johnnymk

http://www.mercurynews.com/realestat...nclick_check=1

By Eve Mitchell <br> Staff Writer

There are plenty of Web sites out there that will tell you how much a home is worth right now. But now a Pleasanton-based company has launched www.smartzip.com, a free Web site designed to help investors and everyday home buyers assess the future value of homes for sale in California and Florida, two areas of the country hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis.

Unveiled Tuesday, SmartZip rates the future values of homes based on scale of 1 to 100. The higher the number the better the rating in terms of a property's future investment potential based on two factors: growth as measured by what the property is expected to be worth in 10 years and rental income potential.

SmartZip derives the ratings by applying stock and bond analytics to more than 1,000 historical and current real estate data points such as local demographics, school districts, rents, crime rates, current and projected population and job growth in a community along with home-buying expenses such as property taxes, maintenance costs and mortgage payments.

In addition to rating foreclosed properties, short sales and regular for-sale homes, the site also provides ratings for homes not listed on the market. In all, SmartZip currently has ratings for more than 12 million single-family houses, condominiums and townhouses in California and Florida, with plans to eventually expand ratings

"What Zillow and other (real estate Web sites) provide is what a property will cost if it is bought or sold today. SmartZip tells you what the property is worth, what it's real value is going to be in the future," said SmartZip's chief executive officer Tom Glassanos.

Glassanos calls it a "Morningstar for real estate," referring to the rating system that projects a stock's future financial performance to determine if it is currently under or over valued.

While the site is free, SmartZip's business model calls for it to make money by offering a subscription-based level of service with more features and through referral partnerships with real estate professionals.

Earlier this month, San Francisco-based www.finestexpert.com launched a score-based, free online service that helps people evaluate the investment value of more than 4 million for-sale home listings nationwide.

Another Web site, Denver-based www.investorloft.com also provides free information on for-sale residential properties in California and 17 other states. InvestorLoft users can look for investment properties by putting in criteria to gauge a property's rental income potential, among other criteria.

On its Web site SmartZip points out that there is no guarantee that a rating estimate of property's future value is a sure thing.

Chris Thornberg, an economist and principal at San Rafael-based Beacon Economics, is skeptical about SmartZip's claim that it can assess the future value of residential real estate.

Stock prices are constantly changing whereas homes are typically sold once every seven years, he pointed out. And while one share of common stock is identical to another share of common stock, all homes are different. "Stocks are not comparable to homes in any way shape or form. Stocks are very liquid and home markets are not liquid at all," he said.

In addition, there is no way that SmartZip could predict a future housing bubble that would impact future home prices, such as the current downturn caused by the subprime mortgage meltdown, he said.

Steve Murray, editor of RealTrends.com, an industry Web site, agrees that SmartZip could not predict a future housing downturn.

Still, he said it can serve as a valuable tool that could play a role in deciding whether to buy a home, either as an investment or to live in.

"It was very helpful," said Murray, who was among a group of real estate professionals invited to get a sneak preview of the site several months before it officially launched. "(People) care about the soundness of what they are investing in, they care about liquidity and they care about return," said Murray. "It will do some estimates for you based on historical trends. But you have to look and see if that's realistic."

Eve Mitchell covers personal finance and residential real estate. Reach her at 925-952-2690 or emitchell@bayareanewsgroup.com

Jeffbx

Crap - only covers CA & FL right now. Someone who lives there, give it a try!

zippyjuan

Trying to predict a market ten years in the future? That is bold! I predict that prices will be higher then than they are today- by how much is merely a SWAG.

__________________
I add new pictures to my photo gallery pretty regularly. You can see them here if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/jeffryz