Out Fox The $treet

Zillow ( NASDAQ: Z     ) is facing increasing pressure for the leadership position in the online real estate marketplace. The recent purchase of Market Leader by Trulia ( NYSE: TRLA     ) places it in a more comparable position based on revenue. Move ( NASDAQ: MOVE     ) continues to make long-needed enhancements to realtor.com, but it has fallen far behind the monthly unique users, or MUUs, of Zillow and Trulia. The previous week's earnings call for Zillow provided several key numbers that suggest the leadership position isn't as much in question. While Trulia made a big step forward on the professional agent aspect of the business, it fell even further behind on traffic to its core sites. In addition, Move recently got approval to become more competitive via quicker updates to the primary website, but the consumer traffic levels suggest it might be too far behind to catch up. After all, President Obama chose Zillow to participa...

PRO As mentioned in the original analysis (see Two Harbors Provides Unique Residential REIT Opportunity To Pass On For Now ) on the formation of the spin-off of Silver Bay Realty Trust ( SBY ) from Two Harbors Investment Corp ( TWO ) the process would initially be ugly. The combination of pulling in housing assets from two entities and being the first public company to attempt the owning and renting of single-family houses made the stock impossible to value. On top of that, the majority of the owned assets were acquired in 2012 leaving limited data on the stabilization process and ability to lease the houses. The company plans to acquire, renovate, lease, and maintain a portfolio of... Read the full article on Seeking Alpha. (only available to non-PRO readers for 30 days) Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The housing market has been depressed for over 5 years now. During that time period several smaller, housing-related internet stocks have gone public to mostly limited fanfare. These stocks could provide some under-the-radar opportunities as the housing market rebounds in the coming years. The market is well aware of the homebuilding stocks that have soared this year such as KB Homes (KBH) or the major home improvement retailers like Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW). What about the internet-related housing stocks such as Bankrate (RATE), Market Leader (LEDR), Move (MOVE), or Zillow (Z)? The market is very infatuated with the social media stocks such as the upcoming Facebook IPO or Zynga (ZNGA). Instead of focusing on these stocks, why not buy into a sector of the internet that isn't hot? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long HD and LOW. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.

Apparently to great shock in the rest of the world, housing is actually showing signs of life this shouldn't be a big surprise to this blog as we've been noting the growing sales volume in places like California for months now. Apparently it is now spreading to FL and Las Vegas. The pattern appears to be that once prices are down roughly 40%, the investors and first time home buyers come rushing in. This article by BusinessWeek shows the disconnect between the main media outlets and reality. With Housing Affordability off the charts, it shouldn't be surprising that volumes are picking up. It doesn't mean that prices will go up any time soon, but stability is huge especially for banks. Investors expecting a huge decline in the market might be caught off guard with this news. For the Garvins, who weren't eligible for the government tax credit, record-low interest rates were a big enticement. With the rate on their 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.75%, the payment ...

The news surrounding Home Sales continue to improve. Existing home sales rose unexpectedly in December. As we've reported in the past, home sales in areas such as California have been increasing at a dramatic rate. This is whats needed to stem the bleeding. Prices have finally gotten low enough to increase demand. Combine that with fewer houses being built and we'll soon enough work off the inventory. So the negative is the record drop to housing prices to $175K, but at the same time the inventory dropping to 9 months is very encouraging that the housing market is about to reach equilibrium. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes rose 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.74 million in December, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million in November. The results were better than expected. December's sales had been forecasted to fall to a pace of 4.4 million units, according to Thomson Reuters. The nationwide median sales price plunge...