Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate

With an iconoclastic ebullience reminiscent of Freakonomics, Rascoff and Humphries, respectively CEO and chief economist of Zillow.com, exploit the online giant's massive database and sophisticated analytics to debunk conventional real estate wisdom. According to them, no, you shouldn't buy the worst house in the best neighborhood ("It's the worst house for a reason"), but you might want to buy the worst house in the hottest neighborhood, if your timing is impeccable (and these clever guys tell you how to predict the hot spots). To afford a good school district, look in the modest neighborhood bordering the affluent one. And beware: foreclosures are often not the bargains they once were. Another piece of advice from Rascoff and Humphries: avoid "unique" as an ad description like the plague%E2%80%94your beloved abode may "sell for as much as 30 to 50 percent less than expected!" This entertaining, quick read is not so much a how-to guide as a grab bag of surprising but useful real estate facts. It won't lead you step by step through the process of buying or selling a home, but its intelligent and clever analysis of various facets of the market will challenge and enlighten both professionals and those of us who just need a place to live. (Jan.)