Zillow Buys NYC-based StreetEasy

The news made the homepage of the New York Times and just about every real estate publication in the country. Even our own Jonathan Miller was interviewed by real estate blog The Real Deal about this shockwave. It seems StreetEasy is going BIG by becoming part of Zillow's growing consortium and Zillow is finally going to have a strong entry point into the New York market (which has been a struggle for the real estate site). As Jonathan Miller explained:

“Basically one of the things about national aggregators and MLS systems is they’ve been particularly weak in presenting data for what I call vertical housing market. I see this as a template, starting with the biggest vertical market in the country, and being able to apply this to other donwntowns with a heavy concentration of condos, co-ops and rentals.”

Go here to read the full Real Deal article.

The Next Real Estate Disrupter Will Be...

There's an interesting post over on TechCrunch about who (or what) will be the next big disrupter for the real estate industry. With comparisons to travel agents, taxi services, and Airbnb the writer posits that something is big coming for real estate. He has a few possibilities about what it might look like, but is still operating in guessing mode for now. The comment thread is even more fascinating, with 118 people (at last count) weighing in. While it is true that those everything from travel agents to taxis have had the tsunami of change whip through their respective industries, those industries don't require as much know-how as homebuying. There are so many more laws, not to mention larger sums of money at stake, that whatever it is that's going to 'disrupt' real estate would have to come with a built-in educational component. Go here to read the full piece.