Every year BusinessWeek.com readers vote for their favorite sites and tools on the web. The results were released this week, and guess who came in the number 1 spot in the real estate category?

None other than yours truli-A! We’re glowing with excitement. But we owe thanks to you - our home base of users, agents, and brokers, and some Truli fantastic engineers (camera phone quality photo above!). They often keep the fire burning until the wee hours of the morning as we roll out more listings, cool tools and enhancements to our site.

You can see the full results of the Business Week Best of the Web awards here.

Last week, we asked several industry leaders & watchers to look into their crystal balls and predict the August 2006 home sales numbers that NAR was set to release this week. Well, the NAR report was released on Monday and it’s time to recap Power Panel performance and to give out some awards. May I have the envelope please? (drumroll)

Question 1: What will the August national existing home sales data show?
NAR’s Answer: 6.33 million units, down 0.5% from July or 12.6% down year over year
	Who called it: Intero’s Bob Moles nailed this number. His prediction of a 12.5% decrease year over year was so close (only 0.1% off) that we’re wondering if his crystal ball is up for sale? Our very own Pete Flint was also on with his prediction, but since he used a range (12-14%) instead of a precise figure like Bob, he’ll have to accept the silver medal.
Question 2: What was the August median existing home price?
NAR’s Answer: $225,000 – down 1.7% year over year
	Who called it: Most of our experts thought this number would remain flat or edge slightly upward. The trophy on this one goes to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel. He read between the lines of previous NAR statements and was the only panelist who predicted the decline.
Question 3: What happened to total housing inventory in August?
NAR’s Answer: Up 1.5% to 3.92 million units (7.5 month supply)
	Who called it: Bob Moles, Sherry Chris, Jonathan Miller, Maria Niles, Pete Flint and Ken Jenny all had a handle on the upward movement of inventory. The closest numerical prediction came from Flint calling for a 2-3% increase, although the most “accurate” prediction came from Ira Serkes stating that it would be “higher, lower or the same.”
Question 4: What are your thoughts for the housing market in Q4 2006?
We’ll have to revisit the winner for this question at the end of the year!

Finally, the Data Hound Award goes to Bill Tancer of Hitwise. He sent us some very cool graphs that lit up our blog. We hope these graphs made us look smart by association.

Matt Carter put together a fantastic recap of our panelists’ performance on the Inman Blog here.

Think you could do better? Let us know and we’ll invite you to a future Power Panel!

Trulia.com launched 1-year ago almost exactly to the day. On this anniversary, we’ve turned on all 50 US states (up from 25 yesterday) and a whole new set of cool, exciting, and useful tools. Our goal at Trulia has always been to help consumers find properties for sale and to help them make smarter real estate decisions. With today’s new features we think we’re moving in the right direction and hope you agree.

Here’s a short video demo (”Screencast”) for you to check it out and see how to use Trulia.com in your house hunt (note: it may take a few minutes to load).

The new tools:

Interactive Heat Maps

Have you ever wondered how prices for homes in your neighborhood are holding up? In every major city across the US, you can now see (not just read) pricing and popularity trends at the hyper-local level. Features include:

• Multiiple heat map views – choose between listing price, sales prices, sales price/sqft and neighborhood search popularity.
• Sort the columns by the absolute or percentage change to see where the movers and shakers are!
• We’re constantly adding more cities, more data and more zoom levels, so be sure to check back again soon. Check out the heat in these cities — Los Angeles, CA; New York City, NY; Jacksonville, FL; Chicago, IL.

Home Comparison Tool

Want to make sure that you are getting a good deal? Now when you find a property that you like, Trulia.com searches similar “for sale” and “sold” properties for you to compare; check out the Trulia Comparison Tool for 2053 S Corona Street in Denver. Features include:

• Side by side comparison of similar homes for sale and recently sold homes. Sort the columns to see how a property stacks up against the comps.
• View the locations and details of nearby schools and explore different neighborhoods.
• Property comparison tool available on every property page where we have the data available. Certain “non-disclosure states” don’t publish this data, so we can’t offer this for everyone just yet…

Trulia Neighborhood Spotlight

Thinking about moving to the Silver Lake neighborhood in LA, Candler Park in Atlanta, or Georgetown in Washington, DC? In our neighborhood guides, you can now do a deeper dive to understand how pricing and popularity trends are changing. Features include:

• Snapshot indicator for every neighborhood showing “Hot,” Warm” or “Cooling” based on popularity (where our users are searching), # properties for sale and average listing price.
• For the data fiends - pick the neighborhoods that you want to compare across different pricing metrics, over a 5 year time period.
• City demographic data and school information.

At Trulia.com, our focus is to help you understand trends at the local level – by neighborhood or zip code – where it counts. We’ve added information on millions of properties (about 60m to be exact) and lots of new tools, but due to county recorder rules and the magnitude of the task we still have some way to go. Keep on coming back for more improvements.

If you have ideas that you’d like to see implemented, let us know. Your feedback and Trulia’s talented and dedicated engineers brought you the tools that you see today. In our view, we’ve only scratched the surface…

PS - check out some of last week’s blog news on our announcement: GigaOm, Venture Beat, Business 2.0, Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller is hosting this weeks carnival at the Matrix. Be sure to check it out!

This month we are launching our first ever “Trulia Power Panel” on our blog, where a diverse group of industry experts, insiders and watchers will periodically come together to share their perspective on real estate issues facing consumers.On Monday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will release data for August existing home sales. We thought we would have industry experts provide their predictions, analyses and musings on what the data will say. This Power Panel is called “Trulia Hardball: Predictions for August home sales data.”

Our Trulia Power Panel participants are:

• Bill Tancer, Hitwise, GM of Research
• Sherry Chris, COO, Prudential CA/NV/TX Realty
• Jonathan Miller, CEO, Miller Samuel
• Maria Niles, Cont. Editor, Business, Career & Personal Finance, BlogHer.org
• Bob Moles, Chairman, Intero Real Estate Services
• Ira Serkes, RE/MAX Executive
• Ken Jenny, Managing Director & CEO, tranCen.com
• Pete Flint, Co-founder & CEO, Trulia

Given that the NAR forecasts an 8% drop in homes sales for all of 2006, our esteemed participants were asked the following four questions about the August existing sales data:

1. What will the August national existing homes sales data show?
2. What will the August median existing home price for all housing types be?
3. What happened to total housing inventory in August?
4. What are your thoughts for the housing market in Q4 2006?

Our panelists see the world of real estate from different perspectives, which shows when you read their answers. Take a look and let us know that you think. Who do you agree with and why? Without further ado, here we go:

Question 1: What will the August national existing homes sales data show?

Tancer - Based on our search term data we are predicting that month-to-month July 06 to August 06, there will be an increase in existing home sales. However, that increase will not be enough to bring us to August 05 levels.

We’ve based this prediction on the predictive nature of the search term query “homes for sale.” The chart below illustrates the point.

There was a substantial increase in searches for “homes for sale” through the month of July. Based on the historical performance of this indicator, we expect a change in direction in existing home sales when compared with the previous month.

Chris - Unit sales will drop even more in August as the rest of the country catches up with the 25% YTD drop CA has experienced. My guess is 15-17% down.

Miller - Down 16.1%

Niles - August 2006 - down 15% from August 2005 and down 5.2% from July 2006. August 2005 sales were incredibly strong and, arguably, the beginning of, if not the peak of, the housing market boom.

Moles - Down 12.5%

Serkes - Different.

Jenny - While the media continues to bash the home sales market and the NAR tries to add unrealistic optimism - the true fact is that the market is trending downward to a point of realistic normalization.

Flint - I believe that sales will decrease year over year to around 12-14%. This is based on the general slowdown on transactions and that August 2005 was the peak of the recent housing market boom.

Question 2: What will the August median existing home price for all housing types be?

Tancer - This is a metric that we are not currently tracking or predicting.

Chris - Median existing home prices will continue to rise ever so slightly in August 06 over August 05 nationally.

Miller - Down 0.4% - a first time annual decrease. I suspected this when the NAR abruptly reversed its optimistic public stance on housing price trends last month which suggested to me that they knew a drop was imminent.

Niles - August 2006 - $233,300 up 1.0% from July 2006. I think the median price will continue to inch upward as buyers bid on the well-priced, move-in-ready homes from the increasing inventory available.

Moles - Up 1%

Serkes - A change from previous periods

Jenny - The trending of prices in this cycle will dramatically lag the decrease in market activity. This is because the overall economy is relatively healthy and the need to sell or buy remains less immediate in most cases with consumers. Hold on price and look for good deals will be the name of the game for sellers and buyers for the next six months at a minimum.

Flint - Given that median house prices has been fairly stable over the last few months, I don’t expect this trend to change for the US data so 0% change. However, the local trends will vary significantly.

Question 3: What happened to total housing inventory in August?

Tancer - This is a metric that we are not currently tracking or predicting.

Chris - Inventory will continue to rise ever so slightly.

Miller - Up 6.3% over last July.

Niles - August 2006 - up 3.6% from July 2006. Inventory will continue to increase as many sellers aren’t yet ready to price according to the changing market conditions and still have hopes of realizing last year’s appreciation.

Moles - Up 4%

Serkes - It is certain to be higher, lower, or the same. A much more critical question to ask is… what changes will you make in your business as a result of a changing market? Careful research has led me to the conclusion that 100% of real estate closings involve a buyer. In this changing market it’s critical that agents brush up on their buyer brokerage systems. And be much more precise about PPP - (Pricing Properties Properly).

Jenny - Inventory will continue to increase both in the resale and new residential categories. The new home builders will have already begun to be more aggressive than resellers and are energizing sales by offering buyer incentives in an effort to decrease inventories. New home builders are speculative in good markets = gamblers, and most realistic in declining markets = not gamblers.

Flint - I expect there to be a relatively small increase on properties on the market, around 2-3% increase in inventory levels nationwide.

Question 4: What are your thoughts for the housing market in Q4 2006?

Tancer - The growing inventory of homes for sale, coupled with housing prices that have not decreased substantially, may lead to a minor correction as home owners find it necessary to off-load their homes. We will be monitoring our search term data closely both in regards to “homes for sale” as well as terms that indicate concern about market correction to predict the market conditions for the rest of this year.

Chris - CA will level off for the balance of the year while the rest of the country plays catch-up to the year-over-year decrease in units sold CA has experienced. Price increases will slow to small single digits as the market continues to balance. Listing inventory will increase in most markets but well priced and well marketed homes will continue to sell. Current and accurate statistical information and forecasting tools will become more important than ever as we lead our agents, clients and businesses through this cycle.

Miller - The fed has overshot their rate target as it relates to housing. The market will see more of the recent trends over the balance of the year in terms of weaker pricing, expanding marketing time and rising inventory with a possible rate cut by the end of the year.

Niles - Continued inventory growth, median price decrease starting to appear and continued sales decrease versus last year.

Moles - I think we will continue to see declining volume and sales in Q4 2006 due to several factors including the typical seasonal slowdown and the elevated inventory levels.

Serkes - We’ll continue to move into a normal market. This will result in many newer real estate agents entering into real estate therapy. Not all of them will successfully be able to withdraw from years of working in an abnormal market to adjust to a 2007 normal market.

Jenny - The housing market is normalizing within a fairly stable economy. The news media has a strong grip on consumer opinions and has been very effective at taking small initial decreases in market activity slowdowns and blowing them up into a national housing dilemma of bursting bubbles. This explains the rationale for a steadily declining housing market in times of affordable and stable interest rates providing steady economic growth.

Flint - Although the overall numbers are an important indicator, it’s what happens at the local level in individual cities and neighborhoods that really matters. Check out our post about how all Real Estate is Local. More tools to help here from Trulia soon!

It’s been almost two months since we launched TruliaMap and we’ve been blown away with the adoption and the different ways that brokers have used it. Here’s an example; nice job Jim!

If you don’t already know, TruliaMap is an interactive, super cool map that any broker or agent with listings on Trulia can put on their own web page. With TruliaMap, you can…

• Showcase your listings on a single map – showing a picture, brief description and price when you mouse-over the map marker.
• Keep your customers on your site – all the map listings point to properties on your site.
• Set the map up in 2 minutes – customized to your color and layout.

Best of all – its free! (and if you’re nice, we may even help you with installation)

Check out some excellent examples of customized TruliaMap installations:

Comey & Shepherd Realtors (Cincinnati, OH)
BrokerMark.com (Roseville, CA)
The Counter Offer (Richmond, VA)
Bob Taylor (Los Angeles, CA)
ERA Mountain Properties (Blowing Rock, NC)

And if you want more than the standard design, you can go into the code and manipulate it to your heart’s content. Max Chirkov created six maps, re-sized them, and then combined them into one elegant layout (wow!).

Countless innovations are possible. Whether you use the off-the-shelf version, or customize TruliaMap – we hope that you use this interactive tool to capture the attention of your surfers.

Leave a comment if you are using TruliaMap or have ideas for other cool widgets that you think we should be making!

is being hosted by BlueRoof Blog. Go check it out.

Last week, the Mercury News real estate blog posted that the house prices in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region rose 10.3% since the second quarter of 2005.

Wow, that’s pretty interesting stuff…doesn’t sound like market softening to me!

But, what if my home is in a different neighborhood like Willow Glenn, Berryessa, or Downtown San Jose? If I sold today, do you think I’d get that kind of bounce?

I pulled some data from Trulia and found that San Jose actually only grew 3.4%, which means the Sunnyvale-Santa Clara regions must’ve grown at a faster clip. And within San Jose, the downtown neighborhood grew the fastest at 16.3% but the Berryessa neighborhood saw a massive 24% drop.

At Trulia, we think that all real estate is local. Detailed information at the hyper-local level is what is most useful for home buyers, sellers, owners and browsers. The trend data at the “metro area” level is great water cooler talk, but not that relevant when you’re making decisions about your most important asset.

What do you think? Is this information useful?

San Jose, CA Neighborhoods	Median Sales Price	% change (yoy)
Almaden Valley	$905,000	5.1%
Berryessa	$492,500	-24.2%
Blossom Valley	$630,000	4.1%
Buena Vista	$437,000	-2.9%
Burbank	$587,500	4.9%
Cambrian Park	$701,000	2.3%
Downtown San Jose	$625,000	16.3%
East Foothills	$740,000	13.4%
East San Jose	$637,500	12.8%
Edenvale Seven Trees	$620,000	10.7%
Evergreen	$750,000	2.0%
Fairgrounds	$545,000	1.4%
North San Jose	$528,500	-3.9%
North Valley	$600,000	7.3%
Santa Teresa	$693,000	6.0%
West San Jose	$762,000	4.5%
Willow Glen	$695,000	-0.6%
Avg for San Jose	$644,059	3.4%

When we founded Trulia, Sami and I spent a lot of time thinking about the sort of place we’d like to work – the culture we wanted to create and values we’d like to foster. We really focused in on making sure we got it right from the start, partly out of self-interest. We wanted to love our company and the culture behind it, but we were also motivated by modern business books, which really stressed how important culture is in determining an organization’s long term success.

After many caffeine-fueled brainstorms, we decided to set a framework in place and then let the culture evolve around it – and that’s how we came up with BOFFI.

• Best idea wins. When it comes to new products and problem solving, ideas come from everyone at the company. Everyone should be willing (and is encouraged) to stand up and debate, and the best idea wins – whether it came from the newest Trulian or a Board member.
• Output matters. We know that everyone at Trulia works hard and puts in long hours. Face time doesn’t matter to us, period. We won’t constrain how you do it or the exact hours that you sit at your desk, it’s what you do that matters.
• Fun everyday. Our office is youngpassionate, vibrant, and who doesn’t want to have a good time? Let’s be serious when we need to be, but let’s have fun! And let’s celebrate successes, big and small. I’m thinking of my birthday here…
• Feedback is honest and continuous. It’s an open office and open environment here at Trulia; we have a culture where people share their honest feedback. 360 degrees, always. It’s the only way to learn and grow.
• Integrity above all else. Lastly and most importantly we expect everyone within the organization to have the highest integrity and respect for each other, our clients, customers and partners.

Interested in seeing BOFFI in action? Check out our jobs.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Some major real estate brokers
such as ZipRealty and
Catalist Homes are allowing for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) homeowners
to post their home sale on the brokers’ highly trafficked Web sites. Many more brokers would like to do the same –
so what’s stopping them? MLS rules of course!

Most of the country’s MLSs prohibit brokers from “commingling” MLS data with non-MLS data on their own Web sites. This includes FSBO’s. But
doesn’t posting FSBO’s on broker Web sites benefit everyone?

My analysis…

So why won’t MLSs give brokers free rein over their own Web sites? Does the MLS continue to believe that fascist dictatorships work? Or perhaps they just want their full $500, regardless of what is good for the broker (their own client) or the consumer (their client’s client)? What are brokers to do?

“We don’t care if the MLS doesn’t want us to commingle data,” says Michael Davin, Co-founder of Catalist Homes “our mission is to fight for the consumer.” ZipRealty has taken a more conservative approach. Unlike Catalist, ZipRealty doesn’t display FSBO’s in their search results, but instead only includes them in buyer email alerts, presumably to prevent controversy with its many MLSs across the country.

How long do brokers have to run and hide from their own MLSs? When will the MLS get a clue? Hell, most brokers would be happy if they would just buy a vowel!