I’m heading to New York tomorrow to moderate some panels for Inman.com’s annual Connect conference. Connect is about bringing together leading real estate professionals with top technology companies in order to find solutions for growing the real estate industry. The panels I’ll be moderating (Thursday afternoon, 3-5pm at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, registration required at www.inman.com) have to do with Mapping technology and Mobile Technology and issues relating to real estate.

I’ll post my thoughts on these two topics later in the week.

With all the talk about bubbles, one thing I haven’t seen a lot of ink on is the link between technology and real estate. Since the birth of the Internet (really around 1993 or 1994 for consumer purposes), real estate has taken off. How much of that is due to the Internet, growth of technology, and connectivity might surprise most folks.

More than 75 percent of consumers start their search for a home on the web, and more than 80 percent of Americans have online access, whether at work or at home.

How many of those are looking for their next home purchase?

January 9, 2006