SEATTLE, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow.com, the real estate Web site with valuations and data on 68 million U.S. homes, today announced that it has made its Application Programming Interface (API) available free of charge to third-party consumer Web sites. By implementing the API, other Web sites can recreate Zillow's functionality on their domain, turning member sites into mini real estate portals that include detailed information from Zillow's extensive database on millions of homes.
The company is offering two different APIs: home valuations and property details. The home valuation API includes Zestimate values, home valuation charts, comparable sales, and market trend charts. The property detail API includes more detailed information about specific homes, including historical sale price and year, tax assessment and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
"We understand that individuals in the real estate market today, whether it be buying or selling a home, engage with real estate professionals on a local level," said Mark Eamer, director of online marketing at Zillow. "While there are a handful of national real estate sites on the Web today, many thousands of local real estate agents and brokerages also have home pages, and many are looking for ways to enhance these with relevant, free information for their customers. By opening up the Zillow API, we are putting more information in the hands of consumers, in more places."
Intent to offer an open API was originally announced via Zillow's corporate blog in July, and Zillow has since seen significant interest throughout the industry. From real estate agents, to mortgage lenders, to real estate portals, the company has received hundreds of requests. Today there are already more than 30 pre-launch implementations of the API, including Yahoo! Real Estate, Prudential Northern California and Nevada, ZipRealty and Redfin, along with smaller organizations including individual agent sites.
"The philosophy behind our Web site is to empower consumers through information, and the Zillow API has been a perfect fit for this by complementing the tools and data we were already providing our clients," said Joe Walker, owner and president of Century 21 Joe Walker and Associates in Central Ohio. "We have found the Zillow API to be a great addition to our site, and have received numerous compliments from the real estate community and our Web users.
About Zillow.com
Zillow.com launched its beta service in February 2006, and quickly became one of the top-visited real estate sites online. Zillow's goal is to empower consumers with tools and information to transform how they buy and sell homes. The first step is providing valuations and data on 68 million U.S. homes, with contributions from the homeowners themselves. Zillow was started by a group of Internet veterans, including Expedia founder and former CEO Rich Barton and former Expedia senior vice president Lloyd Frink. Headquartered in Seattle, Zillow has raised a total of $57 million in funding.
NOTE: Zillow.com and Zestimate are trademarks of Zillow, Inc.
Zillow, Inc.
