“Fed” up with the election already?
Super Tuesday is around the corner and the competition is getting tough. Will Obama upset Clinton after last night’s Florida win? Can Mitt Romney pull ahead of the Arizona maverick McCain?

Our money’s on the candidate that addresses your concerns about your local housing market, like when to buy, how to avoid a foreclosure or how to get the most for your money. And if you’re not getting the answers you need, ask your community on Trulia Voices to get free opinions from local experts and real estate pros - without anyone asking you for your vote!

Here are a few markets where the candidates should listen carefully to their local home buyers.

Tampa, Florida

As we all learned in 2000, you can never underestimate the importance of Florida, where home prices have grown quite a bit since 2004. One Tampa local gets the skinny on foreclosures and how to find good deals.
Q: Foreclosure Homes - How do you buy them and is it wise?
A: Foreclosure homes can be a great deal. Please remember though, the home… see more

Asked by Kim, Just looking in Florida

Los Angeles, California

Since Arnold “The Terminator” Schwarzenegger became California’s governor over four years ago, home prices in Tinsel-town have been heading up overall. But do Hillary, Obama, and Johnny MaCain really know what the trend means for home buyers? See all the latest house hunting ‘gossip’ on Trulia Voices.

Q: I placed an offer on a short sale property. Now there are multiple offers for the same property… Will the bank ultimately select the highest bidder?
Asked by Denise, Home Buyer in Los Angeles, CA

A: The bank, like any seller will look at price, closing date, buyer’s financing, and… see more

Atlanta, Georgia

Will Mike Huckabee’s endorsement by Chuck Norris make him a winner in Georgia? Not necessarily, but figuring out how to help home buyers save money in Atlanta’s rocky market would probably win him a few votes. One home buyer gets free advice on how to minimize local taxes.
Q: What is the tax assessment factor/rate for the Atlanta, GA area? How would I go about getting that information?
Asked by Vparker, Home Buyer and Seller in New Jersey
A: It looks like you may be an out of state investor. Be aware that owner/occupied property receive a tax break… see more

Go Patriots!
Voting Americans we mean… check out what the average American home ($276,845, 3.2 bdrms, 2.2 ba), looks like for Super Tuesday voters across the country.

	$279,000 Saint Louis, MO 3br / 2.5ba
	$279,900 Wasilla, AK 3br / 2ba 1,878 sqft
	$276,900 Hialeah, FL 3br / 2ba 1,260 sqft

See the full issue here.  Stay tuned for more consumer tips!

Here at Trulia, we are obsessed with providing the best real estate search experience and today we added some great new features to make searching for real estate even easier. With our new Keyword Search, you have the ability to:

• Search the full property description - find that perfect property; whether you’re looking for an ocean view in Miami Beach, a penthouse in Manhattan or shopping for a short sale in Stockton, CA
• Search by street - you know you want to live on 5th Ave in New York or Mission St in San Francisco, now you can see all the properties for sale on these streets.



• Search by MLS id - know the MLS number of a specific property, just enter it into the keyword search box and you will be able to go directly to that property.
• Search faster - we are continually making improvements in speed and you should be able to notice an improvement in performance with this release

How does Keyword Search work?
It’s pretty simple, just perform your normal Trulia Search by specifying a location, beds, bath, etc. from the Trulia home page and then when you are on the results page, scroll down a little and enter your keywords, street name, or MLS id into the Keyword Search box hit the search button and voila your search just got easier.



Search Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips and tricks to get the most out of Keyword Search:

• To search for the exact phrase put quotes around the phase, (i.e. “remodeled kitchen”)
• To exclude a certain properties, place a minus sign in front of the word (i.e. - carpet) to exclude properties with carpet in the description
• To include certain properties, place a plus sign in front of the word (i.e. + hardwood)
• Expand your search beyond the current city by clicking the “See all homes in map view” link above the map, you can then move the map around and properties that match your criteria will automatically appear.

Let us know what you think and stay tuned for more search updates soon!

Drew Meyers of Zillow Blog hosts the 75th Carnival of Real Estate and highlights nine greatest of the latest entries. Winners received no diamonds to commemorate this fabulous anniversary but none are needed - it’s all about the glory. And highest glory was given to

‘7 Things to Consider As A First Time Real Estate Investor’ by Silicon Valley Blogger of The Digerati Life

Dee Copland’s ‘Gotcha Guide: Agent Bonuses are Bunk! Offer Real Incentives’ at the Texas Realty Blog

and

‘PAP: A Little Added Elevation Really Helps Exterior Real Estate Shots’ by Larry Lohrman of Geek Estate Blog

Visit Zillow Blog to check out the rest of the best.

Minnesota Investment Real Estate hosts the 74th Carnival of Real Estate and highlights the top 11 entries including:

‘Why Buying a Luxury Car is Smarter than Buying a Luxury Home’ posted by the Contrarian Goldfish

‘The Disparity Between the Opinion of Value from Appraisers and Realtors’ by Hojin Chang of Hojin’s Southwest Orlando Real Estate Scoop

and

‘When Does it Make Sense, and How Much Does It Cost to Refinance Your Mortgage?’ by Peter Thompson of Illinois Mortgage Rates and Reviews.

Take a look at the other eight great entries at Minnesota Investment Real Estate

Attention Special Agents! We are very excited to announce today the launch of a special home for all real estate professionals within Trulia Voices.

Many real estate professionals who have been using Trulia Voices expressed the desire to have their own place in the community, where they can interact with their colleagues and share ideas and tips. This is exactly what we built for you! An area within Voices where you can directly post questions for people in your industry to answer called Agent2Agent. You will no longer have to start your questions with: ‘Agents only’ or ‘RE professionals only’ or ‘No consumers please’. Don’t you like saving time? We certainly do! Consumers and real estate enthusiasts can access this section of Voices, so they can still view your ideas and opinions if they are interested.

You can still reach consumers, and consumers can still reach you, on the Q&A section, which will continue to serve the purpose of connecting professionals with consumers.

Last but not least, we created a special section for the ‘Using Trulia’ category, which has been one of the most popular categories and true inspiration for us! You can continue using this section to help each other make the most out of Trulia Voices and submit your feedback, ideas, suggestions to us.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Happy New Year from Trulia!
Between the subprime and mortgage crises, 2007 was certainly a rollercoaster year for real estate. So what’s in store for 2008? While we’re no fortune tellers, you can use the resources on Trulia.com to answer the question on every house hunter’s mind: Is now the right time to buy?

Check out local pricing trends, sign up for email alerts on your favorite properties, and get the scoop on your local market conditions from real estate enthusiasts on Trulia. Meanwhile, we’ve put together a list of Q&A from other home buyers to help you get started.

What are your local market conditions?
And how long do you plan on living in the home? Read on to find out what real estate pros recommend for one San Diego home buyer.
Q: Is a good time to purchase a condo in downtown San Diego… or do you think prices will still go down further?
Asked by Ray, Home buyer & seller in Bollingbrook, IL

Do you need to sell in order to buy?
If so, are you moving to a new city or state? Timing is even more important to home buyers planning to sell their primary residence and move to a new market. Check out the recommendations for one home buyer moving cross country and changing jobs.
Q: My husband and I are moving to Colorado as soon as our home in Illinois sells… Will we be able to buy a home without employment since we’ll have a 20% down payment?
Asked by Sueo, Home buyer & seller in Bollingbrook, IL

How will financing options look next year?
And what can you do to make sure you have the financing you need? One home buyer from Dublin, CA gets some free facts and predictions from real estate pros.
Q: Any idea how tough will it be to get 100% financing next year?
Asked by Faa, Home buyer Dublin, CA

Affordable winter retreats
If you love the idea of a snowy getaway but don’t want to clean out your retirement account, consider timeshares, fractional ownerships and nearby cities in your search… and hit the slopes!

	$147,000 Stowe, VT 3br / 3ba 2,500 sqft Fractional ownership
	$29,500 Vail, CO 2br / 2ba Prime week timeshare
	$272,400 Reno, NV 3br / 2ba 2,305 sqft Nearby deal

Like what you saw here? Read more, including celebrity house sightings here. Stay tuned for more home buying tips and sign up for the House Hunting email newsletter here.

We felt a bit like proud parents last week when we found ourselves solidly in the Top Ten of comScore Dec. 2007 rankings. From 17th to 7th and with 3x traffic growth over the last year, the milestone has meant a lot for those of us that have paused from our programming to realize that ‘Yes, what we are doing is working’.

From expanding our listings database and adding new product features to streamlining our UI, our goals haven’t changed from day one: to be the best place for consumers to start their real estate search by providing them with the tools and data on their local markets, connect with pros and other home buyers and, ultimately, enable them to make the smartest real estate decisions possible.

And in an uncertain market, we are finding that home buyers, sellers, owners, and pros need money- and time-saving tools more than ever. We’re excited the buzz is spreading and people are increasingly coming to Trulia because it means we are providing a product that has proven, lasting value and anticipates their real estate needs.

So like a proud parent… of a new kindergarten graduate, we’re looking forward to the soccer games and college applications that are still to come.

Thanks to all of you Truliaholics for the continued support - we can’t wait to show you what we have up our sleeves for 2008!

Read what others think about the news.

After the San Diego Charger’s surprise victory against Peyton Manning and his Colts yesterday, it’s no surprise that this week’s Carnival of Real Estate, hosted by SanDiegoOh, is dedicated to the Chargers.

Though not as popular as football, the sport of real estate blogging can be every bit as exciting come Carnival Monday.

John Barker came out strong with an 80-yard kickoff return with his post, ‘How much will my credit score cost me on my next mortgage?’ hosted at John Barker’s Mortgage Blog.

And Pat Kapowich threw a touchdown pass with ‘Deja Vu ~ What Spring & Summer Sellers, and Their Licensees, Can Learn from their Fall & Winter Counter-Parts’ at Silicon Valley Broker.

But down by 6 with only 1 minute and twenty seconds left in the game, Jim Cronin of the Real Estate Tomato intercepts a pass at his 30-yard line and runs it all the way back for a game-winning touchdown with ‘How A Strong Finish Has A Real Estate Blog Article Generating Leads’.

Visit SanDiegoOh for more highlights from this week’s battle of the real estate blogs.

Today, we are excited to announce the launch of the Trulia Publisher Platform, or TPP, a significant new development for Trulia and the online Real Estate Industry. With TPP, media companies and publishers can have their own version of Trulia’s real estate search capability. Within their TPP sites, publishers can serve their own ads, at no cost, on the search page of the sites we build for them. Launching today are some great installations from Kiplinger.com, Village Voice Media and AmericanTowns.

TPP can easily integrate with a publisher’s advertising program whether revenue comes from its local ad sales team or a national ad network. And because we host the TPP site, publishers will have access to the great features and functionality of Trulia.com.

So, you’re probably thinking, “what’s the catch?”

There is no catch- Trulia hosts the site and it’s available to anyone that wants to use it, at no cost. You get to keep 100% of the revenue from ads you serve on the site, and very few technical skills are required - if you know roughly how to set up a blog, then you should be able make full use of the Trulia Publisher Platform.

Web publishers benefit because TPP allows them to deliver a great consumer real estate search experience that is customized to their users and to generate additional revenue. Trulia’s franchise, broker and agent partners benefit from additional qualified traffic and Trulia benefits from reaching new users (plus, we generate some revenue through a handful of ad spots that we use on TPP sites.)

The existing partnerships are just the beginning – we’ll be soon be launching many more online newspapers, national media sites, blogs, directories and search engines.

Want to learn more or apply for a “Trulia” of your very own? Go here to learn more. At this time, we’re managing demand while the product is hot off the press and therefore will be making the service available on a limited release basis.

Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen. This week your Carnival ticket stub brings
you more fun: more rides, more corndogs, more prizes, and more cotton candy - metaphorically speaking of course.

The corndogs may be out of reach (if not handy in your freezer) but you do get to double your pleasure and your fun with the very first, very super-sized carnival of 2008. Host Boozwatt tirelessly reviewed entries from the past two weeks to bring you the 15 best plus their pick of the week.

If you can only pick a few to read I recommend:

‘Don’t Believe the Headlines - Believe the Numbers’ by Nigel Swaby at the Salt Lake Real Estate Blog

‘Agents In Real Estate 2.0. Will We Be Like Travel Agents, Accountants, Used Car Salesmen Or Lawyers?’ by Clifford Jacobson at WebHomeUSABlog

and

‘Top 9 Things Customers Don’t Care About - From A Gen Y-er’s Point of View’ by Sara Bonert

And of course you’ve got to read BoozWatt’s pick of the week but you’ve also got to hand over your ticket stub and head on through the turn-style.