LOS ANGELES – Aug. 28, 2008 – Is this the real estate turnaround?
On the heels of an increase in Florida home sales, a spike in new home sales and an upswing in consumer confidence, traffic to Realtor.com went up significantly in July with month-over-month increases in both traffic (29%) and time spent on site (26%) on Realtor.com, the official consumer Website of the National Association of Realtors. Year-over-year page views on Realtor.com and the Move Network increased by 22% and 11%, respectively, as consumers spent more time searching properties in popular and unexpected metro areas than they did this time last year.
Local markets in July experiencing the largest year-over-year percentage increases in consumer searches on Realtor.com included Stockton-Lodi, Calif. (140.9%), Las Vegas, Nev. (93.9%), Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla. (69.5%), Detroit, Mich. (51.8%) and Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV, VA (49.1%).
Lorna Borenstein, president of Move, Inc., the oversight company for Realtor.com, says that year-over-year traffic on Realtor.com increased by 9.5%, despite the fact that traffic within the real estate category declined by 1%, and consumers spent 24.7% more time in July on Realtor.com than on the next closest competitor.