Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate

This title seeks to arm home buyers, sellers, and owners with the relevant data to navigate today's postrecession housing market. Coauthored by Rascoff and Humphries, the CEO and chief economist of Zillow (zillow.com), respectively, the book tackles common myths (that remodeling a kitchen gives the best bang for your buck), niche trends (Manhattan real estate prices), and other topics (what your street name says about its value). It turns (mostly) Zillow statistics into interesting and relevant housing topics. While much of the coverage is very specific, the conclusion focuses on more general information and sometimes verges on editorializing. One example is the popular mortgage interest deduction (MID). Rascoff and Humphries state that it doesn't affect most people, only those who pay federal income taxes, itemize their deductions, and currently have a mortgage (about 13 percent of people). They recommend replacing it with a first-time home buyer tax credit or cash grant; they say that this would help less affluent buyers and wouldn't need to be subsidized by Washington, as the MID is. Extensively backed up by data and well sourced, this book is written in a fast-paced, conversational manner and is easy to read.