People want to be able to walk to stuff.

My question for my readers is this – is your neighborhood walkable?

Walkscore is a great resource, although it’s data is not always 100% accurate. A new tool, optimalhomelocation.com (h/t Lifehacker) offers the potential to find the “best” location for you to live …

Here’s my very rudimentary definition, based on personal biases and listening to my clients’ wants and needs -

- Schools–(you can search by elementary school on my Charlottesville Home Search)

- Walkable neighborhood with sidewalks
–(Walkscore can help, but you’re better off asking someone or driving by the area – or better yet, we can ride to the properties on bicycles!)

- In range of a coffee shop/Main Street/grocery store/playground/park
– Google can help, but there’s no good mashup of MLS data with this information. The best suggestion I’ve seen is for a Google My Maps for each buyer/client.

- Broadband– High speed internet access is an absolute must for most of my clients; unfortunately the local Board has been reluctant to make that a searchable option in the MLS. Even better would be if the providers – Comcast and Embarq (DSL) would provide an API that could be mashed-up/embedded in blogs and websites.

- Curbside recycling
–The City of Charlottesville offers this service as part of the City trash program. — The County of Albemarle does not offer curbside recycling, but two private companies have recently sprung up to fill this need – My Recycling Club and Green Pieces Recycling, so if you’re in the Urban Ring of the County, you should be able to get recycling.

Now … If there was some way to combine Walkscore with Google Transit with Demographic data with a mashup of the Charlottesville MLS or other tool …

I have been saying for a long time that the Charlottesville area is becoming more segmented as the sub-areas become more self-sufficient. This is a very rough map that I did some time ago (holy cow! I just saw that it has more than 15k views in Google!) – but breaking this down into “walk- or bike – ability” is something that can not yet be done by software.

View Larger Map

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Editor’s note – Guest post from a local citizen whom I agreed to keep anonymous. I can personally attest to what these guys gave back to the community. Whenever I called and asked for a few bucks for charities, they gladly gave. This isn’t an ode to Church Hill (but they are the largest local ones to go so far, so naturally they are on the top of everyone’s minds) or any other builder – but a focus on the benefits of “local.”

-

The most recent headline news on this topic was regarding the demise of Church Hill Homes. Reading all of the press on this topic and much of the discussion that ensued online, I was very disappointed. I was disappointed in how many readers immediately cried foul and fraud. This is ridiculous. The economy is challenging the local home builder community. Unless the current trend in home sales starts to change, it will present more challenges going forward. The general public does not hear more about this because lots of these builders are very small businesses. They don’t have many, or in some cases, any employees. They don’t have the exposure of large advertising budgets. In other words, they are not as newsworthy as a builder the size of Church Hill Homes.

To make a long story short, the owners of CHH invested every dime of credit they had into building that business and they were the last to want to see it go. They had the option to pull the plug via bankruptcy and walk away and chose not to. They have been working to help as many people impacted by their situation and continue to do so everyday. Bankruptcy for CHH and each of the owners is inevitable. There are no golden parachutes. Just people doing the best they can to pick up the pieces and move on.

The CHH story was significant, but it is already history. The real story is what is going to happen going forward. I do not know of a local homebuilder who is not challenged by this economy. Many are struggling to survive right now. Most cannot even start a spec home right now. Of course, the inventory is so high we don’t really need any more spec homes, however, for many smaller builders this is the only way to attract customers. This impacts our local economy in ways most don’t realize. When new construction winds down as much as it has, there is no way to work through the situation. The work is gone.

The economics of the circumstances are simple. The local home builder, in most cases, has to borrow money to purchase land. Land acquisition was the most challenging part of being a homebuilder during the boom. Often times this land was purchased years before it was ready to be improved. Many, many homeowners who bought at the top of the market, who now need to sell, are upside down in their mortgages. This is the same problem for the builders. The land has depreciated to the point that the sum of the land, materials, labor, and fees are greater than the market value or sales price. It’s not always that the builder spent his money on something other than the subs who worked on the home. Sometimes, there just isn’t enough money to pay everyone. The argument that everyone should have seen this coming is pointless. We have arrived, and there are A LOT of people impacted by this real estate market. Especially for those who make a living buying and selling real estate.

I am saddened by the loss of CHH and will be saddened if this area loses any more of our local homebuilders. CHH was delivering a high quality, stylish home with a level of service that created their great reputation. They were local business men who championed a lot of local charitable causes and hired a lot of local sub contractors. They are gone. There is a discussion on the national level that has been going on for years. There are two business models for the home building industry. There are privately owned companies and publicly owned companies.

The publicly owned, regional or national builder has a different business model. They do not purchase land, they option it. (By option, I mean they put down a deposit with a commitment to purchase lots as they sell homes. If the market turns or sales are not occurring at a profitable pace, they can walk away from the deposit.) They do not speculatively build homes, they only build once the home is sold. They bring in their own subs from outside the area. When this market turned, they walked away from their overpriced lots and renegotiated. They are nimble and flexible and are able to adjust to the market place. They will survive. In this area is one publicly owned builder really making an impact. In 2007, they represented a 27% market share for the region. In 2008, they are projecting a 37% market share. In 2009, they expect to exceed a 50% market share.

For many years, Charlottesville has been an area that offered many home and community choices in the form of many small to medium privately owned home builders and developers. It seems this market could change that going forward. As this market corrects itself, land values will come down and opportunities will be created going forward. The question is who is going to be in a position to take advantage of them. I for one do not want to lose any more of the local homebuilder community.

Editor’s note #2: I’m sharing this point of view to let people know what is going on from a different perspective. While this market has created challenges for the local home builder, it has created opportunity for the local home buyer. I’m seeing some buyers take advantage of some opportunities that haven’t been seen around this area for quite some time. Regarding the last sentence – my advice is constant -

If you’re looking to buy and stay for a while, you may want to strongly consider buying right now.

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It’s a simple question – do you participate in IDX (Internet Data Exchange)? Meaning, will you be marketing my property not just in the Charlottesville are MLS (to other Realtors) and on the local Realtors’ Association site, as well as Realtor.com but – on every other Realtors’ site who has an IDX feed (such as the one found here)- therefore substantially increasing traffic and exposure to my property?

Read more at Agent Genius (specifically the comments).

Realtors – also read Michael Wurzer’s post and Brian Larson’s post (and consider subscribing to both). There’s a lot happening the the acronym world about which we need to learn (NAR/DOJ/VOW/MLS/IDX/etc)

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Get out your best Magic 8 Ball -

He also observed the largest wave of Generation Y home purchasing begins in 2012, after experts think the housing market will have turned around. Although what qualifies as an “urban core area” may vary widely to different people, it seems a safe bet to expect considerable variety in tastes in the housing market.

Hmmm … I seem to recall writing a related post a short while ago …

Also related -

How Many Towncenters do we need in CharlAlbemarle?

WalkScore and Zillow sitting in a tree

Proximity to rail increases property values?

Could this be part of the future of transportation?

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Trulia announced their “Featured Listings” product the other day to much fanfare within the RE.net. There’s little to add to the discussion but my personal experience beta testing the product.

All I have to offer are the stats provided by Trulia on my listings (click the images for higher-res) –

1 – The increase in views for my listings is impressive.
2 – Traffic to my site increased 12 times! (from 0 to 12)
3 – The Broker-Centric nature of the site still irritates me.

Is it worth it? I don’t know. Traffic increased, but I didn’t get any emails from prospective purchasers.

The differentiation of listings is both good and bad. While similar to Realtor.com’s differentiation of listings, Trulia’s mission is clearly different – they are out to make a profit. Realtor.com is too, but they are supposed to be serving the Realtors and making a profit – which may be contradictory missions.

Some of the best analyses on the launch that I read (and there are certainly more):

Greg @ Bloodhound (with perhaps the best analogy)
Kris Berg

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If you’re interested in what’s around the bend in the real estate world, have a look at Gerry Davidson’s three part series on the report.

One aspect I found interesting about the report is that when ranking trends on a scale of 1 through 9, 9 was “Excellent” and 1 was “Abysmal” – a pretty powerful and descriptive word.

Part 1 – A Dose of Fear
Part 2 – Best Bets for 2008
Part 3 – Markets to Watch

Most applicable to the Charlottesville market is the (easy) prediction that the greening of real estate will continue to grow.

Thanks for the copy of the report, Gerry!

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What follows are two outstanding videos. As interesting as the videos themselves is the manner in which I found them –

The first one came to light from this blog:

The second one (Greg posted yesterday as well) was one of the “you might also like” recommendations at the end of the video.

How we categorize things, even in real estate and MLS’, is changing.

Also recommended: The Office and Ron Paul.

Think about it.

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But the tools used to display that local content and data will not be. Forsalebylocals notes the value of local content, coincidentally on the same day that I received a heads-up about a new data mashup startup, Fortius One, which looks quite interesting.

Ideally, FortiusOne will provide the ability to localize their content on websites (like my blog or real estate search site, for example), assuming they provide an API and I can figure out how to use it. What will their maps all you do?

    * Choosing your ideal neighborhood using crime, population and commute data
    * Identifying your target markets using age, income and occupation data
    * Educating yourself and others using pollution and environmental impact data

A map of the USA for those relocating is useless. A map with the same data, only drilled down to specific neighborhoods would be extraordinarily valuable.

As Pat Kitano said:

On just one map however, the obvious value is in identifying niche neighborhoods across a variety of variables…

Real estate is and always be local; now we just have to make sure the data is complete and accurate.

Technorati Tags: fortiusone, real estate

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This is the first in what I hope will be the occasional yet frequent Charlottesville Green Carnival – a place to highlight, ever-so-briefly green happenings.

Green Matters – now advertising information clinics in the C-Ville Weekly

Sunbiosis – A Charlottesville green architect that popped up in my feedreader.

Lithic Construction – another green builder that popped up

Eco-Friendly homes a moneymaker for ‘green’ firms

Officials examine sustainable local food supply

Do you have a green cause? What other local green stories have you seen?

Green “stuff,” and green building/real estate is a trend that is not going away. I told a developer the other day that he should consider changing his plans now because by 2009, I believe that green building will be a de facto requirement of buyers. Barely a day goes by that there is not a major story or initiative in the national press about green innovations, and every week brings a new development in the Charlottesville area – real estate or otherwise.

I wrote my first story on this blog in November of 2005; the momentum of this movement has certainly picked up since then.

Technorati Tags: albemarle, charlalbemarle, charlottesville, green

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Just ask. Unless more consumers ask, and more developers listen, little will be done. There is real, sustainable momentum right now towards the green movement.

I ran into a Realtor this morning at my favorite coffee shop, and asked whether a development that she was representing was going to be EarthCraft or not. She said she would find out. Several developments and builders in the Charlottesville area are catching on to the simple fact that buyers care about how their houses are built (shocking, I know). Interestingly, some of the market leaders in our area are the City of Charlottesville and County of Albemarle.

From CvilleTomorrow:

“…  LEED-certified buildings practices can reduce energy bills by up to thirty percent by reducing water use and preventing heat loss. In his presentation, Hartke addressed the costs of such benefits.

“We know that green buildings increase property value, they also decrease liability, but they also have a huge impact on health and well-being.” He even says green buildings can increase productivity and reduce absenteeism by providing healthier places to work and learn. But, he told the commission the dollar value of such improvements are hard to quantify. “

I am not sure how many times I have written or said this, but whether developers buy into the concept of building green for the health reasons or sustainability reasons, they need to start building green for at least the following reasons:

1) Buyers want it.
2) As buyers stay in their homes longer, they will be able to recoup the additional costs (however incremental they may be) as they stay in their homes longer.
3) There is profit to be had in building green.
Courtesy of an Eco-Broker presentation I use:

Home value increases by about $20 for every $1 reduction in annual utility bills.

94% of 300 Americans surveyed cited their most sought-after green upgrade as energy savings.

Roughly nine in ten people (91%) said energy-efficient features in a new home are extremely or very important.

Heck, even CNBC is covering green; their demographics tend to speak to market leaders. Might this be a clear sign that builders would do well to take heed?

Earth Day is Sunday. Get your free CFL at Home Depot (it’s a lightbulb that saves you money).

Technorati Tags: albemarle, green

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Inspired in part by this post at the Center for Realtor Technology comes this week’s (probably month’s) poll – How Important is Internet Access in your next home?

99% of my clients deem internet access to be an absolute, non-negotiable necessity, on par with needing three bedrooms and two baths, or needing to be within 20 minutes of the UVA Hospital because that is what the residency requirements state (Match Day is approaching!) In the area surrounding Charlottesville and beyond the Urban Ring of Albemarle, one cannot safely assume that high speed internet access is ubiquitous – this is often very surprising to those relocating to the area.

One would think that the MLS would offer this as a field by which we could limit our searches, but alas, not yet. For now, if a home has cable, assuming (and then verifying) that it has broadband access is safe. Calling the local phone company to see about DSL is another step, but often they aren’t 100% certain as to where their service extends. I have not yet had a client use Wild Blue satellite service, so I cannot vouch for that service. So … how important is internet access to your home search?

Technorati Tags: mls, internet, real estate

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I almost missed it. It’s been two years since I started this blog. This is my very first post, back before I discovered the “real” blogging experience offered by Wordpress.

So much has changed in the past two years that reflecting is a difficult task. I didn’t even know there were other real estate bloggers when I started, nor did I know whether anybody would read my blog. That said:

1. The number of real estate bloggers has increased tremendously.
2. The relationships I have forged with bloggers across the country are enormously valuable, as I respect what most of them have to say. I have learned an enormous amount from the real estate bloggers out there, and plan to continue to do so. By far the most important aspect of writing every day is the reading and analyzing I do every. single. day.
3. More people are reading blogs – old and young; far less often do I hear, “What’s a blog?”
4. I would like to think my writing has improved.
5. While I have gained business from my effort, that was never the intended goal of this blog.
6. Real estate is local. National trends impact the Charlottesville, Virginia market, but the most influential real estate trends happen on the local level.
7. Right or wrong, I feel a certain responsibility to write as well and as frequently as possible – both for my own and my readers’ continuity.

I wanted to link to some of my older stories, but the conversion process from iBlog to Wordpress destroyed much of the formatting. If I could figure out how to install this tag cloud plugin, I’d post the most common words and categories over the past two years.

Blogging is easy, but as with anything, blogging well can be quite difficult. I and my business are better for it. And I’ll keep doing it.

Technorati Tags: albemarle, charlalbemarle, charlottesville, wordpress

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Kudos to the County of Albemarle:

The Virginia Sustainable Building Network will be holding a training session for Earthcraft House™ in Charlottesville for the first time on January 18, 2007. Earthcraft House™ is a green building standard endorsed by Governor Tim Kaine, the Homebuilders Association of Virginia, and the Blue Ridge Home Builders. The training session will begin at 8:00 AM and end at 5:00 PM on January 18th in the County Office Building on McIntire Road. This training is for those interested in becoming EarthCraft House™ Builders or Inspectors.

The EarthCraft House™ green building program works with home builders to construct resource and energy-efficient homes that lessen the impact on the environment. Earth Craft homes were first built in Virginia about one year ago when the program did a test run in Charlottesville.

The EarthCraft program standards were developed through a unique partnership between Southface Energy Institute and the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, government and environmental leaders. Together, they created one of the country’s most progressive home building programs. These homes are built of environmentally-sensitive and recycled materials and demand less energy and other resources over time due to energy and water-efficient components.
           
Registration for the training session is required.  Anyone interested in participating in the class is encouraged to visit the Virginia Sustainable Building Network website or call Sean Dougherty at (434)296-5832.

This is great news. I have written before that the catalyst for green building’s emergence will not be “feel-good” reasons, but simple economics. Hybrid vehicles didn’t start to take off until fuel prices skyrocketed and consumers demanded more. My prediction is that the housing market will see a return to buyers staying in houses longer and thus will be able to recoup the costs from living greener, more earth-friendly lifestyles. Better light bulbs are a start.

There has been talk lately about fluorescent bulbs‘ merits (and demerits); buying a few is a start. Soon you might find yourself recycling or riding a bike to work!

Here are some of the Charlottesville, Virginia area EarthCraft builders.

These are some of the properties on the market in Charlottesville/Albemarle noted as being “Earthcraft” – four of which are in a new in-fill development in the City of Cville and another five are in another in-fill developement. I’m telling you, this just might be the sign of a movement afoot. (BTW, if you’re interested in any of these, please contact me)

Technorati Tags: albemarle, charlalbemarle, charlottesville, green, recycling

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The news on Inman last week struck me – are those Realtors who choose not to list themselves as “gay-friendly” therefore not? Personally, I treat all clients the same. No matter of their religion, gender, race or any other factor.  If someone needs to buy or sell a home I look at the factors that would affect their ability to do so.  I certainly would not consider their sexual orientation or any other peripherals. I mentioned this the other day, but have not been able to stop thinking about it.

Virginia’s Code says, among other things:

1. To refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, or familial status;

2. To discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in the connection therewith to any person because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, or familial status;

Federal laws seem to be equally silent on sexual orientation.

From Rismedia:

The certification training for LGBTRES candidates includes a half-day live lecture course or an online track, which the candidate must pass to receive their certification. The training, designed to help agents and brokers gain sensitivity to and understanding of the LGBT market, will be offered to Realogy’s affiliated sales associates and brokers at a substantially discounted rate of $75. The NGLCC will begin delivery of the training in the fourth quarter of 2006, and, in 2007, will certify LGBTRES trainers in Realogy’s major markets to make the certification available to a wider audience.

As to someone’s sexual orientation, skin color, sex, age – I don’t care one way or the other. So long as they are qualified by a reputable lender, are looking within their comfortable price range and are ready, willing and able to purchase a home now or in the (sometimes not so near) future, that’s all I need. Fair Housing laws dictate that everyone must be treated the same (although sexual orientation is not yet a protected class).

I don’t steer people to or from specific ethnic neighborhoods, nor would I feel comfortable telling a client that a neighborhood is or is not “gay friendly.”  Do we now need arbitrary certifications from various groups saying that Realtors are qualified to work with each individual protected (and not-yet-protected) classes? We have Senior Specialists, the NAR has a Diversity Section of their website.

Do I need to be listed as a “gay-friendly” Realtor? I don’t think so. I market my services to qualified buyers (and sellers), and I don’t care if they are tall, short, grey or purple, skinny or fat. If they want to buy or sell a house, that’ll do.

Technorati Tags: common sense, fair housing, gay, real estate

The Commonwealth of Virginia also says this:

There are several groups that are not protected under either the state or federal fair housing law. For example students and smokers are not protected. Income status, sexual orientation, marital status, that is unmarried couples and age are also not protected groups. However these classes may be protected under a local ordinance. Therefore before drafting a fair housing policy a housing provider should determine if local ordinances protect certain classes that are not protected by the state or federal law.

Thank goodness students aren’t a protected class!
Everyone is a protected class.

Interesting links from InstaPundit. Here and here. Where do we draw the line and just treat people as people?

While this post was sitting waiting to be published, True Gotham voices his thoughts, with which I agree 100%.

I can’t believe that in this day and age there is a necessity for a specialization in assisting the GLBT community with their housing needs. (Don’t make me start counting up the hundreds of GLBT clients I have served through the years.) It actually seems like a bizarre kind of discrimination to me, like these are “special” people who need uncommon kinds of help.

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And that qualifies as a “good thing.”

At an open house this weekend, a builder and I were discussing homeowners’ evolving wants and demands in their homes. Friday, I met with some potential buyers who spoke to exactly what I foresee as being what is “next,” both from a want and a need perspective.

Buyers want quality. They want energy efficiency. They want smart design. They want good materials. They want their homes to be more than a house that has been vomited up on a clear-cut landscape and put up as quickly as possible by whomever could be found and contracted with to be built by whomever they builder could find who would show up.

A bit of research led me to this excellent interview with John Beldock, CEO of EcoBroker. Where there used to be only two EcoBrokers in the Charlottesville market, there are now three. Slowly, people are catching on.

My potential clients on Friday were talking about the “5,000 square foot barns with walls of glass and 12 foot ceilings …” that people are just realizing cost beaucoup dollars to heat. They would like their next home to have passive solar, radiant heating, smart living spaces and – get this – be well-constructed. See this article for an example of a good idea – radiant heating – taken to the extreme. (Free link)

The Housing Bubble blog has an interesting story titled “Shoddy Construction and The Housing Bubble.” I don’t necessarily agree with the severity of all the comments, but there are some valid points regarding the speed with which homes have been built of late and the accompanying level of quality. That is changing now and will change more dramatically in the next three years. Builders will have to adapt to buyers’ demands rather than buyers’ adapting to the builders’ offerings.

I said the other day in The HooK:

“In the last several years, people had gotten away from the ‘buying smart’ mentality and were just buying,”

Change that sentence around a bit –

In the last several years, people had gotten away from the ‘builders smart’ mentality and were just building whatever they could, as fast as they could.

Not surprisingly, none of the EarthCraft builders in Charlottesville market are “production” builders.

Waldo has collected a few useful links.

Can homes with these offerings be built in a dense environment?
What will Homeowners’ Associations’ response be to solar panels?

Solar power is becoming more affordable
A look at alternative energy and more
How to green your heating

A lot of the green “trends” are simple common sense. Common sense is part of what allowed mankind to sustain itself for so long. It’s time we returned to some of our senses.

Technorati Tags: green, passive solar, sustainability, real estate, solar

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From (mostly) the big media -

Reading between the signs (NYTimes)

Maybe Realtors are needed after all (CBS Marketwatch)

Young builders -vs- old builders’ experience/perceptions (CBS Marketwatch)

“Simply put, many of the guys in charge on the divisional level don’t know what a down market is like because they’ve never been in one”

Thoughts on the housing slowdown (Econbrowser)

What is it they say about those who forget history? Something about doom and repetition?

Technorati Tags: real-estate, trends

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This is fascinating and so very insightful –

Thanks to Bill Tancer who has

… superimposed the monthly data from the NAR on a Hitwise search term volume chart for the search query “homes for sale.

Whom do you/should you trust? Economists, pundits, or search? Or all three?

I know that I have added his blog to my RSS reader, and Hitwise’s as well.

Hat tip to Inman.

Technorati Tags: real-estate, trends

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Just a test … a possibly dynamically updating graph showing the search trends on Technorati for “housing bubble.”

For the past 360 days:

Posts that contain Housing Bubble per day for the last 30 days.

Posts that contain Housing Bubble per day for the last 30 days.


One nice thing about Google Trends is that it juxtaposes news stories with the search history.

Technorati Tags: blogs, bubble, google trends

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What happens after the Baby Boomers? There is an awful lot of discussion about the impending retirement of the Baby Boomer generation and the impact that they are and will continue to have on the real estate market. I noted it here a little while ago. The CharlAlbemarle area has very little housing that is suitable (mostly single-level living, Universal Design, (and here) conveniently located near efficient public transport) for the 55+ crowd. One of the only single-family developments (condos excluded) designed for retiring baby boomers is at least 20 minutes north of the City – with no public transportation at all.

All housing has a life-cycle. Look at the older, tree-lined streets in the City and the urban ring. Many of these neighborhoods are experiencing turnover for the first time in at least thirty years. While the houses may not suit today’s lifestyles – open floorplans and kitchens, master suites, at least 2300 finished square feet – they have that other major criterion – Location. 

What will the landscape look like in thirty or forty years when these now new developments (I am reluctant to call some of these new incarnations “neighborhoods” just yet) start to experience their own turnover? Who will buy these houses?

The current trend for Gens X and Y is toward smaller, smarter spaces rather than large, sprawling McMansions plopped into a field somewhere. This seems to me to be two incompatible trends poised to collide at some point.

A Rismedia story noted:

Three out of five (baby boomers) say their idea of the perfect location to retire is in a rural area or small town, with only 12 percent saying an urban or city setting, and nearly half would consider living in an age-restricted community; 38 percent want to be close to family.

If money were no object, access to quality health care is important to more Boomers than being on a golf course (38 percent vs. 4 percent). Ideally, they would like to live in a rural area with access to quality health care. “One question is how many areas actually offer those kinds of amenities in that kind of environment,” Stevens said.

CharlAlbemarle has the health care, the quality environment, the dynamic lifestyle … and golf courses. For how long?

Note: this post was partially inspired by an excellent post at Matrix. 

Technorati Tags: real estate, Gen X, Gen Y, baby boomers, trends

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Local builder -vs- national builders in the Charlottesville area

Mold -vs- asbestos -vs- radon

National real estate websites

Blog -vs- RSS -vs- Podcast

Charlottesville -vs- Albemarle

MLS -vs- FSBO – interestingly, all of the top cities are from Canada.

In essence, Google Trends gives another means by which to present one’s argument with one’s own manipulation of statistics.

Technorati Tags: google trends

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