Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “We are not makers of history…We are made by history”. We’re inclined to apply that to Real Estate, since it’s come a long way since the days of huddling around a rudimentary fire in a dank, dark cave.
Here’s the timeline in text format, with a few additions from some great real estate minds:
REAL ESTATE THROUGH TIME
- 334 BC – Alexander the Great’s defeat of the Persians shows aggressive acquisition of real estate by force
- 1066 – William the Conqueror decrees that he owns all of the land in England after his defeat of the Normans
- 1689 – John Locke writes the Two Treatises on Civil Government, which outlines a man’s right to preserve “life, liberty, and estate.”
- 1783 – Napoleon begins seizing real estate in the form of countries
- 1803 – The U.S. acquires some swampy new land in the Louisiana Purchase
- 1855 – Baird Warner is formed and has remained the oldest real estate brokerage in the nation
- 1867 – U.S. gains a bit of icy tundra from Russia in the Alaska Purchase
- 1916 – National association of real estate agents coins the term Realtor
- 1929 – The largest stock market crash sparks the Great Depression and the collapse of the real estate market
- 1934 – National Housing Act creates the FHA (Federal Housing Association)
- 1938 – The Federal National Mortgage Association – now Fannie Mae – is chartered by the federal government
- Late 1940’s – Adoption of fixed-rate mortgage as industry standard
- Early 1960’s – The National Association of Real Estate Boards creates national MLS system based on unilateral offer of cooperation
- 1970 – Congress charters Freddie Mac and the secondary loan market
- 1980’s – Interest rates zoom upward and halt construction of new homes
- 1994 – Property listings begin to become publicly available on the Internet
- 1995 – Craigslist is launched
- 1999 – ZipRealty introduces Internet lead generation to Real Estate
- 1999 – Move (formerly HomeStore) goes public, the first real estate company to do so
- Early 2000’s – Launch of IDX feeds for real estate websites
- 2004 – Popular real estate blog, Curbed, is founded in New York City
- 2005 – Google announces Google Base, Google Earth, and Google Maps
- 2005 – Movoto.com launches real estate Mapsearch using Google Maps
- 2006 – Zillow.com launches its Zestimate
- 2007 – Trulia launches Trulia Voices, a real estate question & answer site
- 2007 to 2010 – The “Housing Bubble” bursts, causing the financial crisis in the U.S.
- 2008 – NAR (National Association of Realtors) settles with the DOJ (Department of Justice) over accusations of hampering rivals’ ability to post home listings online
- 2008 – Zillow launches their Mortgage Marketplace for consumers
- 2009 – Real Estate phone apps become all the rage
- Late 2000’s – Brick and Mortar offices decrease in number as virtual real estate companies become more prevalent
- 2010 to Present – Real Estate data (homes-for-sale, sold history, etc.) becomes more easily accessible for all
- 2010 to Present – Foreclosures and Short Sales become the dominant listing type in the market
