More than half of folks who bought into the housing market in 2006 are now upside down, and in places like Las Vegas it's about nine out of ten -- if you want to take Zillow.com's automated home valuations at face value (see story).

Whether the numbers are spot on or not, the potential implications -- more foreclosure inventory as borrowers lose their motivation to keep up their mortgage payments -- are ominous.

Reports like these may alarm would-be bargain hunters who would otherwise be ready to jump back into the housing market, but are afraid to end up in the same boat. But every market is different, and it's likely many have already bottomed out or never tanked. What does it take to convince fence sitters that the (discarded) mantra of the National Association of Realtors ("It's a great time to buy") may actually be true?

Homethinking.com has launched an interesting site that helps realtors show clients how lenders behaved back in 2006, when many of the wildest excesses of the housing boom were in full swing. Mortgage.homethinking.com taps the Federal Reserve's Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database, showing the percentage of subprime loans, average loan size, loan-to-income ratio, and other statistics at the county level.

The site's not perfect (see story), but it's the kind of innovation that makes you wonder if the folks at the Fed are sorry they didn't think of it first -- especially given that the Fed has created some pretty nifty dynamic maps that show the recent performance of subprime and alt-A loans in a database maintained by FirstAmerican CoreLogic LoanPerformance (see previous post).

Risk indexes that take into account past price volatility and economic factors like unemployment are perhaps the most sophisticated tool for peering into the future. PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.publishes one of the most comprehensive indexes (see story on the most recent numbers from PMI).

Ever heard of HUD's "Officer Next Door Home Sales Program"? It offers police officers a 50 percent discount off the list price of homes in "revitalization areas" from HUD's inventory of REO properties (OK, no disparaging remarks about how it's always been your dream to live in a revitalization area).

I'd never heard of the program before getting a press release about the upcoming six-year anniversary of the Web site GovBenefits.gov. The site's mission is a simple one -- to answer the question: "Are there government benefit programs available to help you?"

GovBenefits.gov's home page looks so cheesy, I thought for a minute it was a scam. But it turns out it's legit. Participating government agencies include HUD, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Small Business Administration, and others that may be in a position to assist home buyers or real estate firms. Search for housing programs, and you get a list of more than 50 (some look more promising than others).

One bone to pick: the "Officer Next Door" program has apparently morphed into the "Good Neighbor Next Door" program, and now includes teachers and EMTs. That's great, but the link to the "Officer Next Door" program from GovBenefits.gov hadn't been updated -- it took me to a dead page on the HUD Web site. Here's the link to the "Good Neighbor Next Door" program.

Zillow today announced the launch of a new feature at its Web site that allows agents and brokers to market themselves at pages that feature properties they previously sold.

"Your sold homes are already getting viewed a lot on Zillow, with (until now) nothing to distinguish them as your sold homes," the company announced in a blog post. The Virtual Sold Sign program is free for agents to use and is available at Zillow's listings feed page.

Agents and brokers who associate with a sold property are identified under a "Last Sold By" and can include their name, photo, and brokerage company.

Linking agents to recently sold properties is not a brand new concept. Homethinking.com allows users to view agents associated with active for-sale properties and recently sold properties, and AgentMatch.com also allows users to view past sales associated with specific agents. Those sites also allow users to view list prices compared to sold prices for properties.

Agents and brokers who use Zillow's new program can continue to market themselves through the properties they have listed for sale at Zillow's Web site after those properties are sold, and they can also associate themselves with properties that sold before Zillow's listings feed program launched.

A legal battle is ongoing as to whether online community site craigslist is afforded federal protections for discriminatory housing ads posted by the site's users.

Oral arguments were heard in the case Friday (and can be heard here). Watch for an Inman News article on Tuesday (see past article here).

The case hinges on the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' interpretation of provisions in the Communications Decency Act, and on whether craigslist is considered a publisher, like a newspaper, that has associated liabilities for published content -- or whether the judges believe craigslist is more like a telephone service that has protections for users who use its services to conduct illegal activity (such as two bank robbers who plan a robbery using a telephone service or a bank of telemarketers who promote discriminatory messages).

The three judge's pondered aloud some of the issues in the case during the Friday arguments: like whether the staff at craigslist could adequately screen all of the millions of postings at the site for discriminatory content, whether screening could potentially go too far to block out words that aren't discriminatory by themselves (for example, should craigslist block the words "church" or "children" because an ad could potentially state "nearby Catholic church" or "no children allowed"),

The Real Estate, Real Competition and the Law blog has a take on the latest court developments here. Another fair housing-related lawsuit involving online site Roommates.com, is pending a decision, too.

A judge's financial interest in America Online has led a panel of three U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges to toss out the conviction of former Homestore (now known as Move Inc.) CEO Stuart Wolff, and government prosecutors are weighing whether to ask another group of judges to reconsider the matter or to prepare for a completely new trial (see Inman News).

A jury convicted Wolff in June 2006 of 18 counts, ranging from conspiracy to falsify Homestore's books and records to lying to accounts and illegal insider trading. At the center of the trial were a number of so-called "triangular" financial transactions in which Homestore paid money to other companies that eventually circulated back to Homestore and was reported as revenues. AOL played a key role in these transactions, which amounted to about $67 million in revenue. During the trial, U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson acknowledged that he "owns stock in AOL" though another judge determined that Anderson's financial interest did not disqualify him from presiding over the lawsuit.

But in the Monday court filing, the panel of judges found that Anderson should have been disqualified from the case, and ruled to "vacate the conviction and sentence" and send the case back to the U.S. District Court with a new judge.

Home sellers and real estate agents looking for an extra push in today's more difficult markets have two new offerings coming their way today:

HomeGain's Home Sale Maximizer

Details count in today's market -- especially for sellers. Real estate agents know there are select things sellers can do to get their homes in tip top shape before listing that tend to aid in the speed of sale and get more interest from prospective buyers.

HomeGain today released an online home improvement evaluation tool, Home Sale Maximizer, that aims to help homeowners identify key repairs for getting a home ready for sale that can help fetch a higher sale price.

The company says it recently surveyed over 2,000 real estate agents nationwide and configured a list of the top 10 moderately priced home improvements that will benefit sellers most when they sell their homes.

RealBird Listing Publisher

RealBird today released Listing Publisher, which aims to help agents who may be struggling for leads to gain online traffic to their listings.

The tool aims to help agents market their properties by embedding their branded MLS search tools directly inside every published single-property Web site, which are then syndicated to more than 10 classified search portals.

Single-property Web sites have grown in popularity in the last year. Agents who use them say they streamline their marketing efforts for a single property.

Other vendors offering single-property Web site services include AgencyLogic and Single Property Sites. And listings syndication services are offered by Point2 Technologies and SubmitYourListings.com.

By now, you've heard Monday's news about IAC's split up of various businesses, including LendingTree, into five separate parts.

An interesting analysis at NYT's Bits blog, "Barry Diller and the Fallacy of IAC," notes that the breakup points to the old question about conglomerates on the Web:

"The bigger question is whether it is possible for anyone to build the General Electric of the Internet, as Mr. Diller was trying to do. The stock market won’t let it happen. When an Internet company becomes a hit, it grows so rapidly, and investors get so excited about its possibilities, that its value as an independent company can be enormous. Look no further than the $15 billion valuation Microsoft agreed to for Facebook."

Like many others LendingTree has suffered the ills of the housing market, reporting a third-quarter loss of $5.6 million, declining revenues and in May announcing a layoff of 20 percent of its staff. The company did well during the housing boom before Diller bought it, and Diller has a track record for successful spin-offs (think Expedia).

The question now is how will LendingTree fair as a standalone, given the wrath of a down market with Wall Street investors acting cautiously on real estate and mortgage-related stocks today?

The California Department of Insurance has added a link on the home page of its Web site that, with a click of a mouse, takes consumers to an industry-sponsored title insurance rate shopping site -- bypassing the state's own, harder-to-find, but arguably more useful, rate comparison tool.

The last time I switched my auto insurance coverage, about six or seven years ago, I did so after stumbling on a rate comparison tool on the California Department of Insurance's Web site. I'd been with the same company for years, and ignored all those offers you get in the mail from other companies because I thought my carrier (one of those companies with a bunch of As in it) couldn't be beat.

The Department of Insurance search tool -- which surveys consumers on the actual rates they pay, but doesn't provide actual quotes -- suggested there were several auto insurers offering much better rates.

Another reason I'd never been that interested in shopping around was I'd heard horror stories about what a nightmare it could be to get the bargain basement insurers to pay a claim. One thing that was particularly useful about the Department of Insurance site was it provided performance and comparison data about each company, including complaints from consumers.

Turned out the cheapest company for my area also had one of the best track records on performance, so I switched. My wife and I saw our premiums go down by several hundred dollars a year and we have saved literally thousands of dollars on our auto insurance. We've had a couple of minor claims that were hassle free. I recommend this company to people all the time whether or not they've asked for my advice.

When I tried out the auto insurance search tool today, I got a list of 47 companies, with consumers reporting rates for a standard policy for a married couple with no violations ranging from $1,394 (my current insurer!) to $6,056. Our old insurer was charging couples in our area $2,852 a year.

The Department of Insurance offers a very similar search tool for title insurance. You choose your transaction type, county, and amount, and you get back a list of companies and what they might charge you (based on a 2006 survey of consumers). Plus you can click on a "company profile" link for company performance and complaint information -- and a phone number for getting an actual quote.

The industry now has its own title insurance rate shopping site, TitleWizard, which is operated by a private company on behalf of the California Land Title Association. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner was on hand to publicize the site's launch Oct. 9, calling it "a first step to infuse competition into the Title insurance industry." And, it goes with out saying, a less painful first step than the $1 billion rate rollback proposed last year by Poizner's predecessor, John Garamendi.

The Department of Insurance not only endorses the site, but has taken the unusual step of linking to it on the home page of the department's official Web site. Clicking on "NEW! Compare title insurance rates" under "Highlights" takes visitors away from the Department of Insurance, to www.clta.titlewizard.com.

If you want to get to the Department of Insurance's title insurance rate comparison tool from the home page, you have to go to the "Consumer" drop down menu, select "Premium Comparisons" and then choose from the different lines of insurance there. If you don't already know where to look, it's a lot easier to end up on the industry's Web site than the state's.

So how do the sites compare?

The Department of Insurance site generates a chart, showing what each company charges for:

-- a "CLTA standard form policy" insuring the owner

--an "ALTA residential policy, which provides more coverage than the basic CLTA policy including matters not disclosed in public records such as survey boundaries, and property access rights

-- an "ALTA Homeowner's Policy" with even broader coverage including easements, lack of access, encroachments, violations of codes, violations of deed covenants, and conditions or restrictions -- the default policy for the California Real Estate Sale and Purchase Agreement - Contract Form.

--Title Lender Fee, or the fee paid for the portion of the title insurance policy that protects the lender.

When I searched the Department of Insurance site for a policy on a $450,000 transaction in Oakland, Calif., I got 17 results, ranging from $1266 to $1,608 for the ALTA Homeowner's policy. I got an equal number of estimates for title lender fee, ranging from $546 to $668.

With TitleWizard, if I entered the same information, identifying myself as the buyer (that's who pays for title insurance in Alameda County) I was given 10 estimates, for title lender fees, ranging from $517 to $577, but none for a homeowner's policy. The only way I could get information for a homeowner's policy was to run another querry as the seller. That got me 10 results, ranging from $1,228 to $1,820.

While both sites probably have their pluses and minuses,, the industry site offered fewer companies and less information than the Department of Insurance site that was already in place when TitleWizard was launched with much fanfare.

If the Department of Insurance wants to pat the industry on the back for its efforts, that's their call. But should they be redirecting consumers who come to them as a reliable, trusted soruce of information away to an industry-sponsored Web site?

Something tells me the auto insurer I ended up with after using the Department of Insurance's rate comparison tool might not have been included on a site operated by their competitors. They're just kicking their tails too hard.

A new real estate network, Zolve, is launching today. An early morning trot over to the Zolve Web site gets you this: "Launching Soon! The site would be launched in the next few minutes. Please check back soon."

Inman News got a sneak peek for today's story on Zolve's launch: "Social networking meets referral management."

And the company also has mentions around the blogosphere:

"Zolve - a Whole New Real Estate Marketplace for Professionals" (GeekEstate Blog)
"Yo, Check Out My Listings— and Put Me in Your 'Top Friends' List" (BusinessWeek's Hot Property)
"Zolve Tries to Kick ActiveRain While It's Down" (Future of Real Estate Marketing)
"Zolve: A Social Network for Real Estate Agents" (TechCrunch)
"ZOLVE.com - Another RE Network" (RainCityGuide)

Nice coverage for a Web site that isn't even live yet.

The attention bestowed on the new service from broker and U.S. Military serviceman Brian Wilson may have to do with the interesting story behind how he came up with it. Wilson dreamed it up while serving in Iraq and worked with a team of India-based developers while he was in the Middle East.

The idea? Give real estate agents a social network where they can blog and connect with each other, sharing referrals and business while moving digital contracts around online.

The cost? $400 per year. Wilson says the point is to generate referrals between real-estate professionals.

A real life example would be a California agent referring a client to a Denver agent he met on Zolve. The question is how often does that situation come up? Once per year would seem to cover the cost of joining.

Some bloggers have commented that Zolve may come at a good time as many agents are looking for new ways to drum up business and build relationships. The company has a similar approach to ActiveRain, which launched a member-to-member referral service this year.

But is real estate now in a state of social network fatigue? We haven't heard of anyone meeting their agent via Facebook, ActiveRain or LinkedIn. And while the slow market affords many the time to experiment, we wonder what is working and what is just plain fun.

The California Association of Realtors trade group has opened a virtual headquarters in Second Life, a three-dimensional online world in which people are represented by animated characters called avatars.

According to the Second Life Web site, the virtual world or "metaverse" has a total of 9.6 million residents worldwide. As of this afternoon there were about 47,000 users online, and about $966,000 in U.S. dollars spent in the virtual economy in the past 24 hours. Second Life "residents" can buy and sell items using a virtual currency called Linden Dollars that can be exchanged for real-world dollars. It's free to join Second Life, which launched in 2003, though there is a monthly subscription fee to own a piece of cyber property.

Coldwell Banker is among the real world companies that have hung a virtual shingle in Second Life -- that company purchased some land, set up an office and has sold off some virtual homes. Also, the company has dabbled in crossover marketing by dropping a rendering of an actual for-sale property into Second Life.

OpenMLS, which launched a real estate listing service for the Second Life crowd, is even planning a virtual real estate conference and expo next month.

The Conference Board, a business membership and research organization, held its first virtual meeting in Second Life in June. And this month, The Conference Board released a report stating that while "virtual worlds are emerging fast on the business landscape ... few companies have developed strategies to deal with them."

The board developed a list of questions that corporations should ask in considering their approach to virtual worlds, such as: What is your entry strategy? What is the corporate purpose? Do you plan to offer v-products (virtual products)? Which virtual worlds should be used? Who is in charge?

There are critics of real-world advertising in virtual worlds such as Second Life, and questions about its effectiveness, though a basic tenet of advertising is to be where the people are -- or in this case be where the avatars are. Some Second Life participants have claimed to make money in their virtual real estate dealings, though the in-world economy may not be a Utopia as some residents have complained that a handful of land barons dominate the market.

"C.A.R.’s foray into the virtual world of Second Life through our headquarters building features numerous interactive and informational items," association president Colleen Badagliacco said in a statement, such as reasons to use a Realtor, information about the group's October trade show, and "note cards" for visitors.

"The virtual building replicates the C.A.R. logo, with an open-roof design to accommodate 'fly-ins,' the primary means of locomotion in Second Life," she also said. There is an interactive video screen at the site, too, a swimming pool, and palm trees.

With an ailing real-world real estate market in California, maybe a place in cyberspace doesn't look so bad these days?