SEATTLE, Jan. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow, Inc., the leading real estate information and home-related marketplace, today announced it will host a weekend hackathon whereby developers will be asked to come up with creative solutions to make it easier for first-time homebuyers, low-income renters and senior citizens to find a home that meets their needs. Registration opens today for "Hack Housing: Empowering Smarter Decisions," which will take place Feb. 6-8 in Seattle. The winning team will receive a $10,000 prize.  

Zillow^® provides an enormous amount of real estate data to consumers to help them through the process of finding a home, but information about government programs and data about accessibility of homes that qualify under these programs has remained fragmented or unavailable.

As part of the event, participants will have access to newly released government data sets on topics like federal housing programs; apartment buildings with accessible apartments; and transit information. In addition, Zillow will make available its data on home values and rents.

The event is hosted in partnership with the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, and with the participation of the federal government.

To register for the hackathon or to get more information and schedule updates, visit the event registration page here: https://hackhousinghackathon.eventbrite.com.

Official hackathon rules can be found here.

About Zillow, Inc.
Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ:Z) operates the leading real estate and home-related information marketplaces on mobile and the Web, with a complementary portfolio of brands and products that help people find vital information about homes, and connect with the best local professionals. Zillow's brands serve the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home: buying, selling, renting, financing, remodeling and more. In addition, Zillow offers a suite of tools and services to help local real estate, mortgage, rental and home improvement professionals manage and market their businesses. Welcoming more than 73 million unique users in December 2014, the Zillow, Inc. portfolio includes Zillow.com^®, Zillow Mobile, Zillow Mortgages, Zillow Rentals, Zillow Digs^®, Postlets^®, Diverse Solutions^®, Mortech^®, HotPads^®, StreetEasy^® and Retsly™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow, Postlets, Mortech, Diverse Solutions, StreetEasy, HotPads and Digs are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Retsly is a trademark of Zillow, Inc.

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SOURCE Zillow, Inc.