Record Traffic To Realtor.com Signals Strong Homebuying Season 4/18/2002
From: Iverson Moore of the National Association of Realtors, 202-383-1290, e-mail: imoore@realtors.org WASHINGTON, April 18 -- REALTOR.com, the official Web site of the National Association of Realtors(r), tallied in March its third consecutive month of record high visits from individuals, according to the two top Internet media ratings research agencies. As the economy showed signs of improvement, consumers felt better about making what may be the biggest purchase of their lives -- a home -- and went to REALTOR.com to do their research and help find a Realtor(r) to assist them with the homebuying process, said NAR President Martin Edwards Jr. "These large numbers indicate that consumers understand that REALTOR.com is the site that contains the most listings, the most real estate-related information, and the most help for potential homebuyers and sellers," said Edwards. "REALTOR.com is clearly the No. 1 real estate site on the Internet with more traffic that makes its way to local brokers and sales associates in the United States than anyone," said REALTOR.com President Steve Ozonian. "According to a recent survey, nearly 80 percent of consumers visiting the site reported that they were currently active in the real estate market or thinking about buying or selling a home, indicating that REALTOR.com is attracting serious homebuyers and sellers." Last month REALTOR.com welcomed 4.43 million unique users, according to a recent report from Internet ratings organization, Jupiter Media Metrix. The data for March also indicated that visitors looked at 21 pages and spent an average of 14.7 minutes per visit. Jupiter Media Metrix found that visitors spent a total of 143 million minutes on the site in March. A new custom segment report provided by Jupiter Media Metrix also revealed REALTOR.com continued its leadership over the next nearest comparable site listing homes for sale, which is only drawing 16 percent of its overall traffic from real estate listings. By contrast, REALTOR.com draws 100 percent of its traffic from real estate listings. The latest data available showed that while REALTOR.com attracted more than 4.17 million individuals in March, the nearest national site listing properties for sale drew only 728,000 unique users, or approximately one-sixth the volume. Another leading ratings organization, Nielsen/NetRatings, also ranked REALTOR.com as the No. 1 site listing homes for sale in March for the third month in a row, with 4.75 million unique users, an all-time high for the site. Nielsen/NetRatings reported that the average visitor to the site spent 21.8 minutes looking at 46.5 pages per visit. By the end of the month, 176.5 million total minutes had been logged on the site, nearly 4.5 times more than the nearest competitor. REALTOR.com, operated by Homestore, is the official Internet site of NAR. It currently offers potential homebuyers more than 1.9 million new and existing homes listed for sale, as well as the most brokers and agents available to contact. The National Association of Realtors(r), "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing approximately 800,000 members involved in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate industries. Information about NAR is available at http://realtor.org. This and other news releases are posted in the Web site's "News Media" section. |