Deep real estate diving The

The new year brought about a round of new developments at real estate Web sites and search engines, including:

1. Seattle-based ShackPrices.com launched upgraded text search capabilities, enabling consumers on the site to search through a complete real estate listings using a simple text search box. This means that buyers can narrow searches with keywords like "hardwood floor" or "fixer" and also eliminate certain listings by using a minus sign in front of words they wish to avoid, like "-fixer". This is the first time that we are aware of a listings site enabling a text search of listings. Check it out at www.shackprices.com.

2. Colorado-based Metro Brokers, Inc. unveiled a new real estate search site at ColoradoHomeStop.com. The site uses a map-based interface to guide users to neighborhoods and specific listings in Colorado markets. Using AJAX technology and Google Maps' platform, it offers a fast search as the pages do not have to load each time a section of the map is clicked on. The initial launch includes access to nearly all Denver metro listings from the Metrolist MLS.

3. Trulia tallied up some its online consumers' behavior and released a report showing real estate trends and consumer search habits at its site. While the company did not reveal how many consumers were included in the tallies, it showed real estate search behavior in 15 high-population cities across the country. According to the stats, the typical search on Trulia is for a 1,775-square-foot single-family home with 2.4 bedrooms, 1.7 bathrooms, and a price of $883,986. The 10 most searched cities on Trulia in December 2006 were: Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego, Jacksonville, Denver, Orlando and San Jose. More info is in the report at this link.

4. As more real estate Web sites strive to provide content to consumers in ways consumers think about and search for real estate, OnBoard LLC has enhanced its neighborhood definition and navigation platform so that relevant neighborhood content shows up in real estate searches on sites that use the company's data. The New York-based company can now code real estate data to the neighborhood level to provide a more relevant search for consumers.

--Jessica Swesey, Inman News

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