The free Zillow feature allows home buyers and others to view homes that aren't listed for sale but are headed that way because of financial distress. Critics cite privacy concerns.
Real estate website Zillow.com has built a successful business out of telling online visitors how much your house is worth. Now it's telling the world whether you're in foreclosure.
The company on Thursday launched a free feature that allows anybody searching for homes to view those that aren't listed for sale but are headed that way because of financial distress.
Nosy neighbors will be able to see if a homeowner has defaulted on the mortgage and by how much, whether a house has been taken back by the lender, and what a house might sell for in foreclosure, among other things.
While information on borrowers in foreclosure has long been public, it has been accessible only to those willing to dig through public records or pay specialized providers who aggregate that data for a fee. Zillow executives described the new feature as a service for people shopping for homes and a way to provide increased transparency to real estate.
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