Schitt’s Creek co-creator Dan Levy once again helped make gold on TV.
As host this weekend Saturday night Livand, Levy starred in a parody of a phone sex commercial about searching for real estate ads late at night. “You are almost 30 now,” intones a narrator. “Sex is no longer doing this for you. You need something new. Something encouraging. Zillow dot com. “
“I would never like to live in North Carolina. But if I did, I could buy a big, disgusting mansion, ”says Levy seductively.
For legions of viewers, the party played the chord.
While pornography in the housing market is nothing new, the pandemic is taking obsession to new heights. Comscore ranked Zillow as the 40th most visited website in the United States in December, with more than 90 million unique visitors per month, second only to WashingtonPost.com and ahead of Target.
Many Americans are doing more than just looking at shop windows. After dropping dramatically last spring, sales of existing homes totaled 5.64 million in 2020, an increase of 5.6% over 2019, according to the National Association of Realtors. In fact, the housing market has had its strongest year since 2006, thanks to record low interest rates, closed offices and Americans looking for more space to spread out. Even people in big cities are searching for bargain rental sites.
The housing market is also an emblem of the division in Americans’ pandemic experiences: one for those who earn a lot and work from home, who can afford to jump on low mortgage rates; and another for the millions who are losing their jobs and financial security. About 5.2% of U.S. mortgages are currently on a tolerance basis, and a recent Moody’s study found that tenants in the US owe $ 53 billion in unpaid rentals, fees and utility bills. Millions fear eviction.
In a research note on Friday, Goldman analyst Sachs Heath Terry updated Zillow’s shares to “buy” from “neutral”, citing “continued acceleration of growth in the real estate macro environment” and “a sustainable change in online real estate activity . “
Terry also improved his ranking on competing site Redfin, which SNL writers must have realized that does not carry the same potential for erotic load. Similarly for Realtor.com, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Trulia sounds more like arthritis medicine, and is owned by Zillow anyway.