On Tuesday, Miami Heat superstar Dwayne Wade tweeted that his Pinecrest, FL home located at 9330 SW 59th Pl, Pinecrest Postal Store, FL is on the market for $3.3 million, calling the home a “real bargain.” The Zestimate on the property is $3,975,5000.

Don’t misinterpret this as a sign that Wade wants to leave the Heat, says the Miami Herald. Sources say that Wade would like to make a long-term commitment to Miami, he just needs a g$$d reason to stay.

Stay tuned to  the Zillow Blog and Twitter for the latest on D-Wade’s real estate news.

See additional photos of Dwayne Wade’s house.

Over half (55%) of those who reported using the Internet as a tool in the home buying process used Zillow. Realtor.com continued to be the most used site as 89% of buyers used it; with individual real estate company sites at 81%; individual real estate sites were used 66% of the time. Yahoo! Real Estate scored with 53% and Craigslist was at 49%.

If you are a member of the association, the full report is free to download. If you aren’t a member, you can get it for $29.95.

Should I go with Bank or Mortgage Broker?

Agents like Andrew Walter offer reasons to go with a direct lender while lenders such as Gregorio Denny offer the argument that superior service is important.

What do you think?

P.S. A recent post in Mortgages Unzipped reviewed the different types of lenders.

So it’s important to understand how and when information about recently sold homes appears on Zillow. We actually get this from a couple different sources.

The first is agents with listings on Zillow. When an agent sells a home and takes that listing off Zillow, they’re prompted to give the sale price. This can happen the day of closing.

The second way we get information about recently sold homes is through public records. How long it takes from the recording of a deed to the date the information appears on our site depends on the region, but in June it took a median of 23 days nationwide. In some places, like our homebase of King County, Wash., where the information is processed very quickly, we can have public records data in our database within a week.

Something else that’s important to point out is that, since Zillow gets information about recently sold homes from both agents and from public records, we have a very complete set of recent sale prices. About 15 percent of all sales nationwide are not listed through a Multiple Listing Service; they’re either listed as for sale by owner (FSBO), or are pocket listings (listings that never make it to the MLS). Via public records data, we’re therefore able to list all sales among our recenty-sold homes.  Additionally, our live for-sale listings (3.6 million of them today) come from owners, agents and feed partnerships with brokerages and MLS’s - so they include a broad range of homes for sale by agents and by owners.

RealEstalker has reported that the Nashville home of former Tennessee Titans QB Steve McNair, who police say was shot to death by his mistress in a tragic murder-suicide last week, is on the market and is listed for sale for $3 million.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the McNairs put the home on the market in the past few months because they were looking to buy a different one — not due to marital problems.

Public records show the McNairs purchased the home for $1,599,000 in 2004. It has 14,263 square feet of living space, 26 rooms, 9 bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, and is on 1.33 acres.  It was built in 1998.

McNair retired from football in 2008 after playing 13 seasons as quarterback — mostly with the Tennessee Titans and two years with the Baltimore Ravens. He is the all-time leading passer for the Titans and led them to the playoffs four times, and the Ravens once. He played in Super Bowl XXXIV with the Titans.

Since then, we’ve been asked how this varies by state, so here’s the data for the top 30 states with the most requests.

Since January, purchase loan requests have increased significantly in each of these states, so it appears that buyers have potentially become more active across the country, not just in some pocket areas.  Massachusetts (+472%), Indiana (+455%), and New Jersey (+382%) have experienced the greatest increase in demand for purchase loan requests so far this year.

However, looking at a more recent time period shows that buyers in a few states may be taking a summer break.  Utah (-31%), Illinois (-9%), and South Carolina (-6%), Michigan (-4%) and Washington (-2%) all experienced decreased demand for purchase loan requests in June vs. May.

While there’s debate over when a “bottom” will be reached in various markets, most everyone agrees that for a full housing recovery, buyers have to come back en masse — particularly the ‘move up,’ or ‘move across’ buyers who typically make most of the purchases.

With this in mind, we set out to get a snapshot of today’s buyer, and chart this over time as the market changes.  We commissioned Harris Interactive® to conduct a study about buyer sentiments. For the purposes of this study, we defined a buyer as someone who plans to purchase a home at some point in the coming two years, and we asked them a series of questions about their intent to buy.

Some of buyer answers surprised us, some didn’t.  But it gives an interesting window into today’s potential home buyers, and what’s driving their decisions.  Here’s what we found:

A significant portion of potential buyers (41 percent) are first-time home buyers or buying to invest. Slightly more are the ‘move up’ or ‘move across’ buyers who have to sell one home to buy another.  This of course would vary by region, but interesting to see how this plays out nationwide.

“Bigger homes” and “Affordability” now go hand in hand for many buyers. When asked for the reasons they wanted to purchase a new home, “I want/need a bigger home” was the most frequently-cited reason, chosen by 55 percent of buyers.  This was followed by “home prices are now at a level I can afford” chosen by 44 percent (respondents could choose multiple responses).  Perhaps surprisingly, very few buyers are looking to downsize to a smaller home, as this was the least-cited reason for buying (5%), among a list of various reasons.

Meanwhile, 17 percent of buyers indicated they wish to purchase a distressed property, such as a foreclosure or short sale.

Nearly one-third of home buyers (30 percent) plan to own the next home they purchase for five or fewer years. Just over another third (36 percent) plan to stay in their homes 16 years or more.  Since we don’t have historical data to compare, not sure what conclusions we can draw here, but it will be interesting to chart how this changes over time if we start to see home values stabilize.

17 percent of buyers are planning for ZERO down payment on a mortgage (of those who know how much they plan to use for a down payment). Given the fact that home values are still declining in most markets (and most “bottom” forecasts reach into 2010), this surprises us. Now, there are lots of individual factors, like whether the buyer can qualify for a VA loan, how long the buyer plans to own the home, etc. But we were still surprised that nearly one in five is thinking along these lines. On the flip side, however, more of those who know how much they plan to use for a down payment (22 percent) plan on a down payment of 21 percent or more of the purchase price.

The full methodology of this survey is available from Zillow - just email us at press@zillow.com.

Are you a buyer or a buyer’s agent?  Does any of this ring true for you?  Let us know what you think.

In 2007, an 86-year-old woman named Edith Macefield became a folk hero of sorts when she turned down an offer of $1 million to move from her 1,000 sq ft house to make way for a 5-story multi-use development in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. So, the complex was built around her house and Macefield’s story became national news.

During the ordeal, Macefield — who was widowed and without family — struck up a friendship with the construction superintendent, Barry Martin, who brought her food and took her to her appointments. In 2008, Macefield died and she willed her home to Martin.

According today’s edition of the Seattle P-I, Martin  sold the home to Reach Returns, described as a motivational/coaching type of company run by a husband/wife team. According to their Web site:

Reach Returns plans to remodel the home, keeping the outward appearance identical. Once remodeled, plans are to elevate the home to the height of the surrounding commercial building, and underneath the home create a two level open space that will be available to the public during business hours. The open spaces will be pleasant with plantings and water features. The hard surface areas of what will be known as “Credo Square” will be available for individuals and businesses to etch their “credo” into tiles for all to consider. Tiles will be available in various sizes so all who choose can participate and be a part of this unique square.

The selling price was not revealed in the Seattle P-I article, but, on the face of it, it seems Martin pursued a buyer who will pay tribute to Macefield’s decision to forego money to remain in the comfort of her home — despite a year of jackhammering and drilling all around her (you can see the construction as it was happening to her home).

(Photos courtesy New York Times)

This is the third straight week of declining mortgage rates. As of Tuesday morning, the national rate for 30-year fixed purchase mortgages was even lower: 5.29%. Check out up-to-the-minute rate tables for more.

According to reports out of Atlanta, former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield has avoided foreclosure — again. His sprawling, 54,000-sq ft home, located on Evander Holyfield Way in Fairburn, GA, was to be auctioned off today, July 7.

The article states Holyfield has worked out a deal with mortgage holder JP Morgan Chase and he has until August 4 to pay the debt. Holyfield is reportedly working on several projects — including a comeback fight.

Read our continually-updated list on celebrity foreclosures.