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  2. Nifty Online Housing Info Apps (Detroit In Trouble)

Nifty Online Housing Info Apps (Detroit In Trouble)

By retrospectacle on January 13, 2007.

i-6c2faf6cfefa9fc9bde3fbc87c85789f-detroit.bmp If you live in the Detroit area, likely this info will just serve to depress you more than you likely already are. Why might that be? Well the housing market in the big D had been notoriously crappy lately with the downturn of the auto industry and subsequent factory closings. Seems like everyone is leaving Michigan these days. But according to the USA Today "infogram" (whatever that means), San Francisco has also taken a big hit lately. Perhaps the recent surge in anti-chorale violence plays a role?

Anyway, a few fun and useful ways to waste time or find a roof over your head:
HousingMaps can tell you whats for rent in your area using craigslist and nifty Google-esque maps.

What's your home worth? Or better yet, find out what your snooty neighbor's, coworker's, or even childhood home is worth. Zillow can tell ya an estimate. I wonder how this algorithm works....

Someone wrote a how-to about selling your house and the steps/perils involved. Ad-ridden About.com has a page on the topic too. And if buying a house is what you're interested in, well this seems like some decent info.

How much would your mortgage be? This simple mortgage calculator will tell you. More complex calculators here.

I can't attest to this personally, but i've heard good things about Lending Tree as an unconventional online mortgage source. Probably you'll get the best rate at your bank, I'd wager.

Sigh. Ironically, it looks like the car industry in Michigan might be saved by foreign carmakers rather than domestic one.

(HT: Bob Abu)

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Useful Crap

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By Detroit Studen… (not verified) on 19 Jan 2011 #permalink

If anyone in the US thinks houses are expensive - I'm in the UK, where the average house price is currently £186,035 (that's $365,475), up 9.9% in the last year. I'm expecting house sale volumes will drop a lot this year, largely because very few people who don't already own a house will be able to afford to buy. I wouldn't be surprised if similarly the big drop in San Francisco is largely due to the market having got rather unrealistic the year before.