The number of internet users who go online to look for information about a place to live has grown steadily over the past six years. Now, nearly two in five adult internet users in the U.S. (39%) have done this, up from 34% in 2004 and 27% in 2000.

This explains why everyone seems to be getting into the online real estate game, Online giants have gotten into the game – Yahoo! has been pushing their offering, and Google has also been experimenting. New real estate sites like Zillow and Trulia are also getting a lot of buzz.

Don’t look for this trend to reverse any time soon. Online real estate sites will continue to grow.

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So the big “Pop” you heard was the bubble bursting. David Lereah, the chief economist for the Realtors, tried to spin this by saying: “The price drop has stopped the bleeding for housing sales. We think the housing market has now hit bottom.” Hit bottom? I think that’s an overly optimistic statement. He’s hoping things don’t go into a tailspin.

Obviously the biggest corrections were on the coasts, where the market was the most overheated. The middle of the country, particularly Texas still seems to be a pretty good place to consider investing.

For a 30-year loan of $300,000 at 6.5 percent, principal and interest cost $1,896.20 per month. A 50-year loan for the same amount and at the same rate costs $1,691.15 per month in principal and interest.

The 50-year loan costs $205 less per month, but the payments stretch out for 20 years longer and will cost a total of $332,058 more.

This does not sound like a great option for me. If you are stretched that thin, I think you should be looking for a more affordable house, not a short term solution that will end up costing you in the end.

One which launched late last year is Trulia.com. This site takes real estate listing from various sources such as newspaper classifieds and other web sites, and provides good searching, sorting, mapping and comparing features. The web site is pretty easy to navigate and is nicely done. They make full use of Google Maps to present the properties.

Another ambitious site is Zillow.com. This site provides valuations of homes across the country. I think right now their big problem is accuracy. They have an page explaining how accurate their estimates are, and to me, this does not seem accurate enough. It might be good for doing a little initial research into an area, but its not accurate enough to make any serious decisions on.

The three long term strategies are:

1) Step Into the Path of Sprawl – Major cities which are relatively lose together are going to start merging, and the land between them is going to be very valuable. This is a good place to do raw land investment.

2) Park Money in Parking Lots – Many American cities have more parking lots then they need, and as land in urban areas becomes more valuable, opportunities to build vertically will exist. Parking lots allow this kind of expansion called infill.

3) Give Them What They Quieren – The Latino population in America is booming; 33 million more are expected in this county by 2030. These 33 million people will need housing and places to shop. Catering towards Latinos will make a lot of sense.

Foreclosures can present excellent opportunities for real estate investors who know how to take advantage of them.

Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans have begun to rise, and they could reach 7% or more by the end of 2006 — a level at which most economists agree that buyers could begin to put the brakes on home purchases. Zandi says lenders are beginning to self-regulate and to become less aggressive in courting buyers, and they may find it difficult to come up with the next new thing. And he thinks investors in many “juiced-up” markets sense that the markets are topping out, especially when it comes to high-end condos.

It will be interesting to see if investors actually stop investing in real estate, or if they just switch to other markets.