Includes GPS-enabled listings along with home values from eppraisal.com, Zillow, and Cyberhomes

Although I am not currently in the market for a new home, I tend to window shop the “for sale” market just for fun.  ZipRealty just made it even more fun with their iphone app, which allows you to find homes for sale, as well as recently sold homes, based on your current location.

All fun aside, this is a really useful app for prospective home buyers.  Geo-targeted searches can be filtered based on property characteristics — such as property type, price range, and number of bedrooms/bathrooms — making it easy to identify potential homes while out house hunting.  Once listings are identified, there’s no more jumping out of the car and running through the lawn to retrieve property flyers. Each listing includes home details and photos, along with aggregated home valuations from eppraisal.com, Zillow, and Cyberhomes.

The app is free and can be found by searching the easily by searching the App Store for ZipRealty.

Moving day is stressful — you’re uprooting your family’s life and moving it to an entirely new house, and perhaps an entirely new city.

There are ways you can make the moving day itself less grueling with just a little planning. Here are a few:

1. If you’re using movers, they will go through your entire house and draw up an inventory of your things to be moved. Tag along with the driver who’s tallying this inventory and make sure everything gets on it, and then use the inventory at your new home to make sure that everything gets unloaded. The more familiar you are with the inventory, the more at ease you will be that your loading and unloading is proceeding smoothly and that you’re on track for your move.
2. Be the sole source of contact with moving companies. Having one person in charge of all the moving details will make it easier to keep track of your entire move. It will also make it easier for the moving company to know who to speak to if there are issues.
3. Before you even move, take care of things at your new home so you don’t have to worry about them on moving day. Get your utilities hooked up, and arrange to have cleaners get everything clean before you arrive. Also, when your new house is empty is the best time to do minor home improvement projects like painting, wood-floor refurbishing, and carpet cleaning.
4. If you have kids or pets, arrange to have someone take care of them during your loading and unloading. Kids, especially small kids, can get underfoot during a move and pose a danger to the folks who are moving your stuff. Also, the less you have to keep track of on moving day, the better.
5. Pack and set aside a bag that you will need during the trip to your new home. To be safe, keep this bag at a neighbor’s, or put it in the car, to ensure it doesn’t accidently get packed by your moving company.
6. After everything’s been loaded, go through the house (and possibly enlist someone to come along with you) to ensure everything was loaded onto the truck.

SOURCE: Relocation.com

In the 12 months from May 2008 to May 2009, The District of Columbia led the U.S. with the highest percentage of homes sold over $1 million at 7.14 percent. California leads the nation in overall volume of homes sold for over $1 million but is fourth behind Hawaii (6.95 percent), Connecticut (3.87 percent), and D.C. (7.14 percent) in percentage at 3.26 percent.

Furthermore, the unemployment rate for the D.C. metro region is at 6.2 percent, much lower than the 9.5 percent national average. There is a fascinating article about the muted effects the recession has had on D.C and its residents by Victoria McGrane – D.C. Plays “Rich Uncle” in Recession.

Of all the states where enough data was gathered to report on percentage, Michigan was the lowest at 0.08 percent. With the continuing decline of American automobile companies in the area, climbing unemployment, and soaring foreclosures, it would stand to make sense there are less opportunities for people to both earn and spend millions on homes in the area.

The top 20 by percentage are listed below:

Today eppraisal.com released its National Real Estate Market Analysis report for 186 markets across the continental U.S. This report, which tracks median sales price of residential homes, compares data on homes sold in the last three months ending May 2009 with homes sold in the previous three months beginning on December 2008 and ending February 2009.

For the first time this year, more than half of the markets tracked by eppraisal.com saw an increase in the median home value. Of the 97 markets that saw positive gains, more than 25 percent of those markets saw a double-digit increase in the median home value. For example, in the Ohio markets of Columbus, Sandusky, Lima, and Cleveland-Elyria, all saw double-digit increases of 12.7 percent, 23.1 percent, 26.7 percent, and 29.9 percent respectively. Overall, increases were seen across most states. Ithaca, NY, saw an increase of 16.9 percent to a median home value of $159,000, Fairbanks, AK, increased by 9.3 percent to a median home value of $225,506, and Boston-Quincy, Mass., areas increased by 7.1 persent to a median value of $300,000.

In the previous report, smaller markets led the list with overall increases in home values; however, larger markets have begun to make a comeback as well. For example, San Jose-Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, Calif., saw an increase of 8.4 percent to a median value of $439,000. San Francisco-San Mateo, Calif., was up 10.4 percent to a median value of $635,000, and Chicago-Naperville, Ill., saw an increase of 3.1 percent to a median value of $115,000. This is the second time this year that San Francisco has seen an increase in home values. For the first time this year there are more positive markets in California than negative.

On the other side of the country, Florida leads the list with the most declines, with 14 of the 19 markets tracked by eppraisal.com showing declines in the median home value. In Jacksonville, Fla., home prices dropped 3.9 percent to a median home value of $152,900. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, home values dropped 3 percent to a median value of $125,000. The Orlando-Kissimmee area dropped 8.5 percent to a median home value of $151,000.

Overall, the markets are showing signs of recovery and surprisingly less than five percent of the markets tracked by eppraisal.com saw more than a 10 percent drop in home values. This is down from the more than 30 percent of markets seeing a 10 percent or higher decline in the median home value that was reported in the March 2009 report.

See a complete list of rankings.

There’s something about the iPhone that has you salivating even as you hear the name being spoken. And with all the innovative apps that are being developed for this smartphone, life sure becomes a whole lot easier when you’re able to access all that you need right from the palm of your hand. Whether you just dabble in real estate or are a real enthusiast, these five apps meant for the iPhone are just what you need to make your real estate dealings and searches more comfortable:

Coldwellbanker: This nifty application allows you to search for homes based on location, city, state, zip code, price (set minimum and maximum amounts), the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the most recent search results. Another useful utility is the one that allows you to view the values of homes in certain neighborhoods.

StreetEasy Real Estate: StreetEasy provides you with a complete real estate view of New York, allowing you to pull details of home values, building information, photographs and other data through simple searches. You could get detailed information of a particular apartment or any other building and also information on similar listings if you are looking for alternatives.

Puluwai: Another search application for the iPhone, Puluwai allows you to search for homes and other property based on location, price, keywords and the number of bedrooms. You could also search using the iPhone’s GPS capabilities.

Home Finder: Besides acting as a valuable real estate search tool, Home Finder also includes a nifty calculator that you can use to process mortgage rates and plan payment schedules. You can store your recent searches, email them to friends and others, and view maps of areas you are interested in.

Zillow Real Estate: This is one baby that’s smooth both when you’re on the move and when you’re stationary. It provides you with real estate information about houses in the area you’re in and about property in any area you want to view. You’re given information about recently sold homes, homes that are available for purchase, and the values of homes in the locality.

This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of construction management degree at her blog The Fixer-Upper Blog. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.