Zillow Promotes Homes No One Wants To Be In or Near Them!

Last week I wrote Zillow, which publishes plenty of nonsense, has perfected a system of getting other news organizations to promote their nonsense through a detailed and structured system of mutual back-scratching. This week, Zillow continues to manipulate home buyers rather than offer them what they want, promoting properties no one wants to be near or to live in.

But before we get into that, lets start by reviewing the data as to where we are today.

Mortgage rates have finally closed ABOVE 7% for the 1st time this year, breaking through 7% briefly last week, but spending all this week above that threshold, closing at 7.14%.

Inventory continues at record lows for periods other than during the pandemic and has declined below rates of 2021. As I have repeatedly said, as long as inventory is low, prices cannot go down much.

Locally, in Los Angeles, the market grew slightly in the direction of a seller's market to a market action index of 44, about the same as last month.

Last week State Farm, the largest home insurer in California, announced they will not be writing new policies.

It was perhaps unfortunate timing that they day before they announced this they released their "2022 Impact Report" which identifies all the ways they are working on being a good company, as defined by government regulation. Here is the list:

You'll notice what is missing is building the business, creating financial strength, and planning for the future. Of course, NONE of that is happening when you are leaving the largest of the United States, the largest market, and really don't have the courage to explain why.

OK, so it's not a big deal, there are other insurance companies right? The California Insurance Commissioner, Ricard Lara, tells us there are 115 others, so not to worry. He explains that the reason State Farm is leaving is due to our forest fires and rising construction costs, but somehow he wants us to believe that the other insurers will figure that out.

So, if you are concerned about how reliable commissioner Lara is as a source of direction and policy excellence, let's look at his resume. Well, he was raised by immigrants, not sure how that helps him build an insurance industry. He is gay, again, interesting, but not really relevant. Before this job, he was an Assembly representative and state Senator. So, basically, his only career is as a politician. Oh, and his degree was in Journalism with a minor in Chicago Studies (I copied his capitalization).

But, he tells us not to worry, there are lot of other companies. 

But, oooops, number 4 Allstate announces they are also leaving California the next day.

I went to the Allstate website to see if they had a statement clarifying why they are leaving California, but the only topics on their corporate website is about their inclusivity, diversity, and equity programs. And they are diverse. And Equitable. They are just no longer writing new policies in California.

This week's award for real estate news NONSENSE goes to, again, Zillow, with their entry this week "Across 29 Metro Areas, Residents Largely Support Allowing Missing Middle Homes in Residential Neighborhoods."

This is the type of position national companies take to ingratiate themselves to government regulators. Why do I say that? Well, I can conclusively say that it is both untrue that residents support "missing middle homes" both for themselves and for their neighbors.

EVERYONE says they like higher density housing, it sounds so logical. Its like saying you think our country should give up hamburgers and go vegan. It sounds great, but when it comes down to it, people still prefer beef hamburgers.

First, when Zillow asked people if they support middle homes, they don't tell them that it is will be unit most likely occupied by a tenant, and often will overlook their home when it is build as a 2nd story or over a garage. Additionally, when prospective buyers think of homes they don't think of a 2nd unit on top of a garage, they think of ..... well, let's Google home and we get....

homes. The American Dream conjures up a single family home with a yard, not a 2nd unit bolted on top or on the garage. After serving again for 2 years on my local neighborhood council and I can tell you conclusively that the city, county, and state government is intent on pushing Californians into more dense housing, and as a real estate agent I can tell you that homebuyers overwhelmingly prefer a single family home with a yard.

So this push by Zillow will ingratiate them with state regulators, and I am sure will get a lot of clicks, but really does not give the homebuyer help with what they want.
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Bill Gross, The LAProbate Expert
I am a real estate broker in Los Angeles, CA focused on probate real estate and the leader of a team of over 1,100 agents nationally probate experts.

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