If you’re in the real estate market, then chances are business has been good. For many, it’s been so good that they’ve decided to quit while they’re ahead. Last month, Hitwise released a report that reflects that concern. Searches for the terms “real estate bubble” and “housing bubble” lit up all of the major search engines, jumping by 311 percent.
The week ending May 28, 2005, witnessed the sudden spike in interest (and interest-only loans for that matter), making it appear that fear over what the Economist called “the biggest bubble in history” coming to a sharp collapse is increasingly on the minds of those paying attention.
Shortly after, for the week of June 11, 2005, Hitwise reported that, in total, visits to real estate sites jumped 19 percent over the same period for 2004.
“[R]ecent 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,” said Bill Tancer, Vice President of Research at Hitwise.
This isn’t the only noted concern of a bursting housing bubble. Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index reported that 40 percent of those surveyed believe the housing bubble will burst within the next three years.
In the US, China, and Australia, where coastal and urban real estate prices have boomed in recent years, sources are already noting a sharp increase in discounted property-an indicator that demand is either going down or people are wising up. Urban areas in the US especially have experienced population decline due to astronomical real estate prices. More and more buyers are moving out of the city to get more for their money.
Coastal Mississippi, for example, which is ranked among the poorest areas of the US, has enjoyed a real estate boom as Floridian developers try to shirk rooftop property values.
Even well-known economists seem fearful for the near future of real estate. Douglas Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, told the LA Times in an article published on May 28, 2005, “I’m going to rent for a while,” referring to his plans to sell his home and move into an apartment.
Internet users with an annual household income between $60,0000 and $149,999 were the most likely to visit a real estate site. This group is also the most likely of income groups to invest in real estate.
In total, 25 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.
According to Hitwise, the top ten real estate sites by market share of visitors were:
1. Realtor.com (12.29 percent)
2. Rent.net (5.50 percent)
3. Homegain (3.06 percent)
4. Rent.com (2.68 percent)
5. Yahoo! Real Estate (2.02 percent)
6. RealtyTrac (1.80 percent)
7. REMAX Real Estate (1.70 percent)
8. Apartments.com (1.69 percent)
9. Century 21 Real Estate (1.68 percent)
10. MSN House & Home (1.42 percent)
