Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today relaunched its popular Sweet Digs blog with a new analytical format designed to give consumers insights on prices, inventory levels, bargains and open houses in San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Seattle neighborhoods. Redfin plans to launch Sweet Digs for Southern California and Boston later this summer.

The new format is the result of a ruling from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), a broker-owned database of Seattle-area listings, which closed Sweet Digs on May 15; the NWMLS ruled that Sweet Digs' in-person property reviews violated rules against advertising another broker's listing.

According to a Redfin survey of more than 300 Sweet Digs subscribers on what data would be "very interesting," 63 percent chose price reductions, 62 percent past sales, 61 percent inventory levels; in the same survey, 61 percent said the open house reviews were "very interesting."

"Every neighborhood has a real estate agent publishing postcards on recent sales, price reductions and open houses," said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. "Now we're putting that information in an online newsletter, for every market we serve. We may allow customers to review active listings at some point down the road, but the MLS's interpretation of the rules just didn't allow us, as a broker, to author these reviews."

The new Sweet Digs gives readers the goods on San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Seattle neighborhoods every weekday, including:

• Sold Signs: the skinny on last week's past sales
• Bargain Basement: the scoop on price reductions
• Open Houses: plan your weekend walk
• Leading Indicators: track how many houses are for sale in your neighborhood and how many have come off the market
• Coming Soon: previews of upcoming listings

Sweet Digs also added coverage in more neighborhoods, including Oakland, Menlo Park, Newark, Redwood Shores and Woodside in the San Francisco Bay Area; and Beacon Hill, Belltown, Central District, First Hill and North Seattle in the Seattle area.

Consumers who wish to read or register for Sweet Digs can visit:

• San Francisco Bay Area: sfbay.redfin.com/blog
• Greater Seattle: seattle.redfin.com/blog
• Sign-up for daily, weekday emails: www.redfin.com/stingray/do/sweet-digs

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is the real estate industry's first online brokerage, combining a customer-focused team of real estate agents with online tools for making the process of buying or selling a home easy. Redfin is the only major search site to feature listings direct from broker databases as well as for-sale-by-owner and foreclosure properties from across the Internet. The company pays its agents customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions, and surveys every client, publishing each survey as well as details on the agent's negotiating performance and deal history. Redfin's service is available in the metropolitan areas of Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Baltimore, New York's Long Island and Westchester County as well as most of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and Sacramento. To keep track of our daring exploits, subscribe to blog.redfin.com or our Twitter feed @redfin.