Another Vancouver real estate agent is closing up shop and leaving town, but this one is special because he’s been one of the rare breed that regularly shares market data. Will Wertheim has shut down his website and posted a brief message about leaving town.
At the same time Larry Yatkowsky has stopped sharing market data, because he says the return on investment just isn’t worth it.
Compiling regular data and presenting it online is a lot of work and it’s very likely that those who are watching the market that closely aren’t going to buy while prices are high. It seems like more of a long term investment in potential customers and a way to drive traffic to your website.
It will be interesting to see how recent changes to the way the CREA keeps data hidden from customers will play out. Potentially Canada will get Zillow or another alternative housing market site that compiles data and makes it more available than the industry has up to this point.
In the meanwhile the data addicts are fortunate to have Paul Boenisch around. He posts regular daily market data here and on his website.
