Thank You Ben!

Written by Jim the Realtor

August 26, 2014

Ben at HousingTracker has called it quits:

Update 8/25/2014: It’s been 9 years since I started HousingTracker as a personal project to try to gain insight into rapidly changing home prices during the housing bubble. There wasn’t nearly as much data available then as there is now, and I was happy to make a very small contribution towards improving that situation. In 2014 there is a lot more data available and most of that data is better than what I can provide — especially considering recent challenges of maintaining data quality. As such, I’ve decided to end the HousingTracker project.

If you’re looking for asking price and inventory data, my favorite source is Zillow’s data page specifically the For-sale inventory (raw) csv and the Median list price csv. It’s not quite as timely as HousingTracker data, but it has broader coverage and is likely more accurate.

Thanks for visiting!
Ben

Unfortunately the little guys – those who have the best local insights – are giving way to the corporate behemoths.  Others who have stopped their personal internet projects include OC Renter, Schahrzad, and Kris Berg, and I haven’t seen any new ones taking their place.

It seems inevitable that we will led around by the economists and corporate CEOs, and getting fed those vague national and statewide statistics that don’t help much at the local level.  If anyone is thinking of starting a local blog, now would be a great time!

Here’s the latest from Ben regarding the San Diego market:

http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/san-diego/

SDhousingtracker

5 Comments

  1. Booty Juice

    For me, Ben’s blog was a great hook to get people’s initial attention back then as to what was taking place in housing. Bill’s blog was, and is, the go to source for a much deeper dive.

    Indeed, thank you Ben!

  2. Rob Dawg

    Bubble trivia. I (Rob Dawg) invented the “Bits Bucket & Craigslist finds” category.

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