2008 has obviously been a tough year for the real estate market –- we have surging inventories, record foreclosures, and banks with tight lending policies. But if you’re thinking about jumping into the market, 2009 could be a great year to find your dream home at an affordable price. The team at Yahoo! Real Estate has been working hard to make the house-hunting process easier and more efficient.

For the prospective homebuyer, it all starts with search. According to the National Association of Realtors, 87% of homebuyers use the Internet to search for their next home. More importantly, 32% cited the Internet as the place where they found the home they eventually purchased – a fourfold increase since 2001. So I’m pleased to announce the launch of Yahoo! Real Estate’s new home search experience. Head to our homepage, enter your search criteria and hit search.

Our research indicates that homebuyers want their searches to be fast and efficient, and they want as much data and multimedia as they can get their hands on. So our pages now load twice as fast and our photos are now four times bigger. And as you refine your search parameters (price, number of bedrooms, etc.), the listing results update automatically. We also enabled our listing partners to provide much richer home specs, and you’ll find deeper neighborhood information and recommendations for comparable listings. We’re also testing new neighborhood profile videos – we’re starting with San Francisco listings, with more major cities to come.

This launch is the result of our new open real estate strategy. For many years, Yahoo! Real Estate had an exclusive relationship with Prudential Real Estate. While Prudential remains an important partner, earlier this year we opened Yahoo! to a wide range of home data sources, including more than 70 of the top real estate brokers, 50 multiple listings services and 40 real estate listings services. We now source over 3.2 million for-sale listings (excluding foreclosures and new construction listings) and expose them to over 5.5 million people a month, according to comScore.

There’s far more innovation ahead. We have a steady stream of new features due out early next year that includes a greater emphasis on property photos and meaty new personalization and sharing services. In the meantime, happy house-hunting.

Steve Schultz
Senior Director, Yahoo! Real Estate