Survey: Home values trump for-sale listings
Real estate brief
By Inman News, Wednesday, November 12, 2008.Gauging home values is a high priority for consumers visiting real estate sites, followed by finding for-sale homes, monitoring price trends, searching for a real estate agent, and finding financing, according to a study conducted for Realtor.com operator Move Inc.
The study, based on interviews conducted from Oct. 10-12 by research company GfK Custom Research America, concluded that 61.5 percent of consumers visit online real estate Web sites to find home values. Meanwhile, 60.9 percent use the sites to locate for-sale homes and 53.3 percent use them to view price trends.
About 81.6 percent of respondents said that the availability of affordable mortgages is a serious problem for home buyers.
About 28.5 percent of respondents said that the election of a new president will help to instill confidence in the housing market, followed by a decline in the foreclosure rate (24.1 percent) and a rise in available mortgage credit (19.9 percent).
And 50 percent said the incoming president "should make helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure a priority during his first 100 days in office," according to a Move announcement about the survey. Increasing the supply of affordable mortgage credit (22.7 percent) and helping first-time home buyers to buy a home (16 percent) also ranked high among presidential priorities for survey respondents.
Among the 37.4 percent of respondents who identified themselves as home buyers, about 40.7 percent reported that economic conditions have kept them on the fence, and 28.1 percent of homeowners participating in the survey reported that they have sold or know someone who has recently sold a home for a lesser amount than desired.
Also, the survey revealed that about 4.7 percent of respondents plan to buy a home in the next 12 months, with an additional 17.7 percent planning to purchase a home in one to five years.
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Submitted by Brian Wilson on November 12, 2008 - 4:47am.
Richard Barton smiles as he finishes reading...
http://zolve.com
http://thewoodlandsrealestatevoice.com
Submitted by John Erickson on November 12, 2008 - 6:11am.
From what I see in terms of user search keywords and user activity, this study is way off. Search terms for listings have much higher volume than home value keywords, and page views and other activity for listings is also much higher.
Maybe there is a blip here with the economic mess as people fret about their home value and track the media hype, but overall listings have much higher traffic and user interest. I suspect this result has more to do with what questions were asked and timing than a real representation of real estate traffic.
Submitted by John Rakoci on November 12, 2008 - 7:37am.
The 28.5% minority are wrong. The obama policy on taxes will put an added damper on housing. Unless he is going to give away peoples homes to 'spread the wealth' things will not get better.
Submitted by Robert A. Hulme on November 12, 2008 - 8:29am.
Well the glass is half full here. I know we are in for some good news. I don't agree with the new President on very many issues, but I honestly feel he has our best interest in mind and we will see some good happen over the next 4 years. Anyone who doesn't see and act the same way will only be hurting the problem. Step up, be positive, lets help make some good things happen.
Robert A. Hulme
Realtor, GRI, e-PRO
Prudential Utah Real Estate
robert@RobertHulme.com
www.UtahCountyRealEstate.us
www.UtahCountyHomes.ws
Blog : www.UtahHomes.ws
801-885-2586
Submitted by Joan Lorberbaum Moore on November 12, 2008 - 10:44am.
I'm not a statistician and or maybe I need another cup of coffee but shouldn't the percentages in Paragraph 1 add up to 100%?
Joan Lorberbaum Moore
Broker Associate, GRI
Lang Realty
9858 Clint Moore Road
Boca Raton, FL 33496
www.boca-delray-boynton.com
Submitted by silver seller on November 12, 2008 - 11:39am.
no, Joan, they should not add up to 100%.
out of 100% of consumers surveyed- 61.5% do this one thing.
out of the same 100% surveyed- 60.9% also do the other thing.
same 100% surveyed- 53.3% did yet another thing.
it's not an either/or situation.
Submitted by Marc Rasmussen - Sarasota FL Real Estate on November 13, 2008 - 5:31am.
I agree with John. Just from looking at my own web traffic most queries come from generic terms like 'sarasota real estate' and queries on specific listings. I don't see a lot of queries pertaining to home valuations. However, this is just my website traffic. Perhaps others see differently.
Marc Rasmussen
Sarasota, FL real estate