Curtain Goes Up On New Real Estate Center Website
COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (Real Estate Center) – After a year of development, a redesigned website has been unveiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. It can be viewed at www.recenter.tamu.edu.
“The new website is part of an extensive redesign of the Center’s information technology platform,” said Research Data Scientist Gerald Klassen. “It officially marks the beginning of the digital-first era for the Center.”
Digital first means the latest news and research articles can be viewed online even before publication in the Center’s flagship periodical, Tierra Grande magazine.
Klassen said, “We also have added a map view to NewsTalk Texas, the daily update of real estate happenings across the state.” This allows users to pinpoint news on a map.
“The new website is also extremely mobile-friendly,” Klassen said. “We invested a significant effort in responsive design so the site looks and works great on any size mobile device. Whereever they are, our audience can enjoy convenient access to our latest news and articles via mobile phone or tablet.”
“Folks prefer getting information from our website because it is easier to use than government websites with the same data,” said Gary Maler, Center director. He gave some examples.
“A Tennessee Realtor uses the website to produce graphics on Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MLS) in his market. The data is available on a U.S. government website, but the Realtor says our website is the easiest to use of any he has found. A Chicago lender lists the website as one of the 12 most useful websites for real estate investors, and a large, independent Texas moving company uses the home sales data to calculate market share.”
The Center’s redesigned website also brings back its blog, rebranded as “Mixed-Use.” The not-so-serious blog features posts in which the staff “shares musings, ramblings and occasionally useful insights on Texas real estate,” said Associate Editor Bryan Pope.
More big changes are ahead for the website. Beginning in January, Texas housing activity data will be based on a new data series covering 99.9 percent of the state’s MLS listings. Data will be geographically oriented so users can see a map of the area covered by the statistics.
“Duplicate MLS listings will also be eliminated as much as possible. This is part of a larger effort between the Center, Texas Association of Realtors and local MLS boards to develop the most accurate source of state housing data available,” said Klassen.
The first Center website launched in 1995 and attracted 39,440 visitors the first year. For 2015, the website has averaged 129,725 unique visitors monthly.
Send your favorite user stories about the website to [email protected]. If your story is highlighted in the Mixed-Use blog, you will receive an eight gigabyte flash drive.
