Ever wondered if AI can truly turn you into a programmer? I decided to find out by using 'vibe coding' to build a better version of Zillow, and the results were both eye-opening and surprisingly controversial. Here’s the full story—and why it might just challenge everything you think about coding.
As someone who’s written extensively about AI’s potential to democratize programming, I felt it was time to put my money where my mouth is. I turned to Claude Code, a tool I’d been curious about since interviewing its founder and tracking its meteoric rise. Anthropic, the company behind it, boldly claims it’s “the best coding model in the world.” But here’s where it gets controversial: can AI really replace human programmers? Or is it just another overhyped tool?
I reached out to Anthropic and asked to use Claude Code for a personal project—a small real estate website. They were enthusiastic but warned it might be a stretch. After all, there’s no beginner-friendly guide for non-programmers to set up Claude Code. So, they created one just for me, complete with FAQs like, “What is a Terminal?”—a question no programmer would ever ask, but I desperately needed.
Three days and a few hours later, I had a fully functional website. It was a blast, but also a revelation. The site solved a problem I’d faced while house hunting in the New York City metro area: determining the walking distance to public transit stops. Instead of manually copying addresses from Zillow or Redfin into Google Maps, my Claude-Coded website pulls listings from Redfin and automatically calculates the walk time to the nearest train stop. But here’s the part most people miss: while AI did the heavy lifting, I still had to guide the process with basic technical knowledge.
Choosing the Right Vibe Coding Tool
While virtually all AI chatbots can generate code snippets, tools like Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, GitHub Copilot, and Replit take it a step further. They can access your computer’s files and entire codebase, making them powerful—but also intimidating for beginners. And this is where the controversy heats up: are these tools truly democratizing coding, or are they just creating a new barrier for non-techies?
Setting Up Claude Code
First, Claude Code requires a subscription—either $17/month for the Pro plan or $100/month for the Max plan. I opted for the Max plan, though the Pro plan would’ve likely sufficed for my project. After signing up, the setup process varies depending on your operating system. I’m on a Mac, so I opened the Terminal app—a built-in tool that lets you interact with your computer via commands. Anthropic’s guide explains it as “a different way to ‘talk’ to your computer to control it more directly.”
I copied and pasted the installation command into the Terminal and hit Enter. After a successful installation, I logged in with my Claude account and was ready to go. But here’s a pro tip: don’t skip the yellow-font notes in the Terminal—they often contain crucial additional commands.
Picking a Project
With Claude Code at my fingertips, I had to decide what to build. I considered creating a custom Wordle clone or an event invitation generator, but neither felt truly useful. Instead, I focused on a real-world problem: house hunting. I wanted a website that would show real estate listings within a 15-minute walk of a train station in Montclair, NJ. Here’s the prompt I used:
Create a website where I can see real estate listings in my area with certain criteria. I want single-family homes in Montclair, NJ within a 15-minute walk of a NJ Transit train station. The homes should have 4 bedrooms, with at least 1.5 bathrooms.
Coding (or Chatting) My Way Through
From there, it was all about natural-language conversation. I brought some basic technical knowledge to the table, like knowing that websites need data and that APIs are key. I asked Claude if Zillow and Google Maps had public APIs, and it confirmed that Zillow’s API was free and sufficient for my needs. However, Google’s API would cost money, so Claude suggested an alternative.
Troubleshooting and Refining
The process wasn’t without hiccups. Initially, the website only displayed a map with incorrect transit stop locations. Claude quickly fixed that, but the main issue was the lack of listings. Despite multiple attempts, the Zillow API connection failed. Here’s the shocking part: a programmer friend later revealed that Zillow’s free public API had been discontinued—a detail Claude missed entirely. Switching to Redfin’s API solved the problem, and the listings finally appeared.
Even then, the UI glitching meant the listings only flashed briefly. Claude adjusted the frontend, and after some back-and-forth, the site was fully functional. However, the walk time calculations were consistently shorter than Google Maps. Claude explained that the mapping API was calculating distances “as the crow flies” and offered to increase the “circuity factor” to account for actual walking paths. After a few adjustments, the walk times matched Google Maps—but only two listings met my criteria, down from five.
Final Touches
I asked Claude to add a walk time filter, and it delivered a sliding scale that I could adjust. This customization made the site truly personal. But here’s the bigger question: if AI can handle all this, what’s left for human programmers?
Claude Code’s Unexpected Bonus
As a final test, I asked Claude to organize the screenshots I’d taken for this article. It searched my desktop, created folders, renamed files, and sorted them by timestamp—though I had to clean up a few misses. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a huge time-saver.
The Verdict
Using Claude Code was nothing short of miraculous. It’s no wonder software engineers rely on AI coding assistants daily. But it also raises important questions: Is AI truly democratizing coding, or is it just shifting the goalposts? And what does this mean for the future of programming?
What do you think? Is vibe coding the future, or just another tech fad? Let’s debate in the comments!
