Friday Facts April 1, 2011

FRIDAY FACTS April 1, 2011 § Inman News reports that anjuke.com is China’s most popular portal for listings of existing homes for sale with 10 million unique visitors per month. Last year they launched a new-homes listing portal, aifang.com and rental site, haozu.com § Seattle based ValueAppeal charges $99 to create a custom report to mail to the Assessor’s office to appeal real estate tax assessments. The fee is refundable if the appeal is unsuccessful. § Inman News notes that membership in NAR peaked at 1.4 million in late 2006 and has fallen 20.5% to 1.09 million through August 2010. § Swanepoel Trends Report now includes a chapter on global real estate trends. They say that from a global view, overall 2010 was better than 2009 with stronger momentum in the first half rather than the second half. They note that the strongest countries were Australia, China and Canada while the weaker were South Africa, Italy and Japan. They additionally note that 2011 was predicted by many to be a better year, but that few are suggesting a worldwide strong recovery because of unemployment and financial debt. § According to an article in Inman News, the California Regional Multiple Listing Service has signed with RPR. Agreements are in place with 235 of the approximately 900 MLS’s in the U.S. This represents 38% (380,000) of NAR’s million members.