom Kelly, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Homeowners who went through foreclosure in 2007 could receive a benefit on their federal income tax return thanks to the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. Under the new law, taxpayers no longer have to pay tax on the value of their home loan if the loan was cancelled through a foreclosure proceeding, otherwise known as "cancellation of indebtedness income."  more...

Install grab bars in shower with ease

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

A few weeks ago, Kevin was cruising the aisles of the Home Depot near his home in Eagle, Idaho, trying to decide whether to spring for a new cordless drill or to replace the battery in his trusty but old 9.6-volt Makita.

He noticed a man in a quandary next to him in the tool aisle. The man was trying to figure out how to drill a hole in ceramic tile. Since there wasn't a salesperson to be found this Saturday, the man asked Kevin how to do it. Kevin asked him what he was trying to do. Install a grab bar in a shower was the response.  more...

WaMu laying off 3,000, closing home loan offices

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, April 8, 2008. <p>Washington Mutual will lay off 3,000 employees as it closes all 186 of the bank's freestanding home loan offices and stops making loans through mortgage brokers, the company said Tuesday in announcing a plan to raise $7 billion to offset mounting losses.</p>
<p>WaMu officials released a preliminary estimate that the bank racked up a $1.1 billion net loss for the first quarter, with provisions for loan losses rising to $3.5 billion and net charge-offs on bad loans hitting $1.4 billion. </p>  more...

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Hey can I get a loan offer here?

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Zillow has released a breakdown of the number of loan applications and loan quotes coming into its Zillow Mortgage Marketplace since last week's launch (see Inman News story). While it's no surprise that Pacific Rim states with lots of tech-savvy residents are producing the most loan requests, it is eye opening to see just how dependent the site is on California.  more...

Straight from the horse's mouth

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

If you think the media has a tendency to exaggerate the threat the mortgage meltdown poses to the world economy (or at least be overly dramatic), here's the latest, straight from the horse's mouth. This is what members of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee were saying about the economy at their March 18 meeting, and what economists at the International Monetary Fund have to say about the global picture.

From the Fed meeting minutes:  more...

Whole Foods to occupy Florida space

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Texas-based Whole Foods Market has signed a lease agreement to occupy 71,754 square feet of space in Pompano Beach, Fla., under a 10-year agreement brokered by CB Richard Ellis.

Harry Tangalakis, senior vice president, William Waxman, senior vice president, and Doug Norton, senior vice president, exclusively represented the tenant in the lease negotiations, while Larry Diner with Industrial Developments International (IDI) represented building ownership, Pompano Business Center LLC.  more...

LoopNet expands online listings exposure

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

LoopNet, a large online commercial real estate marketplace, will begin sending certain property listings from its marketplace to major search engines and more than 100 online newspaper Web sites, the company said this week.  more...

Search tools hunt for real estate bargains

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Realty Counselors, a Los Angeles-area real estate brokerage and mortgage company, has launched automated valuation tools that calculate which homes are the best bargains in a given area and which homes can potentially be profitable for investors to purchase and rent out.  more...

A real estate roundtrip routing tool

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

The Virginia Association of Realtors has launched IdealRoute.com, an online tool that allows users to identify the most efficient travel route for a group of selected addresses anywhere in the United States. Sounds like a good way for real estate agents to potentially cut down their fuel costs while taking clients to see several properties. Or maybe just a useful tool to plan business or personal errands.  more...

NAR forecast: Resale home prices will fall 1.4% this year

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

The median price of resale homes is expected to drop another 1.4 percent this year, equaling last year's decline, the National Association of Realtors reported today in its latest housing market forecast. The median price of new homes is expected to drop 3.6 percent this year.  more...

Foreclosures: Hot or Not?

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

HotPads.com, a map-based search site for rental and for-sale properties has launched a Foreclosure Heat Maps tool that color-codes ZIP code areas based on the volume of foreclosure filings for properties in those areas.  more...

Overnight interest rates rise

By Inman News, Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Long-term mortgage interest rates increased Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield also increased to 3.54 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average climed to 5.68 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate increased to 5.26 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate slipped to 5.65 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield was up at 4.35 percent.

Rates and bonds are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...