The WAV Group published a rather interesting study yesterday, analyzing the data on Zillow, Trulia, and broker web sites in 11 major markets including the Washington Metro area.  Several key findings are represented below....

As shown above, Trulia and Zillow were likely to show a significantly incomplete set of listings --- mainly because they do not have a direct feed from the MLS, and thus they piece together their listing data from multiple sources.

As shown above, it takes Zillow and Trulia much longer to show new listings than a local broker or agent web site.

Finally, over a third of the listings on Trulia or Zillow will appear to be active, when they are really under contract.

Read the full study here for further details, and remember that when you are using Zillow or Trulia for your home search, you are dealing with a partial data set, that is always running about a week behind, and that 1 out of 3 of the houses that you'll be viewing is really already under contract.

Feel free to search on my web site here, and stay tuned for exciting announcements about my web site in the coming weeks.