The duo of sliding apartment-finder buttons on the homepage of the new Prudential Douglas Elliman site are iPhone nifty: You slide the buttons to narrow or expand your price- and bedroom parameters, then watch the universe of available apartments constrict or blossom accordingly in the counter below. Right now, for instance, there are 8,809 total Manhattan abodes for sale, but just 277 if you're looking for a 2-bedroom under $600k.
By flinging open its digital doors to searches of all available apartments in New York City versus restricting searches to its own listings, alpha brokerage PDE is taking aim at the dominance of StreetEasy, currently NYC's most popular apartment search site when it comes to sales. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, StreetEasy's passionate users give the effort mixed reviews, complaining about sluggishness and "locked" listings. One broker cries foul, noting that PDE's universe of apartments seems less than complete, as the listings of her firm, DG Neary, are not showing up. (StreetEasy)
