Realtor.com Traffic Surges in July

RISMEDIA, August 29, 2008-Consumer interest in real estate surged in July with significant month-over-month increases in both traffic (29%) and time spent on site (26%) on Realtor.com (1), the #1 homes-for-sale-site. In fact, year-over-year page views on Realtor.com and the Move Network increased by 22% and 11% respectively (1), as consumers spent more time searching properties in popular and unexpected metro areas than 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, CA (140.9%), Las Vegas, NV (93.9%), Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL (69.5%), Detroit, MI (51.8%) and Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV, VA (49.1%). Click here to see the full list.

“As interest in local real estate markets picks up, consumers actively engaged in real estate search continue to invest their time on Realtor.com and on the Move Network,” said Lorna Borenstein, president of Move, Inc.

“The fact that consumers are spending significantly more time on Realtor.com than with many of the next closest competitors confirms they’re looking to us to provide reliable and comprehensive content, access to the largest and most accurate listing database on Realtor.com, and valuable home buying resources. While finding interesting and entertaining information on real estate websites is fun, Move says it is committed to delivering the most current, reliable and useful real estate data that consumers need and expect from the trusted leader.”

Borenstein continues by pointing out 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 (1).

During the company’s second quarter 2008 earnings call, Move announced registrations on Realtor.com Beta increased by 60%, while three times the number of consumers received e-mail alerts with updated information about their saved searches as compared to registrations on the “classic” site. The company also reported personalized alerts have shown a better than 50% click-through rate, driving consumers back to view Realtor.com content and advertising.

“We’re extremely proud to share all of this exciting information,” Borenstein said. “These combined results demonstrate that Realtor.com and the Move Network are making significant progress towards meeting our strategic objectives that will enable us to deliver a world class experience to both consumers and advertisers at a time that answers their needs.”

As a public company and category leader, the Move Network uses public, panel-based reporting services when stating traffic counts so they can be verified. Move supports the practice of public attribution of sources when quoting data from reports, polls, and surveys in order to offer the transparency and clarity real estate professionals and consumers need when searching for a trustworthy online source of information.

For more information, visit www.realtor.com.