11/06/13
DWELLINGS
Where do your characters live?
The following sources provide information about availability
and pricing for housing, by geographic area within the United States, for the
most common categories: single family houses, condominiums, cooperatives, and
apartments in high rise, low rise, and multifamily buildings:
1) Realtor.com
A goldmine of current property data, Realtor.com contains
the listings of real estate brokerage firms across the United States that
participate in state multiple listing services.
Searchable by specific address, street, citywide, and
statewide, with further breakdowns by price range, numbers of bedrooms and
bathrooms, the database contains:
- Asking prices for homes, condominiums, cooperatives, and
land lots currently for sale
- Selling price of recently sold properties
- Monthly rental fee of properties for rent.
Most listings include exterior and interior photos of
properties, and details about square footage, age, and taxes.
The “Local” heading, located at the top of the screen, links
to a variety of demographic
information by city, including average property sales price,
crime rate, household income, and educational attainment.
2) Zillow
Zillow also contains prices for properties for sale or rent,
although that information is not as comprehensive as Realtor.com.
The best feature of Zillow: its history of sales prices for
specific properties. Plug in an address to retrieve the sales price going back
roughly ten years. It also estimates the property’s sale and rental price in the
current market.
I’ve searched addresses similar to the type and location of
my fictional characters, to get a ten year economic perspective of the
neighborhood, whether property values have improved or declined.
Zillow obtains its data from transaction data, so if a state
or jurisdiction does not make its property records available in a manner
accessible to Zillow, that info won’t be available in this database.
Unconventional
Housing
For characters who’d rather reside somewhere other than a
house or apartment, consult the following for info about alternative choices:
Yurts:
2) http://yurtsofamerica.com
Recreational Vehicles:
2) http://www.cheaprvliving.com
Boat
The author advertises his book, Living Aboard a Boat, on the site. However, he also packs the site with useful information, checklists, and articles.
Links to twelve blogs of boat dwellers.
Lighthouses:
Treehouses:
Tents:
Thomas Backlund, a Swedish man, quit his job to live and
work in a tent.
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