Zillow see home price in years worked

Fun fact: mortgage originates from an old (French?) word meaning “dead pledge”. Talk about morbid—the French thought of homebuying like purchasing a fancy coffin.

In a way, they aren’t wrong. Houses cost a lot, and in addition to the sticker price, you inevitably have to replace furnaces, roofs, plumbing, electrical, and more plus pay property taxes every year and home insurance. It all adds up quickly.

Yesterday I had fun looking at some homes for sale around where I live. There were some cool houses, some weird ones, and some exorbitantly expensive ones. When looking for homes, you often try to do the mental math of if you can afford it (or you know you just can’t). This got me thinking. What if Zillow had your annual income and showed you home prices in years worked?

Theoretically, if you get prequalified you could see something like this. It would likely be disheartening more (or motivate you to switch jobs). Alternatively, Zillow could use this unaffordability as a launchpad for upsells to therapy products and other jobs to help supplement income. I doubt Zillow would want to scare away potential buyers like this, but it’d get some press if they launched this.

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