SAN FRANCISCO, Calif –OBSNews- Despite the historic downturn in the housing market in the United States several real estate websites have seen their operations increase substantially and have received millions of dollars in funding from investors. 

It is estimated that in the past twelve months over $50 million has been poured into online real estate marketing and brokerage businesses by venture capitalists and other investors.  Trulia.com, Zillow.com, Terabitz.com, and Redfin.com are among the companies who have received substantial funding to increase operations.

Newspapers and other traditional forms of advertising for the real estate industry have seen their real estate ad revenues plummet.  In a statement released recently Pat Talamantes, the Chief Financial Officer for the McClatchy Company, which owns a large number of newspapers in market across the US, said, “a majority of the decline continued to come from newspapers in California and Florida, two states severely affected by the real estate downturn, and we are feeling the impact of worsening economic trends.”

McClatchy reported revenue declines of 14 percent in January with a dramatic 35 percent decline in real estate advertising.

One company that is seeing its online real estate activities pick up dramatically is Sacramento, California based http://www.TheHomeBuyingCenter.com.   This company provides homeowners who want to sell their houses quickly an opportunity to speak with a real estate investor about the value of their home and receive a professional investor opinion, or PIO.   The company also helps people who want to buy a foreclosure home find and acquire properties at below-market prices. 

Company president Patrick McGilvray commented, “as you can imagine, with foreclosures being such a hot topic, we have been flooded by interested home sellers and buyers.  We have been in discussions with several groups of angel investors, interactive media companies, and a few venture capitalists.  We have had some very attractive offers to help us finance our growth, and we’re in the process of reviewing several proposals.