Too Little Too Late, The App

dilapitated house In a perhaps belated effort, Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services has tapped ad technology firm Dapper to show potential home buyers "how much house" they can actually afford.

After consumers provide rent information and ZIP code, the new tool calculates the mortgage-payment equivalent of their current rent, along with some similarly priced Prudential Real Estate listings in their desired neighborhood.

To drive usage, the Prudential Financial unit has launched a digital ad campaign targeting renters and first-time home buyers on high-traffic Web sites like ApartmentGuide.com, Hotpads.com, ApartmentFinder.com, Realtor.com, Rentals.com, Truila.com, and Yelp.com, along with various lifestyle sites.

No doubt, the campaign's target audience would have benefited from such a service prior to the nation's fantasy-fueled subprime mortgage crisis. That does not mean, however, that consumers would not benefit from the "calculator" going forward, according to Earl Lee, president of Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services.

"Housing affordability stands near all-time highs thanks to declining home prices and historically low mortgage rates," said Lee. "Now is the time to find out what you can buy."

The San Francisco-based Dapper helps advertisers automatically serve contextually sensitive display ads assembled from creative elements pulled from their own Web site, product inventory data, or any database of marketing offers. A fashion retailer, for instance, can associate each item of its product catalog with a particular weather condition. Then, if a user is viewing an ad from a geographic location where the weather is sunny, they will view "sunny" items like T-shirts and beachwear.

2 comments about "Too Little Too Late, The App".
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  1. Donna Gordon from Investment Resources, July 2, 2009 at 2:54 p.m.

    The article should have included a link to the calculator. I'd be very curious as to whether it takes into effect savings, other debt, income stability and what ratio of mortgage to income they suggest. When we bought our house in 1990, the agent kept telling us we could afford a house pmt that was 1/3 of our income. We opted for a much more conservative number, and now have a paid for house for the last 5 years despite several layoffs, 2 kids and an income roller coaster, and are really glad we didnt listen to our agent. The 1/3 your income assumes that you will always have the same or bigger income, which we all are learning, is not always the case. Also, recently talked to a couple who had 2 car loans, student loans and credit card debt and they just signed a mortgage. So have we learned out lesson?

  2. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, July 2, 2009 at 7:21 p.m.

    Just because someone offers you an alligator to keep for your very own, doesn't mean you have to take it. Stupid is as stupid does. App or no app.

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