Real Estate Porn
Redfin offers the ultimate power tool for residential real estate research in Seattle and the East Side. The tool uses a standard real estate property search form but the properties found are displayed graphically as highlighted areas on a GoogleMaps-style satellite map. The map can be zoomed in and out and dragged around. You have to see it to understand. New listings often have a linked gallery.
Seattlest has spent way too much time with it lately. For example, you can search for "Madison Park" and all the current listings will be highlighted and the map re-centered to show that area. Select "Show Similar Recent Sales" and you can compare the current ridiculous prices to sales up to three years ago.
It doesn't stop there, you can have it show info for ALL properties ("Show All Property Parcels" button). By doing this you can go to an area and click a property, like the house your friends bought a couple years ago. It will list their sale price, the current assessed value, the last 20+ years of sales and all the stats, including square feet and bathrooms - cool!
I couldn't find Bill Gates' house but just browsing up and down the lake front is amazing. You can't own a lake property for under a million, that means $20k per year in taxes! Ouch!
Have fun.
