Let's say you're strolling through the streets of Rome, thinking how nice it would be to just give it all up and spend the rest of your life seeing the sights and taste-testing gelato. "If only I knew what homes were going for around here," you say to yourself. If only, indeed.

As of last week, iPhones and Android devices have a new app that can tell you recent sale prices, show you photos and listing info for homes that are currently on the market and save your favorite properties, all within your gps location, almost anywhere in the world. Or, of course you can plug in your search parameters and get listing results in that way too. It's by Coldwell Banker and from what I can tell, it's pretty handy.

I just installed it on my iPhone and in the 10 minutes that I played around with it, I found more than 30 properties within two miles of my office. So, if I ever become totally fed up with my commute, a new home just a short walk away from my office is at my fingertips (for argument's sake let's just imagine that selling my current home and coming up with the $3-million that it would cost me to live on Michigan Avenue is not an issue). Within seconds, I found one that sounded interesting, scanned the specs, checked it out on a map and viewed a slideshow of the home's pics. Were I serious about buying a $3-million home, it would have been just as easy to schedule a showing. Clicking "contact" on the details page directed me to the phone number and email of the listing agent.

And since we can't overlook that it's an international application, I did a quick search of Italian villas in Florence just in case I decide that a vacation home is in order when I get my big bonus. (Companies are still doing that, right???) I found a gorgeous 1 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse with stunning 17th century frescoes for the low, low price of $3.4 million U.S.dollars. I'll stash that in my saved properties until the time is right.

So, I don't know what this "housing crisis" is that everyone's talking about...finding listed homes has never beed easier. ;)

Check out a youtube video of the free Coldwell Banker app here.