Posted by admin on August 26th, 2006
Hitwise shows how the real estate market is reflected in search engine traffic
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their existing homes sales figures for July. Headlines covering the release talked about the surprising drop in this economic indicator. Once again, leveraging the power of our search term data (as we did here in our post about the monthly unemployment number, we weren’t surprised by the news; we actually anticipated this drop over a month ago.
In the chart below, I’ve superimposed the monthly data from the NAR on a Hitwise search term volume chart for the search query "homes for sale."
Click here to see the chart
See Also
Posted by admin on May 11th, 2006
Real estate websites report marked increase in website traffic
Statistics have indicated that 80 percent of home shoppers begin their search online. comScore Media Metrix released its monthly analysis of consumer activity at top online properties and categories today. Among the top trends in April was the increased traffic to real estate sites, up 12 percent from the March, and up 23 percent from a year ago. Peter Daboll, CEO of comScore, says interest "ballooned" due to overal angst in the market and new industry web site innovations. As inventories and rates have risen innovations like flat fee MLS companies, discount realtors and home valuation sites have been the benefactor. This marked increase in real estate website traffic only proves the trend in the real estate industry is toward consumer control. This consumer control is attainable on both sides of the transaction. Flat fee brokers and discount brokers are providing expansive marketing advantages to home sellers in a cost effective while home buyers are afforded the opportunity to enjoy open houses from the comfort of their own PC via virtual tours and multiple photo showcases. The industry is changing and here are some numbers to back it up.
See Also
Posted by admin on April 19th, 2006
Given anonymity agents report slow market conditions
Inman News recently opened the floor to real estate agents to report their current market conditions. As incentive for honesty the agents were given complete anonymity if so desired. The responses were nearly uniform from Portland, Oregon to Central Florida, inventory is up and sales are down. While the responses seemed bleak there is no real data that seems to back the slowing market condition. Home sales prices have not suffered as the median home price is up according to the National Association of Realtors and the uptick in inventory is not enough to be troubling. Although David Lereah, the NAR chief economist, is on the record as predicting price appreciation will drop to the mid-single digits. So Walter Molony, a NAR spokesman, has characterized the conditions as "neither a seller’s nor a buyer’s market…balanced is a better word."
See Also
Posted by admin on March 28th, 2006
Home Sales in February Exceed Industry Forecast
After economists forecasted a drop in the annual rate, home sales experienced the biggest jump in two years indicating a surprising strength in the housing market. The 5.2 percent rise from 6.57 million in January to 6.91 million in February was the biggest jump since February of 2004 according to the National Association of Realtors. These figures are based on when a home sale closes not when a contract is accepted. So the warmest January on record, coupled with the dip in interest rates may have aided in increasing the sales figures for the month.
While the median and average sales prices have reduced from January to February, sales levels are much ahead of where they were just one year earlier. Last year posted a median sales price of $189,000 and an average sales price of $249,000 compared to a median sales price of $210,000 and an average sales price of $256,000 for February 2006.
Reports predicting the real estate market to cool off from the record pace of 2005 now seem a little premature.
See Also
Recent Comments