Real Estate 2.0 and Election 2008
Photo by ekeisari
Two years ago, when Zillow launched, it was a thrill to pull up your neighbors’ (or boss’) house on the site and see how much their house was worth.
It’s still insightful, it just might not be so much fun anymore (see NAR lowers 2008 price forecast).
And while there are still complaints over the accuracy of Zillow’s estimates — the company itself refers to them only as “starting points” — the Zestimates are still arguably the most compelling feature on the site.
In the same way that Zillow brought transparency to home values, Fundrace is bringing it to campaign donations in this election year. The site (which first launched in 2004) has now been swallowed up by mega-news site The Huffington Post.
On Fundrace, you can search by city or zip code and see the results mapped onto a Google Map. You can see to whom and how much your neighbors have been contributing to political campaigns.
Frankly, it’s a little creepy, but I guess it’s all public information.
You can also search by company to see how their employees break out. So, of course, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to start looking at the real estate category…
Like Zillow.
What else did I find? It seems are real estate agents are overwhelmingly pro-Democrat.
$291,388 from 305 people to Republicans
$499,047 from 522 people to Democrats
How about NAR?
$750 from 2 people to Republicans
$6,850 from 8 people to Democrats
And the big brands?
$0 to Republicans
$521 from 2 people to Democrats
Coldwell Banker Campaign Donors
$131,672 from 138 people to Republicans
$294,329 from 302 people to Democrats
Keller/Williams Campaign Donors
$11,101 from 12 people to Republicans
$24,523 from 30 people to Democrats
$5,156 from 14 people to Republicans
$26,348 from 41 people to Democrats
$40,475 from 32 people to Republicans
$29,503 from 39 people to Democrats
It gets more interesting the deeper you dig - but I think I’m just going to stop right now.
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janad | Jun 10, 2008 | Reply
< It seems are real estate agents are overwhelmingly pro-Democrat.>
That seems counterintuitive and historically a bad idea.
LeeSkye | Jun 10, 2008 | Reply
I think real estate agents are in need of help with this sub-prime/real estate crisis. Loans are harder to get approval for and average value of homes in many areas are taking a dump. To make matters even worse, rising oil prices are adding fuel to the fire. A lot of people are pointing the finger at Bush, and frankly the Republican Party. We're all at a desperate cry for help and we see a high need for change. At the moment, change is another political party.
Daniel Bates | Jun 10, 2008 | Reply
I wouldn't draw the conclusion that there are more democratic RE agents than republican based on this years donation. Hillary and Obama have been in the spotlight and having to do major campaigning and fundraising while mccain has been able to sit back. I also think that he's not really that much of a fundraising kind of guy. I'd have to agree with janad that the dems will make things for RE agents a whole lot worse than they are now.
Cari McGee | Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
It's always unbelievable to me when a small business owner (as most r.e. agents are) are Democrats. Why would you want to tax yourself out of a job? BTW, if you look for Realtors instead of real estate agents, you see a great deal more $ donated, and the disparity between the parties is lessened, too.
Ki | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply
I think these numbers were reflective of the primaries. It would be interesting if the number could be broken out by primaries and general election