 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HOUSING JITTERS MANIFEST: INTERNET SEARCHES
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NEW YORK, June. 15, 2005 — As speculation over a U.S. real estate bubble continues in the mainstream media, new Internet search behavior data suggest consumers are equally concerned that the current market is overpriced. According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, consumer Internet searches for the terms "real estate bubble" and "housing bubble" reached a 12-month high the week ending May 28, 2005. The market share of these terms across all major search engines like Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and others, skyrocketed 311 percent and 174 percent respectively versus the prior week. Visits to real estate sites endured an expected seasonal decline at the end of 2004, but interest increased into the spring and early summer of 2005, growing an average of three percent each week. The market share of total Internet visits for real estate sites is up 19 percent the week ending June 11, 2005 versus year-ago. "Increased traffic on real estate sites is reflective of the sector's growing adoption of Web-based technologies and databases, often used for digital storefronts, marketing, inventory listings and buyer financing," said Bill Tancer, Vice President of Research at Hitwise. "Still, recent Internet search activity suggests that some activity in the category is being driven by curiosity of rising property values and the possibility of a bursting bubble. Should we undergo a market decline, it will be interesting to see how site traffic and search activity correspond." |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Navigating To Real Estate Sites Hitwise clickstream data for the four weeks ending June 11 reveal that 25.0 percent of visits to real-estate sites originate directly from other real-estate sites; 22.1 percent from search engines; 8.1 percent from Web e-mail services; and 6.3 percent from portal home pages. Once on a real-estate site, 32.2 percent of visitors will depart directly to another real-estate site; 5.5 percent to a search engine; 4.8 percent to an online bank or financial institution; and 4.9 percent will go to a portal home page. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Middle Income Visit Online Real Estate Most Internet users with household income between $60,000 and $149,999 are nine percent more likely to have visited a real estate site in the four weeks ending June 11. Conversely, online users with household income less than $30,000 are 14 percent less likely to visit a real estate site. Users with household income greater that $150,000 are eight percent less likely. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lifestyle Segmentation of Real Estate Site Visitors According to Hitwise PRIZM NE Lifestyle Data, online consumers in the "Affluentials" social group are most likely to visit real estate sites. Twelve percent more likely to visit real estate sites, the Affluentials' median income is $60,000, their medium home value is $200,000 and they enjoy comfortable suburban lifestyles. The Affluentials are big fans of health foods, computer equipment, consumer electronics and the full range of big-box retailers. Conversely, online users in the "Micro-City Blues" social group are 12 percent less likely to visit real estate sites. This diverse group is characterized by a predominance of downscale residents living in the affordable housing found throughout the nation's smaller cities. It contains a mix of old and young, singles and widowers, whites, African-Americans and Hispanics. Most of the workers hold blue-collar jobs and their marketplace behaviors reflect varied lifestyles. 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Contact: For media inquiries or to schedule an analyst interview, please contact Lizzie Babarczy: press@hitwise.com (212) 380 2910. About Hitwise: Hitwise is the world's leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories. By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation. Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-END- |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||