Hitwise recently released its top 20 real estate Web sites report for January showing some interesting new players in the game. Hitwise, an Esperian company, who provides online intelligence and tracking services to websites, issues monthly reports on traffic and visitor information on top industry sites.
The latest report shows some of the usual fluctuations within the major players in the online real estate arena, with one company standing out – RealtyStore.com. According to the report, RealtyStore.com moved up in the rankings from 49 in October, to 35 in December …

Ok, not really, but the headlines covering 2009 foreclosures may as well have purported such a figure. CNNMoney.com offered an article titled, “Record 3 million households hit with foreclosure in 2009.” The article written by Les Christie and published on January 14, 2010 seemingly reports three million foreclosures last year or at least that’s what the headline reads.
Let’s hope visitors to the site at least read through the first paragraph which states, “Almost 3 million homeowners received at least one foreclosure filing during 2009.”
Even more so, let’s …

As 2009 comes to a close let us revisit some of the top stories of the year. Undoubtedly the year was awash in news of a depressed economy and a depressed real estate market. However, with the cyclic nature of both these areas, we can only wait and see what developments arise in the coming year, and in the coming decade.
January 2009
Foreclosure Research reports mixed figures on foreclosure filings and REOs for 2008.
According to RealtyTrac there were a total of 3.16 million filings for the year. ForeclosureS.com reported …

On the upside, while foreclosures are up from previous years, many states have seen consecutive months of decreased foreclosure rates. Some experts say recent legislation, specifically the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, has played a significant role in the latest figures.
The program offers homeowners with mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the option to refinance at more affordable rates or more affordable payment schedules. The program is back by $75 billion in tax payer funds.
However, the billion dollar question may be “is it working?” According …

While browsing foreclosure data on Zillow.com, a property came up with the following comment in the Q&A section: “Why is the same house listed for sale for $2,500.00 on RealtyTrac.”
The property on Zillow was a Foreclosure.com property listed at $39,900. See picture below.

With further investigation, the property, located at 145 Stoneybrook Road in Pacolet South Carolina 29373 was in fact listed on both Foreclosure.com and RealtyTrac.com priced at $39,900 and $2,500 respectively.
See RealtyTrac below

See Foreclosure.com below

In order to find out which service was correct, Foreclosure Research contacted …