Technology is poised to upend America’s property market

The city has been experiencing an epidemic of car break-ins in recent years. In 2019, 25,677 people reported car break-ins, according to data from the San Francisco Police Department. The police department only makes arrests in about 1% of cases.Unsuspecting tourists often are victims of such crimes, leaving valuables inside cars and parking on the street, as the Chroniclenotes. But the DA’s office estimated that nearly 9,000 residents were hit with smashed windows in 2019.While walking alongside cars parked on the street, it’s common to see handmade signs attached to the inside of the windows pleading with smash-and-grabbers not to break in. Some note the number of times they’ve been broken into, others disclose that there is nothing valuable in the car worth breaking the window for. Shattered glass strewn across sidewalks and along curbs is also common.
For this reason real estate has long been a fragmented, local market. There are 2m estate agents in America, according to the National Association of Realtors (nar), just over 1% of America’s workforce.