The New York Times takes a look at the online real estate category, noting that despite problems in the housing sector startups such as Redfin, Trulia and Zillow.com are still attracting visitors and customers.VC funded firms must pay close attention to their cash burn rate, particularly if the loss funding environment tightens.No hard revenue figures are provided, so it is a little tough to gauge whether the upstarts will survive if problems persist in the market. But the Times -- drawing comparisons to online travel agencies of the past -- reports that the heavily-funded companies are at least growing.
"In September, we thought it was maybe the beginning of a very long downturn," says Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman -- whose photo appears in the story next to some old company signs. "But for whatever reason, the last few months have been very strong for us."
Meanwhile, Zillow's Spencer Rascoff tells the Times that advertising revenue has more than doubled as it added sales professionals and new advertising products.
A Nielsen Online analyst offers a note of caution with a statistic that advertising on real estate sites actually dropped 31 percent last year. But overall the piece paints a rosy picture of how the real estate startups -- several of which happen to be located in Seattle -- are making headway.